OPEN

When I picked my word for this year, OPEN, I envisioned keeping an open mind, being open to people and possibilities. I never in my wildest dreams pictured being cut open with nerves, tendons and muscles exposed. But it seems that is the way it is going to be this year, or at least the way the year will start. At the end of last week, I felt a pop along the back of my hand as I drove away from Occupational Therapy. After about 24 hours of fairly intense pain, it gradually subsided. By Friday morning, that area of my hand/wrist was feeling better than it had in months, BUT, my thumb was bent and try as I might, I wasn't able to straighten it.

My therapist slightly panicked and immediately called the doctor, who confirmed what Kim suspected. She worked me in for an appointment this afternoon and quickly made a definitive diagnosis of a ruptured EPL tendon. Upon examination and several x-rays, she found that 2 screws are poking through my bone, one of which is positioned right where the tendon passes. Slowly, over the past 6 months, it has been rubbing and tearing that tendon until it finally broke last week. Unfortunately, that requires surgery. While a repair is not possible, a tendon transfer is in order. The index finger has two tendons (who knew?), so one of those tendons will be transferred to my thumb and then immobilized for several weeks. Yuck!! Not something I'm looking forward to at all, but at least it can be fixed. I have a couple of weeks to get things in order around here, which is a very good thing. And who knows, maybe Dr. Ritter can take a little look around while everything is OPEN and fix anything else that might be getting in the way for full funcionality!