The Deed Has Been Done

(The bandaged up mess!)

The ole' trigger thumb has been repaired. The surgery took only about 15 minutes from the antiseptic wash down to the final wrapping. (The wait for surgery was much longer...three hours). The worst part of the whole thing was the initial injection to numb the area. The needle went in someplace between my thumb and pointer finger. I screamed loud enough to shatter the window in the operating room door. My wonderful nurse, Nicki, held my hand and I squeezed her hand as hard as I squeezed the Hubster's when I was in labor with Courage. The next injection was not near as bad because the lidocaine from the first shot was beginning to kick in.

Oh, the 5mg Valium tablet I took before surgery... did absolutely nothing to calm my nerves or make sleepy or make me 'not care' as the doc promised. I tried to tell him that such things as Novocaine, laughing gas, and small doses of anesthesia do not work on me. I told him I have awakened during surgical procedures twice. He didn't listen and would not give me more Valium. However, after seeing I was not affected by the Valium, he did shoot wonderfully large amounts of numbing agent into my hand so that I would not feel the scalpel as it sliced into the crease where thumb meets fleshy palm pad. I only felt tingling, pulling and pushing after that.

So far I have only resorted to Tylenol one time. I didn't get the pain pill prescription filled...because as I am very fearful of needles, actual pain does not bother me that much. He said I wouldn't feel like working the day after, but I decided the worst of it was over and went to work today anyways. You really don't appreciate your thumb that much until you have limited use of it. But after much exercise today, the thumb is already loosening up and feeling more mobile and useful. I am really looking forward to this cumbersome bandage coming off soon.

(that's the pill bottle my Valium came in...not pain pills!)

Trigger Thumb...it's baaacckkk

Bad thumb.
Good thumb.
bad thumb.
good thumb.


My 'Trigger Thumb' is back. The condition is very painful and worrisome. So in six days I am having surgery. It is very minor surgery and should only take 10 minutes to complete. Supposedly it is quick to heal from. I hope so. I cannot afford to be out of work even one day without pay, but somehow, it will be okay.

This is my two thumbs...you can tell which one is affected. It is the one with the swollen joints and the inability to make a 'hitch-hiker' thumb.

This is my ouchy.

What I have in common with the Lone Ranger

I have something in common with the Lone Ranger. We both have a 'Trigger'. His was a horse. Mine is a thumb.

I have 'Trigger Thumb'. http://www.handuniversity.com/topics.asp?Topic_ID=28 .

Since about the first week of July, my right thumb has been hurting. I thought I had over extended it when I was helping the Hubster carry shelving from the foot of the drive way up and over and down to the basement. I wore a hand brace purchased from Wal-mart to stabelize it, until it rubbed a good size blister on my thumb. It didn't seem to help anyways.

Then, I thought maybe it was arthritis. I started taking extra strength Tylenol and exercising my thumb every day. I would wake up and it would be so stiff, so, I would run warm water over it, move it back and forth, etc., loosening it up.

In August I had a doctor's visit for some other minor thing, but mentioned my thumb, and the doc x-rayed it and declared it 'not broken' and no sign of arthritis. I wasn't convinced it wasn't arthritis. She did say if it was ,indeed, arthritis, it was in such an early stage of it, it didn't show up on the x-ray. I thought to myself then, if this is early stage arthritis, I truly dread the day I get advanced arthritis!

The rest of August and all of September, I kept waiting for the old digit to get back to normal. It didn't. It got increasingly stiff, increasingly swollen, increasingly tender and weak. And low and behold, the first joint of the doggone thing starting 'clicking' and 'locking'. I would have to 'unlock' it with my other hand. Whenever I exercise, the thing swells up bigger than a ballpark frank and gets as hot as one right off the grill. I popped extra strength Tylenol and aspirin ,and later, fiber tablets. I rubbed it in Aspercream and other analgesics . NOTHING HELPED MUCH!

After many tries to get an appointment with various orthopedic doctors, I finally got through to one in Snellville and set up an appointment. I saw Dr. Traub today.

He diagnosed me within one minute of walking into the exam room. Trigger finger. He reassured me that it was not an injury and not arthritis (not yet anyways). He said it is something that just happens, not because of anything I had done or not done. He informed me he was going to give me a shot.

Where? I asked. 'In your thumb, where it hurts'. He answered. Oh no! I am the biggest baby when it comes to needles. Do we have to? Where will you put it in at? Will it hurt? Yes, I have to in order to try to help you. I will put it in the thumb between your thumb and first finger. Yes, it will hurt. What are you injecting and what does it do? It is cortisone and it reduces the swelling and inflammation.

If you heard a loud scream and yell today,around 3:30pm, in the area of K-Mart in Snellville; That was me.

He inserted the needle and proceeded to push with all his might until the needle was inside the joint and hitting the bone and burrowing into the bone and surely felt like it was coming out through the palm of my hand. He then pulled it out, repositioned it and plunged it in again. I yelled so loud that Courage, who is normally not squeamish at all, jumped and nearly hit her head on the ceiling. The intern, or whatever he was, I am sure may have gone straight home to change his major in college. All I could think of is this,;Jesus withstood three nails in his hands and feet, and they were not to help him. I can take a needle because it IS to help me. But oh Lord! It hurt so bad.

The doctor was very nice though, and told me several times he was sorry for hurting me. He had a very good bedside manner which I think makes me feel better immediately.

Right now, my entire hand and wrist are sore, even after taking an extra strength Tylenol.

According to Dr. T, about 50% of people who have trigger thumb are helped with a cortisone shot and need no further treatment. The other 50% require surgery.

I go back to Dr. T in four weeks. We will see which 50% groupI am in. Please pray that I am in the former group who will need no further treatment.