2-21 Post Surgery
I finally had surgery. They came to get me around 3 today. I was down in the surgical unit until 7. I missed dinner which was really too bad since I was damn hungry.
I more or less have a functional brain again. Despite repeatedly trying to get a local anesthetic with a nerve block, I ended up under general anesthesia. I was out for about 3 hours. When I woke up, I confused the nurse. I wasn’t speaking English.
I was speaking Bislama.
I think I’ve learned the language pretty well.
This is short because my hand hurts and typing is both difficult and a little painful. As far as I know, they cut open my hand, looked at the nerve, decided it wasn’t damaged, cleaned it out and sewed it back up. I still have no sensation on my thumb. I’m a bit concerned.
I’m still on IV antibiotics. I’m really thirsty and my throat hurts. Stupid anesthesia.
Ugggh, sucks that you had to have general anesthesia. I'm no hand surgery expert, but what I've been taught wrt nerve regeneration is that reattaching the ends of the nerve does not make it immediately function again; rather, nerve reattachment makes it possible for the axons to regrow. The cells that used to cover the axon further down from the cut provide a little tunnel that the nerve
They didn't find nerve damage. Hopefully, either I contused it and the sensation will come back in a few months or I damaged the skin nerve and sensation will come back in a few months to a year.