July #writemotivation and Surgery Wrap-up

The blog post wherein I am taunted by a coffee maker, am turned into a canvas by a maniacal surgeon, am stabbed with needles, am given a liter of fluid in half an hour, learned that a Bier Block is not a reference to alcohol, am sliced and diced and given pain meds, woke up with Oompa Loompa fingers, and sleep for 3 days.

But before all that, let's talk about July's goals. Somewhere along the way, July came and went. I wrote, I read, I cheered, I flailed, I had lots of feels about flailing, and I slowly got back into a groove before getting disrupted by surgery.

The last few days have been a blur...literally.

July Goals:

1. Try to write every day or do something involving writing (really didn’t do that in June and ended up flopping around like a dying goldfish) I did some writing, did a lot of reading, and did some critiquing.
2. Finish up my critiques. Yup.
3. Cheer my #writemotivation pals on. There was some cookie slinging going on.

I'm doing my best not to feel bad about my writing this past month. I struggled a lot and the last few days have been hard physically and emotionally. Who knew surgery would take so much out of a person.


August Goals:

1. Write every day. This will be hampered by the wrist surgery, but still something I need to strive for.
2. Blog once a week.
3. Cheer on my #writemotivation tweeps
4. Read two books
5. Participate in the Pay It Forward Giveaway (see button on the side-bar)

Now on to the insanity.

It started with the taunting coffee maker. I was dying by this point. I had not eaten since the night before and I had to sit and stare at the coffee maker at the surgery center's waiting room. It was torture.

The coffee maker...it taunts me.

There were two IV ports inserted into my body. One went into my left arm that delivered antiobiotics, fluid, the general anesthetic, and other meds as needed. While waiting for the surgery before me to finish, the nurse accidentally left the saline bag all the way open and pumped a liter of fluid into my body in about 30 minutes. Needless to say, I had to use the restroom a couple times before the surgery.

I've been marked. I wonder if I could sell his signature on eBay...

The marking was important because they needed to make sure the Bier Block did not interfere with the surgery. No, not Beer...Bier. A Bier Block is pretty cool. The put a tourniquet on your arm and an IV in the other end and numb the arm completely. The ended up putting the port on the inside of my wrist. The nurses loved my veins as they were nice and large and easy to poke.

The surgery went well. The doctor repaired the small tear and cleared out what he called "debris". I wasn't conscious, so I'm not sure of the details. I see him in a couple weeks, so I should get the details then. When I woke up, I had Oompa Loompa fingers as my hand was swollen and covered in orange surgery prep stuff. If I had been more conscious, I would have snapped a picture.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that I dreamed that someone was playing Journey's Don't Stop Believing during the surgery. Reality they weren't. It was still weird.

I did get some Diet Dr. Pepper, but my stomach was not up to coffee at that point. And I actually didn't have any that day.

FYI: My arm isn't bent awkwardly, that is my knee in the lower left hand corner. My arm is resting on it.

It's hard to see in that picture, but my fingers are orange and very swollen. I was also pale and feeling icky. Mostly nauseous from the meds and stuff as well as fuzzy from the Hydrocodone. I slept for several days.

It's only a flesh wound! Had worse!

It doesn't look that bad here. Mostly because it is covered by something called a Steri-strip. I have to change the dressing once a day (the Steri-strip stays until it falls off or the doctor removes it). I'm learning to do things one-handed as most things are not possible or difficult with the right hand. You don't realize how dependent you are on everything working correctly until your without. I'm getting better, but sometimes I forget and over use the hand and it hurts.

The pain has been constant, but not overwhelming anymore. I took my last pain pill Sunday morning with Tylenol and the occasional Aleve filling in the gaps. I wear a sling when I'm icing it. Thursday, I see the physical therapist and I should be out of the brace in two weeks.

I'm lucky. We caught it early. If I had waited too long, it could have caused irreversible muscle and nerve damage. Something I'm learning is, if the joint isn't stable, there is something wrong. You would think it would be easy to remember, but I'm a guy and like to think I'm tough.

Oh, and the other hand has a nice bruise on it from the IV port...

Yes, it hurts to touch.

Anyway, looking for August to be a little better. Typing is only affected when the hand hurts too much, but that part is getting better daily.

'Till Next Time.