So Far, So Good

A week has passed since my second hand surgery, and I’m pleased to report that I am bouncing back more quickly than I expected. Skin grafts are healing well, and my appeal was approved for hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

It’s been quite the ride. For the first few days, my hands were protected by huge padded splints that went halfway down my forearms. My pain level was quite manageable, thank goodness, but I could not do a thing for myself.

You really don’t realize how much you depend on your hands until you can’t use them at all. I felt like a baby. Al did yeoman duty, feeding me, wiping me and washing me, all with patience and good humor. He is a good man. We were both blessed and energized by caring friends who brought delicious home-cooked meals all week, and by many prayers for healing and kind wishes.

Everything changed on Thursday, when Dr. S removed the splints. He checked the graft on my left middle finger (he deemed it good) and the flap of skin that is now sealing my right middle finger (also deemed good). The other two grafts he left alone for inspection on Monday. But I had my hands back.

As soon as I came home from my appointment on Thursday, I was able to sit at my computer and get some work done. Even as I was tired, it was a tremendous relief to be able to use my hands again, with care, and regain some independence. I’m not ready to drive, yet, but I hope to as soon as I feel confident that my grafts have stabilized.

When Dr. S checked the grafts on Monday, he was more than pleased. The skin was nice and pink, a major accomplishment, given my poor circulation. I’ve been keeping my hands warm using heat packs on my wrists. Since I can’t put on my wrist warmers right now (bulky bandages), I have been wrapping the heat pacs into ace bandages around each wrist. Works just fine.

I still have two pins in my left index and right pinky. These will come out soon. Monday afternoon, I had smaller splints made to stabilize the three grafted fingers as they heal. I’m still figuring out how best to care for the “donor site” on my right thigh, a two-by-four-inch rectangle where a thin layer of skin was removed for the grafts, but it appears to be healing slowly.

Also on Monday, I got the green light on my hyperbaric oxygen therapy appeal. This was especially surprising, because our health insurance had called the end of last week, claiming that we had never applied for prior authorization, so no appeal was appropriate. I referred them to our hospital wound center contact who had, indeed, filed the request that had, indeed, been declined. I also explained that the HBO would probably save them money because it would spare me more surgeries, if it works. That argument may have done the trick, because they never even bothered with a peer-to-peer review. In any case, I start next week.

It’s a lot to absorb. I’m extremely grateful that my wounds, now covered with my own skin, are less painful, and that the risk of having skin grafts has been, so far, worth taking. One step at a time. . . .

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com.