Eric with a C

Well it's been weeks since I posted because life has been getting back to normal and I suppose that is a good thing. I've been drumming, been painting, been photographing... Shoot, I've even been washing dishes and doing laundry again. I was getting tired of having to take Axe (body spray) baths to keep my clothes from making it seem like I was also not showering. Yes, that was a joke... :) Amidst the healing and rehabilitation, which I'll get back to in just a minute, I've been able to explore more thoroughly this new reality I'm living. In that process some things have presented themselves as goals to strive towards, like building grip strength, and other things that might be the first real disability I've been able to identify. It was probably first a blip on the radar while in the shower getting ready to shampoo my ever-more-sparsely-populated hair. It really became noticeable when brushing my teeth. It relates to a question you may remember I'd...

Two things happened this morning, the 51st day since the surgery: #1 was that I set up my drum kit and played it for the first 9-fingered time. #2 was I was able to clip my fingernails normally without having to resort to wedging the clippers between my knee and left wrist to get the needed torque. So yeah, it's been a pretty good day. It really is the little things... YouTube video of this session. My ring finger is still the one that needs the most work to recover it's mobility and really it might very well need to exceed it's former benchmarks given it's former neighbor finger is no longer with us. the surface is healing up nicely but the internals are still probably about three-fifths healed. Gripping the drum stick with that hand, while possible, didn't feel completely natural although I can hardly complain. It was the 1st time to try playing and the 2nd time I tried holding drumsticks post-op. It is a start and that's what I was shooting for. Macy,...

It has definitely been a while since I've had the time to sit down and write about what's been going on which is a pretty good indication of how things have been going. December has seen an art show, an assignment shoot, a portrait, a wedding, a bunch of church events and friend get-togethers and frankly, the hand hasn't been much of a hindrance which is fantastic! The phantom feelings have subsided as a pervasive experience and now are more of an occurrence when I try to make a fist or am doing something that normally would include that finger. Just the other day I was holding my phone to my ear with the left hand and it seemed like the missing finger was holding it at the top to stabilize. Madness. Occupational therapy has started and is going well. Macy, the therapist , is a fun torture artist that's been taking care of my gimpy finger and hand and that deserves further explanation. It all started out with a look-over of the situation. My hand was pretty stiff, the ...

Hello again! I'm not dead, I'm just being haunted by the ghost of finger past which is actually fairly manageable. As I type this I'm using both hands at varying degrees of proficiency. Let me tell you it is really stinkin' weird. The past several days I've been off pain medications completely which may explain the spike in feeling the finger that is not. My senses are apparently so familiar with the ghost digit that my brain is still trying to press keys with that finger. This blog is actually the first time I've tried typing properly with all the fingers I do have. Previously it's been just my thumb or pinkie for various letters or pressing the shift button. Cool. :) The sensations are sometimes tingling, sometimes normal movement sensations, sometimes the feeling that it is asleep, and sometimes it just throbs a bit. It is intermittent but more frequent, again probably correlating with more mobility and lack of pain inhibitors. Touching the remaining fing...

Wow. This past week seemed like a month. It couldn't have helped that I was on hydrocodone & tylenol while still dealing with head area pain that may mean a trip to the dentist is overdue. Oddly enough I never felt "high", I just knew I wasn't at 100%. The volume of travel also surely contributed. We got home from MDA last Wednesday and on Saturday drove up to DFW to see an Aussie friend I hadn't seen in ten years as well as go to a Dallas Stars hockey game together (thanks Andrew!). That was after we grabbed some texan steak and toured Daley Plaza to see the grassy knoll. It was an awesome time but I wound up developing a 101F fever that night that prompted a call to MDA. Thankfully it seemed unrelated to my hand and after a restless night, it dissipated later on Sunday morning. I took it pretty easy as a precaution and though we went out for BBQ (thanks Mom & Dad!), upon getting home I was back on the floor resting. After that it was time to return our f...

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 finge...

As soon as I published the last post the volunteers came and got us; both Amber and I were able to go visit my adorable husband in recovery, yay! I immediately counted fingers when I got to him...they took the correct finger and only the correct finger and yes Eric did ask to be sure. We were told that we couldn't have our phones on back there but they didn't say anything about not taking a big D90 camera so I snapped some shots. I showed Eric what his bandaged hand looks like and counted the fingers and thumb for him. (I wish I could show you all now but due to techinical issues I am using a guest computer in the waiting room and can't get the pics downloaded right now, but we'll post them soon.) Anyhow, Eric is in quite a bit of pain, just before we went back the nurse had notated his pain at about an 8 and had given him some pain medicine,I already forgot exactly what it was. He does have a morphene drip that he is using, it only takes his pain down to about a 5 ...