KiwiCat's updates

Yesterday I was in Hamilton for my long awaited hand surgery. I broke my finger in July, had the x-ray initially misread as a simple self-healing break, had a fresh x-ray in September that revealed the truth that the bone was smashed and needed surgery, and then had to wait for an oncologist go-ahead. Having finally got that, I was ready to go.

I figured I would end the day in one of two places. Either it woud have self-healed in such a mess nothing could be done and I would just have to live with an unbending finger, or the surgeon would be successful and I would have some level of mobility restred.

To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, as it happens there was a third possibility I hadn’t even counted upon.

As the surgeon explained, initially the surgery went well. He located the broken pieces and reassembled them and they fit together nicely. There was a bit of a gap where the bone is naturally hollow, so for extra support he took some bone from the top of my wrist and fitted it in snugly then screwed it all together and it looked great. Pleased, just before sewing everything back up he tried bending the joint… and the part of the bone that had seemed undamaged fell apart. In his word, turned to mush.

It seems that there were tiny, invisible cracks in it that were just waiting for some pressure.

So what happened? Well apparently my body isn’t healing bone, which is a rare side effect of some cancers. He’s never seen it happen like thi, but it can. In retrospect there were a couple of ominous clues. Firstly, there had been no calcification.That was noted on the September x-ray, and was the same yesterday ehen everything got opened up. Secondly, post-surery in Auckland I waslow on potassium, which is stored in the bones. Clearly my body is doing something else with it and not directing it to my poor broken finger.

At this stage I’m presented with three options. Firstly, he could leave it alone. It’s now floppy at that joint (currently held straight by a splint) so will get in the way. This doesn’t appeal. Secondly he could remove the mess and shorten my finger. Essentially amputation. This would be better than a floppy finger but still not appealing. The third option is a posthesis, a replacement. This is my preference, and I think his too.

It will take a few weeks to order and manufacture, but then I’ll be back to have the bone removed and the silcon replacement fitted. It won’t be a long erm perfect solution, eventually my finer will stiffen up and no longer bend, but that was going to happen after this repair anyway. In the meantime,  once it’s done, my healing will depend very much on how diligent I am with my exercises. I plan to do everything I can to get full mobility back.

So it turns out yesterday was effectively just a dress rehearsal.  I’m sore, but the main event is still to come. Another opportunity for me to work on my patience 🙂