I really liked Dr. Mahoney. He's a very nice guy and explained all the risks, etc. very thoroughly. He sprayed a "freezing" spray on the areas then injected the novocaine (or whatever) in. After that there was no pain - I just felt the movement of the needle. After about 15-20 minutes, it was over. He just put a few little bandaids on the injection sites and gave me an ice pack and that was it.

I've been icing my hand and keeping it raised as much as possible. There is a little swelling and bruising, but not bad at all.

My fingers are definitely straighter. My little finger was at 30% and immediately after the NA it was 5%. He said I should keep kind of pushing my fingers straight over the next few days and they should be completely straight.

So it was a very good experience. I'm really hoping I won't have to have anything else done for a long time.

I had been planning on driving 3 hours home directly afterwards until someone offered to drive me. I have a stick shift and had the NA in my left hand.

I'm glad I didn't drive back right after the surgery. I could have done it, but it would have been uncomfortable. If you have the NA and then spend the night, I don't think you'll have a problem driving home the next day. I had the surgery yesterday morning, and I drove to and from work and worked at an office job all day today with little or no discomfort.

I'd just say have the NA in the a.m. if you can, and keep your hand iced and elevated for the rest of the day, then drive home the next day and try to stop and ice your hand every hour or so.

Let us know how it goes.

I did bring up splinting, but he said he only uses it in a case where he has been able to release a finger but the tendon is so used to being in a curled position that he feels it needs to be stretched at night. That wasn't the case with me.

The nurse gave me a ziplock with ice in it (they were out of icepacks) that I used. You're just supposed to ice it 10 minutes every hour and try to keep it elevated. We just stopped every hour or so at McD's and I replaced the ice.

I'm amazed at how simple and painless the whole thing has been!

I had my correction done by Dr. John Mahoney in Nov. 2007, am now 15 months beyond his fix and remain totally satisfied. I have some new develop, but no recurrence of the original problems...I could not be happier! His work was stress-free and has remained as good as it was when I left the office...
Cheers,