Today was the 8 week follow up with my ortho surgeon. It went very well. I was in and out in under 15 minutes (aside from the two hours of driving :D). Everything looks fine and no new tumor growth. Unfortunately the bone did heal with a big bump in it and the doc said it *might* smooth out over time. It sits right where my wedding ring is and hurts. But hopefully the pain will subside in time.
So I am free for four more months!
I broke my finger on September 28th. It is now January and I am *FINALLY* getting ready to start the therapy to get my hand back as close to "normal" as possible. It has been a very long road. I know it is only a finger and it could be so much worse but limiting yourself to only one hand for almost 4 months has been so difficult, frustrating and painful.
It all started with an innocent fall that broke a finger. I had no idea that more was going on. 
The swelling got worse and worse and then I started to lose feeling in my hand. 
That's when the surgeon found the tumor. I was floored. And into the splint I went.
Man was that thing cumbersome.
Surgeon #2 was pleased with my having spent a couple of months in a splint and set me free... very, very briefly. :D
After only a couple of short weeks with some movement in my hand it was time for surgery. 
I was surprised to wake up from surgery in a cast almost to my elbow. 
Then I was set free!
I thought it was a wonderful thing... until I realized the cast was keeping the pain of healing a new piece of bone at bay. 
And this is now
All I need are steri strips and a band aid. It looks like nothing. It feels like there is a bullet in there. My hand has no strength. I drop things. If someone so much as touches the finger I am in agony. My hand hurts from my wrist to my finger nail. I can't bend more that 1/2 inch total.
This is where therapy comes in. I will start therapy soon. It will probably take about 6-8 weeks to get my finger back to bending. I will never get full mobility in that side of my hand but it will get better. I can't wait for better!
(I know this was a random post. I think I needed to vent a little. :D)
The surgeon appointment went well this am (had to get up at 6 am to be there... yuck!). The x rays looked good and the bone is starting to thread with my own bone. The best news is that he took off my cast and removed my stitches. The bad part is that once they took the cast off it hurt like heck. So for now I am back on pain meds until the swelling and pain go down a little. Then it's on the therapy!
I have always been a pretty resilient type. I pride myself on my scrappiness and ability to bounce back. In fact our family motto is "never give up" and we really don't. All this being said this was a very tough week for me. All I had operated on was a lousy finger and it took me down for the count. My hand hurts terribly so I have to take the pain meds. The pain meds hurt my stomach and make me groggy. The way my hand is bandaged to protect the new piece of bone I can't do ANYTHING with my left hand. (I thought I had it bad after the initial break...)
It's been a little tough to take. I fully expected that after a couple of days I would be back to my normal self (minus a few fingers). Instead I was either in bed or on the sofa until yesterday. Yesterday I decided it was time to rally. So once the girls got on the bus (with help from Daddy) I got up. I gutted it out all day and stayed up. It was tough but it felt better to be a part of the world. I am hoping this trend continues.
I go back to the surgeon on Tuesday and I hope to get more details on what comes next. As of right now I have no idea how long the cast stays on or how many stitches I have or if the bone is even "taking". There is always a chance that the tumor will regrow instead of the bone. So a lot rides on this appointment. In my optimistic head I always assumed that by Christmas I would be back to normal (with no cast)... I am thinking that was little more than optimism. Oh well... I guess it just means less cooking for me. :D
The pain is more than I thought and the cast is bigger than I expected but at least it's DONE! The bottom is hard cast and the top is super bandage. It goes until about 3 inches below my elbow. Hoping to only need this for a couple weeks.
Today is the day. My hand will be cut, scooped, pack and stitched and then the fun begins. Casting, healing, rehabbing and whatever other fun my surgeon can think up to torture me. :D I am not so much nervous as I am just NOT WANTING TO DO THIS AT ALL! That being said I am so ready to get this ball rolling and get it over with. Wish me luck!
Just two more days until my hand surgery.
It has been:
And I have until 9:30 am until they cut it open, scoop out the tumor, pack it full of bone graft and stitch me up. I don't know how I feel. I hate that I am going back to square one. That I will come home in a cast and a sling and start the process of healing from the beginning. I have been doing this for months and months and it finally doesn't hurt all the time. Now it will. So on the one hand I am nervous and frustrated and a little angry at circumstances.
On the other hand it means that I am finally a step closer to being back closer to normal. My hand and especially that finger will never be 100% again but close would be good. I am ready for close. Come on close...
I went to the surgeon this morning for a follow up. The appointment itself was fine but everything surrounding it was awful. Got lost. Tons of traffic. Long wait at the office. The whole office was all upside-down because of a scheduling change. It took 2 hours in the office to have two x-rays and see the doc for literally 2 minutes. Got lost going home... AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
The long and the short of the appointment is that as much bone as they had hoped for has grown in the finger. So I am cleared for surgery a week from Monday. The doctor told me that the surgery won't be too long (hopefully under two hours) but I will have to wear a plaster cast after for a while. I was hoping to go back into my removable cast so I can shower. I will also have to start "intensive hand therapy" afterwards because the surgery will not improve my mobility. As it is right now I can only bend the finger with the tumor about 1/2" away from my hand.
I am so glad the date is closing in because it feels like this has been going on forever. I broke my finger Sept. 28th so it has only been a couple months. I am ready to get moving forward.
Yesterday was the appointment with the new hand surgeon for my second opinion. I think I have found a winner. I liked this new surgeon much, much better. He is planning to perform the same surgery with the notable exception of using manufactured bone product instead of harvesting bone from my wrist. So surgery is set for the second week of December. They pushed it back two weeks from the initial date which I don't love but what can I do.
They will make an incision in the side of the finger, open up the bone and scrape out the tumor. Then they will pack bone graft into the bone and immobilize it until it heals. The crappy part is that enchondromas are very likely to reoccur. Because it is little more than an overgrowth of cartilage inside the bone it is a surgery that may very likely be repeated a few times. I was not thrilled to hear that part. So anyway, it will be outpatient surgery done at a surgical center. It will require a fair amount of follow up to make sure the tumor doesn't re-grow. After about 6 months I will go to once a year x-rays to keep an eye on it.
The best news of the day was that during the day I have switched from the removable cast to a "finger buddy system". I have to wear two straps around my ring and pinky fingers to stabilize them. It is so nice to not have the bulky cast on but it definitely hurts more to have it unprotected. But I'll take it.
I am so looking forward to having this chapter over and done with. It irritates me that this will be plaguing me over the Christmas holiday but maybe (if I look at the bright side) I should realize that this also means that while I am healing the girls won't be in school, Brian will be home (slightly) more and I might get more help. Silver lining...
Despite having a very non-personable surgeon I managed to squeak enough information out of him to confirm what happened to my hand. My finger has what they call a pathological fracture. Definition: A pathologic fracture occurs when a bone breaks in an area that is weakened by another disease process. Causes of weakened bone include tumors, infection, and certain inherited bone disorders (found: http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/brokenbones/g/pathologic.htm).
My weakening was from an enchondroma tumor. Definition: An enchondroma is a benign tumor of cartilage. This type of tumor causes the formation of islands of mature cartilage in abnormal locations. Usually these tumors occur in the hands or in the long bones of the arms and legs. They are most often asymptomatic, and do not cause pain. If you do experience symptoms, these tumors can be removed; however, this is a risk of recurrence following surgery.
So the long and the short is that I had a tumor growing within the bone of my finger and when Abby fell on it it broke very easily. The picture above is what the tumor looks like before it is disrupted (obviously this isn't my finger since mine broke ;D). The doctor will perform surgery which will scoop out the tumor from the bone. Then they will harvest bone from my wrist and then slide the bone from the wrist into the hollowed cavity of the bone. They do have to open up the whole finger which I don't love but it doesn't sound like there are a ton of options. After surgery the whole hand has to be immobilized for 4-6 weeks. Then I will start PT to get my mobility going.
I am going to go to another surgeon at the hospital where brian works. We get 100% coverage for surgery at the hospital and their ortho team is supposed to be very good. Like I said my surgeon leaves me cold and his ratings are good but not glowing. At this point I am just anxious to get this all over with.
I went to the hand surgeon and it was a pretty uninteresting visit. The bone is starting to heal a little bit around the tumor (which is good). I am about 5 weeks away from having surgery so I am looking at right after Thanksgiving. I have decided to get a second opinion. Brian works at a hospital in the city (it's a little far but doable) and they supposedly have a good hand orthopedist. The nice thing is that surgery would be covered 100%. Sweet! So now I am trying to track down an appointment with a surgeon.
I am allowed to start moving my broken finger a little. It hurts miserably but I am so happy to get to move my hand. It is so sore and stiff.
I have offially deemed my left hand useless. In fact I even tell it (out loud) that it isn't pulling it's weight. Damn useless hand. On top of the pain from the break and the pain from the semi-cast I now have blisters on the hand from the cast.
This is gonna be a fun few months!
I know it looks like I should be able to use those three fingers but the clunky cast is making it such a challenge. 
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