25. Arm Operation Day

Finally, after 29 weeks and 4 days of waiting the day of my arm operation arrived. We got to the hospital right on time and I said goodbye to Bob at the door of the ward and he went off in search of a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea.

I went inside and was shown to my bed, in a bay of 6 beds, and I sorted out my stuff so I could get changed as soon as I was told. As it turned out only 5 of the beds were used that day.

After a while the surgeon came to see me to check that I knew what was due to happen, what could go wrong and that I still agreed to go ahead. Then the nurse took my blood pressure etc. making sure I was still well enough to have the operation, including the test to ensure I didn’t have Covid.

A couple of hours went by and then the anaesthetist came to see me and while I was talking to him one of the other women in the bay went down for her op.

After another woman went down for her operation, I noticed that all the other 4 women were under one consultant and I was the odd one out being under a different consultant. In fact, I was the only orthopaedic patient there as they were all gynae patients. I then guessed that they would all have their operations before I would get mine as they would finish all of one team’s list before changing to another.

As it turned out I was right as I was last to go down for my operation and finally went at about 3:30pm. I think I came back about 2 hours later and Bob and I finally left to go home about 9:00pm. A long day but at least it’s over with now!

Before I left the hospital, I was given my discharge note which said I should see the nurse at my GP in 2 days so she could change the dressing and that I should keep my arm in the sling until I go to hospital for my first post-op appointment, which would be on the 13th October.

Two days later I went to see our GP practice nurse so she could remove the pressure dressing and put a new ordinary dressing on, then she said I should return the following week to have it changed again. At the 2nd dressing change visit she took a photo of my arm so I could see what it looked like, a bit gruesome, but not too bad.

Since the op. my arm has developed an all over bruise but it’s not too painful and I’m cautiously optimistic that the op. has worked, at least in part, as the tingling and burning sensations seem to have stopped. My fingers are still a bit numb but I think that has also improved a bit. I do realise that nerves take longer to heal than other parts.

I really hope that when I go for my follow-up appointment, I am allowed to have showers again, even if we have to wrap my arm in cling-film, and leave the sling off.

The follow-up appointment went well and the doc told me that all my problems were caused by the nerve being trapped inside the scar tissue laid down from my previous surgeries and that he had managed to free it and move it over a bit. I told him that the burning sensation was gone and most of the tingling and that the numbness was vastly reduced so I was very happy.

He also said I could leave the sling off but put it back on if/when my arm got tired or painful and that he’d see me again in about 4 weeks.

At my second follow-up appointment (24th November) I told the doc that I was very happy as I had a very little bit of numbness and tingling left and if that’s what I had to live with I would be more than satisfied. He said that it was still early days (8 weeks) and it may still improve more and that he doesn’t need to see me any more so they were discharging me as I had suspected they would.

This problem from onset of symptoms to cure must be a world record, it certainly is as far as I’m concerned as it has only been about 18 months. The only thing I wish I had asked is what are the chances of it happening again!