No worries - it was written with tongue in cheek, I find playing by ear gives me a headache! Cheers John
ps - stitches out tomorrow and washed it yesterday, not looking tooo bad (22 stitches)
John do let us know how it goes. Will you be doing hand physio as part of the recovery, and splinting? I think it will be interesting to hear how your healing and progress goes, so best wishes.
Stitches out with no problems, a little sore and tender, some tingling and some nerves yet to wake up again. But on the whole pretty good.
I've some exercises to do and then a next visit to the consultant in ten days or so. Still banned from driving, and morris, and drumming and ...... :(
I need to stretch, in both directions, moisturise and get the little finger joints working again.
I have a picture of my hand about ten days post operation - it might be useful for others to see what they can expect, just a thought, what does anyone think?
John it could be interesting to share the photo, especially if you have one before the procedure. Then maybe in a couple of months time when everything is healed. But your choice of course.
These are pictures of my hand at 11 days and 18 days after the contracture was released. I have the stitches out, some swelling in the little finger (quite uncomfortable) but everything is improving. Straight? Not yet ..... exercise and moisturiser required (and a little luck). Cheers John [still not driving, drumming, dancing ..........]
Looks great!! The best thing I used at your stage was using a self-adhesive elastic bandage to wrap hand in a fist. I would cut about a 10 inch piece of 1 1/2 inch bandage and wrap fist like putting a rubber band holding the fist. I would leave it on for about 10 minutes then flex hand for a couple of minutes after taking it off. I would re-use this "rubber band" for a few days. I would do this 4-5 times during the day. Soon I could make the fist without the aid of the "rubber band". I got into a good habit of flexing the hand in both directions often during the day. Be sure to keep moist 24/7. I have no visible scar tissue from my hand operation which looked almost identical to yours.
Cramping for me comes with having to tightly grip anything. In your situation using an oversized set of drum sticks by putting bicycle handlebar tape on one end just to see if it helps would be worth a try. With tape you can use different types for more or less cushioning and build up the diameter where it is needed at individual sections where you grip it.
Alternatively would be to have a local woodworker make some but turn them so that they provide a larger diameter at one end so you can grip them with less hand and muscle tension. People use oversized ballpoint pens and oversized computer mice for similar reasons.
There is no where near the impact of using a hammer repetitively so being able to use a looser grip might be very effective.
360 users online
Login
