Post Op
I had my right hand operated on yesterday morning by Dr Rine at Herne Bay. The team there is fantastic - everything was explained to me fully.
For most of yesterday the hand/fingers were still numb from the anesthetic, my main feeling was of severe stiffness in my fingers - it was extremely difficult to uncurl them, but completed exercises as instructed.
This morning, (24 hrs after op) I am able to complete the excercises much more easily. I have a dull ache around my wrist and the operation site. My thumb and ring finger are slightly numb, but my index and middle fingers are completely numb.
I understand that this may take sometime to improve, however the numbness is more severe than it was pre-surgery.
I will update on the forum as things change.
Stitches were taken out on Saturday.
Hand is healing well and there is slight improvement in the numbness in my index finger. My index and middle fingers are still very numb but there is a little improvement so will be patient!
As long as it is improving rather than deteriorating I am happy with that - it was grade 5 before surgery so I rather expect slow progress in terms of sensory recovery. I would suggest letting me know how it feels in another 4 weeks, unless it takes a turn for the worse. JB
Keep me posted. The surgery unavoidably knocks the nerve about a little and sometimes this can cause the nerve fibres to stop working for a while, producing numbness, especially if their function has been fairly severely compromised even before surgery and they are also further insulted by the local anaesthetic. This is technically known as neuropraxia and usually wears off in a few days. More serious nerve damage produces longer lasting numbness but there is no hard and fast rule about when you start to worry about it. Personally I think a good point to review the situation is when the stitches come out at 2 weeks. If there is still more loss of sensation at that point than there was before surgery you start to think seriously about investigating it. JB