one man, seven fingers, two thumbs

By Eric - November 17, 2010

Yes, that's right, my business name now has another tie-in to me. :D I just realized it on the drive out of Houston and was very pleased.

Typing is pretty stinkin' slow for me at the moment so this will be short(er) than it could be.

In fact , I may just post a number of photos from different parts of the past few days to make up for it.

My hand feels pretty good, all things considered. Keeping it elevated and keeping up with the pain med scheduled helps. I also find it useful to just touch and move my fingers with my right hand to control the movement delicately. The "phantom" phenomenon is at at play too which is interesting. The aforementioned touching and moving of those remaining fingers helps dissipate that phantom feeling but it doesn't seem to completely clear it. Part of it may be that I have dressing spacing my ring and pointer finger and that simulates the middle finger presence but the other part is probably just the fact I've always had that finger and there is a certain amount of muscle and sensory memory still associated with it. It seems that my ring finger is the one I'm confusing for the middle the most. It is an odd feeling indeed. :D

I am very grateful for the overwhelming show of support from all over. Friends and family and friends and family of those have been exceedingly kind and stepped up way above and beyond what I deserve. Thank you!

I will tell you that leading up to Monday and on the day, I had waves of thoughts and apprehensions about the impending surgery and it's implications. Each time though, I was reminded of all the reasons I shouldn't be worried. I'm not 100% sure if this Lincoln Brewster number is the song that came and stuck on Monday morning but I'm pretty sure it was.

I just looked up the lyrics I could remember and realized there were parts of it I hadn't consciously remembered but make it an especially appropriate song for my situation. Nice. :)

"Oh Lord my God to you I give my hands"

That was the part I just discovered, the following is what I had in my head.

"In you
In you I find my peace
In you
In you I find my strength
In you, I live and move and breathe

Let everything I say and do
Be founded by my faith in you
I lift up holy hands and sing
let the praises ring"

Rock on.

So yeah, after getting all gussied up in my stockings, hair net, and medical gown, they got my IV set. The gave me the "margarita" of anesthesia and I got a couple final kisses from my baby. I remember getting wheeled through the halls and set up in the surgical room that had all sorts of industrial-looking panels on the ceiling as well as the funky metallic solar panel dish lights (sorry, can't think of another way to describe them :D ). Soon after those observations I was out.

I woke up I think in the same place I was prepped in and swung in and out of sleep which was nice. There was some pain but it was pretty easily ignored as I drifted off again. Eventually I was conscious long enough to feel the pain and I got the morphine button handed and explained to me. It wasn't knocking out the pain the first several tries so they gave me the crazy good stuff or quadrupled the dosage or maybe both. Whatever, it finally worked. Brea & Amber made it in and we got to hang out so she could make sure they hadn't maimed me too bad. :) Brea probably has this all explained better than I can in her earlier posts.

It was great to have Brea & Amber there. Then came Brian & Joy (Hatch) all the way from Round Rock, not to mention Eric (Hatch) and of course Stephanie who brought a ton of chocolate deliciousness and introduced us to Smashburger.

The staff on the 4th floor took really great care of us. Putting up with emptying bottles of urine and my half-drugged humor couldn't have been easy. There are a lot of people I'm really grateful for it turns out. :D

To close, here are links to some videos I made while at MDA as well as some pics I hadn't been able to post until now...

e with a c: video update #1a
e with a c: video update #1b
e with a c: just say no to pneumonia

Roger, Britain, and I at Sunday night's impromptu jam session. I don't know how this cool lil' dude passed out and stayed out while I was playing 'cause his head was getting jostled around. He'd been drumming with me and then sat back for a moment before nodding once and then crashing.

This was a shot taken as we prepared to head out from Chris and Courtney's Monday morning. Thank you so much for letting us crash at your place at such a crazy hour!