Just a quick update

My doctor has taken me off my medications because they are interfering with my liver. I've been off the one since September and the other since November. Needless to say, the psoriasis is back with a vengeance and the arthritis has decided to settle in my hands - which is good since it isn't anywhere else in my body, but it's bad because, well, it's in my hands. I can't do much of anything with these iffy hands. Today is actually a good day. I can turn the doorknob without help and I can type - hence this post. But what I would really like to do is knit and I just don't think my hands would put up with that. Oh, well. Life goes on. I'm just trailing a little behind it right now.

I sympathize entirely

see more crazy cat pics

Kind of an update

Did I ever mention the ordeal of the finger caused an outbreak of psoriasis which lead to an extremely debilitating case of psoriatic arthritis for which I've been undergoing Remicade treatment since December? Personally, I think it was the steroid treatment that sent my system into such shock which caused the psoriasis which led to the arthritis which pretty much kept me from doing anything. Ask the Prodigal Son . . . he had to open bags of chips for me as well as jars and doors since I couldn't really grasp doorknobs to turn them. When I say the arthritis was debilitating, I am not kidding. I was becoming concerned about my job because it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to drive to get to it not to mention losing the manual dexterity needed to perform some of it.

However, the Remicade treatments I've undergone have worked miracles. The arthritis is under control and I'm all but back to being my annoyingly cheerful self.

On the other hand, the finger still isn't 100%, but at least I can mostly use it to do mostly normal things like holding cups and cutting my own meat. Per the hand surgeon, I've at least another six months of self inflicted therapy to go through before I can give up and just learn to live with a finger that isn't 100%.

Right now I'm in the process of psyching myself up to trying to knit again since the finger and the arthritis made it impossible for me to do it. I have a scarf on the needles I started last year before all this finger nonsense started that I'm going to rip out and redo. I think. Well, it's certain I'll rip it out because I screwed it up badly when I thought I was recovered enough to knit to actually knit on it a bit that the perfectionist in me just won't let it go on. Whether or not I'll retry this pattern with this yarn . . . well, that's the question, isn't it?

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Now playing: Evanescence - Lacrymosa
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Sick

Need I really say more?

Pretty purple marker

No therapy scheduled at this time. I'm supposed to stretch, bend, and flex the finger myself three or four times a day for ten minutes at a time. I go back to the doctor for a follow up in two weeks to see how well I've done with the self therapy. At that time he'll decide whether or not I need to visit the torturer - as he put it.

The fluid they dug out of my finger during the surgery wasn't puss and nothing untoward has apparently grown in the cultures they made so nobody is any the wiser about why my finger filled up with fluid. I'm not sure how long they'll keep the cultures to see if anything grows.

We'll see.

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Now playing: Mediaeval Baebes - Temptasyon
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It itches

The bandages come off tomorrow and the stitches come out. I have no idea what the doctor did. I still can't straighten the finger and the muscles are so tight I will most likely have to go through therapy to get the use of the finger back.

In all honesty, right now, it doesn't feel any different than it did before the surgery. Except for the swelling. It doesn't seem to be swollen at the moment.

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Now playing: Loreena McKennitt - She Moved Through the Fair
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Surgery's done!

I'm home and about to take a nap. The finger hurts like the dickens and my arm is in a sling. Got stabbed three times before a vein was found for the IV.

Later...

Bad finger, part deux

Just another angle. This one kind of shows just how much I can straighten and bend the finger. Not a whole lot of range, there.

Bad finger!

Guess what happens Tuesday?

I go in for a slice and dice on my finger. Outpatient surgery. The MRI showed no infection, no mass, no tendon tears, no bone lesions. It did show fluid buildup all up the finger. The doctor thinks there still might be infection since the tenosynovitis got worse instead of better and showed no response at all to any of the drugs I was on.

I have to be at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. The surgery is supposed to start at 7:30 a.m. and be done by 8:30 a.m. I get to sit around in recovery until 10:30 a.m. at which time I get to go home. The Prodigal Son gets to take me up and bring me back, and he gets to babysit me all day to make sure nothing happens.

I'm looking forward to getting some relief, but I'm not looking forward to surgery.

My finger is so special!

It gets to have an MRI done on it Friday to see why it's getting worse instead of better. Doesn't that sound like fun?

There's a point to this?

Still no significant improvement on the finger front. I'm calling the doctor next week to see what the next step is. I'm not sure if I'll let him do the steroid injections - didn't react well to taking steroids in pill form - or whether I'll just ask to have the surgery. It's been almost three months and I'm getting really bored with this problem.

Want it fixed! Now!

Point, counterpoint

Still no significant improvement on the finger front. I'm on the fourth prescription and I'm honestly beginning to think that surgery will really be my only recourse. Either that or learning to knit left-handed.

Hmmm . . . that might actually be an interesting experiment.

Updated to add: The Celebrex I was on did zip for my finger but it did seem to clear up the problem that was developing with my knee.

Updated update: In case anyone is interested, in order, I've been on Diclofenac, Prednisone, Celebrex, and Etodolac.

I thought Trigger was a horse . . .

Well . . . (Deep subject for such a shallow mind.)

My finger ailment has a name. Actually, it has two of them. There's the sort of generic medical term - tenosynovitis - and then there's the catchy name everybody uses - trigger finger. And the lovely hand surgeon has put me on a third anti-inflammatory to see if this one will help. The catch is that I have to take it for two weeks before we'll know. And if this one doesn't work, there's a few dozen others we can try. And if none of them work, then there's a steroid injection into the tendon. And if that doesn't work, then there is a minor surgical procedure that can be done that will leave my hand unusable for at least two weeks. (The minor part is that it can be done under local anesthetic and takes about 20 minutes.)

~ sigh ~

It looks like I have to live with my finger problem for a bunch more weeks.

~ sigh ~

Looking for a hand surgeon

Three weeks on various drugs and no improvement in the hand situation and I'm now recovering from the effects of the last drug - digestive tract, blood pressure, and vision all affected. I stopped taking the medicine yesterday and I'm still sick as a dog today. And my finger has gone back to being almost completely unusable. The drugs were just masking whatever the problem was, not dealing with it. So now I'm on the hunt for a hand surgeon who is on my insurance plan.

And all I want to do is knit. There's a pair of socks I'd like to make.

~ mumble grumble ~

I broke myself

Just got home from the doctor. He thinks I have a very bad and extremely painful case of tendinitis in the index finger of my left hand. I have no idea what I did. I went to bed feeling fine and woke up unable to flex - or otherwise move - my left index finger. I have a prescription for something. I dropped it off at the pharmacy and I haven't gone back to pick it up yet. Needless to say, everything - including typing - is uncomfortable and often painful. It looks like this is my year to have things go wrong.

Oh, well.

Guess who's got ringworm now?

You got it.

And not just me, but the Prodigal's girlfriend as well.

Mine is on the heel of my hand where Woolly Bear clawed the dickens out of me when he got trapped in one of the holes in the plastic crates I use for storage and I tried to get him out. I'm not sure where the girlfriend's is but it does involve lowering her trousers.