upcoming surgery

on the 24th, going to deal with ulna nerve entrapment at the elbow and hopefully enough time to tether tendon through arthritic thumb joint. Something about a 2 hour window once they put the tourniquet on and may not have enough time to do both.

The ulna nerve entrapment has been an issue for 16 months. I woke up with numb fingers the morning after my first chemo treatment. My oncologist said no way connected to chemo, too soon, blah blah blah. The neurologist at Mayo said, AH HA, it is related to chemo- that chemo finds the weakness in nerves and basically breaks it down further. Oncologist whining about everybody wanting to blame everything on chemo. The orthopedic surgeon agrees with Mayo doc, so guess it is 2 against one. I had an EMG (or whatever that nerve test is) last June. Ulna nerve entrapment just so-so, the complication is chemo on top of it, the wonderful neuropathy. Everybody wanted me to wait this out as long as possible, not clear that surgery at the elbow is going to take care of it.

Thumb joint is bad- I keep thinking he will open it up and the smell of chemo will knock him out. No medical professional agrees with me- not like chemo pools in the body, let alone in the joints. To me, it did and does. I do have a strong family history of osteoarthritis- my identical twin has had both of her thumbs done. It just seems way too much of a connection- finished chemo in Jan- never had problems in my thumbs and started to like in March. The left one is pretty bad.

So I will be slinged and casted for about 4-6 weeks then will start the long haul of physical therapy.

In the meantime? I have to meet with my Mock Trial team this afternoon, do some grocery shopping and get my kids to get the Christmas stuff out and up.

Later!