This post is not for the faint of heart. You've been warned!
Yesterday I went to see Dr. A to see how my wrist was doing in the 5 weeks since I had the lovely cast taken off. The first few days after the cast came off were kind of rough. My wrist just hurt. After I had the cast removed, I had a new splint made (because the bionic arm was too difficult to take apart) and I was wearing it all the time, but I was able to move my wrist more and could rotate my forearm much more than I could in the cast...so my wrist hurt. Fast forward 5 weeks and my wrist has been doing okay. Not terrible...but not stellar either. I've been doing more things without the splint on like typing, using the mouse, eating, getting dressed and ready in the mornings, but after awhile, I've been ready to put the splint back on. I don't have any pain with any certain movements, but keeping my hand in the palm down position for an extended period of time definitely doesn't feel to hot. The pain is eerily similar to the pain in my left wrist before I had the ligament tear fixed. So off I went to see Dr. A yesterday to get an update on how it is healing.
I truly thought he would do the usual...ask how it is feeling, if and when it hurts, and turn it this way and that to see how it felt. He came in and JH and I were admiring her beautiful new engagement ring and talking "wedding" talk. He did the usual and poked and prodded...and he has the uncanny ability to find the perfect spot on my wrist that when pushed will send me through the roof! I mean, he is a hand surgeon, so I guess it's a good thing that he knows right where to press! He said that since I was still progressing in the right direction that he didn't think it was time to bail off the course just yet and do something like schedule surgery...but the progress has definitely slowed down and the fact that it still hurts when I do specific things was a little concerning. Then JH piped up and asked about a cortisone injection. I know I looked at her like she had lost. her. freaking. mind. What was she thinking...I thought she was on my side?!? Dr. A said it might be time to try it and asked what I thought. My response was something along the lines of "well, you two are the experts so if you say do it, then we do it." Those must have been the magic words because that's all it took for Dr. A to page the nurse and before I knew it, there were gloves, the shot ready to go, and JH and Dr. A telling me to lay down.
If you don't know me, then you probably don't know that a) I have a HUGE phobia of needles....even finger pricks and flu shots freak me out...and b) my body's reaction to pain and needles is to pass out. We all knew that I was going to have to lay down if I wanted even half a chance to make it through the injection and stay conscious the whole time. Dr. A tried to lighten the mood (which had gone from light and fun to serious and in my case, panic stricken) by telling me they could put a clothespin on my ear to make me forget about the shot in my wrist. Things after that went fast and furious. I laid down, Dr. A took my right hand, and JH took my left hand. He sprayed my wrist with that freezing spray (which does help with initial stick of the needle, but once the needle is inside and digging around, that spray might as well be water because it doesn't do a damn thing) and then started the injection. For those of you who are lucky enough to have never had an cortisone injection you need to know that cortisone is thick and it takes not only a larger gauge needle but also more time to get the cortsione out of the shot. I swear it felt like the was going to come out the other side of my wrist. Dr. A and JH kept telling me to take deep breaths...probably because I was not breathing...and I was squeezing JH's hand and biting my lip, all in an effort to get through the pain. Don't let anyone lie to you...they hurt. Like a mother. And yes, I dropped the f-bomb when describing the shot to my sister! When it was finally over, they told me to just keep laying down...because I apparently looked horrible. It took me laying down for about 30 minutes, an ice pack, and advil before I even remotely felt ok.
So fast forward to today...24 hours after the injection. It has been a miserable 24 hours to say the least. I cried on the way home because my wrist hurt so bad...and I was starting to feel terrible. I took a Vicodin (pain pill) when I got home...and I hate taking them because they make me so damn loopy...but the loopiness was a small price to pay to get my wrist to stop throbbing. I hardly slept and took another pill at about 2 am. I woke up at 4:45 with my wrist throbbing and I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I hate calling in sick but decided that I needed to stay home because #1) me in pain at school was not a good idea...and #2) I had taken 2 Vicodins and I knew I was going to be out of it for awhile. I have spent most of the day in bed, sleeping, with my wrist elevated either in my splint or on an ice pack. I've been freezing all day, am running a low grade fever, and have very red cheeks (which apparently is a side effect of the injection).
This was not how I thought the last 24 hours would go! I'm hoping the cortisone starts to work soon because I'm not convinced the shot was worth the pain it has caused. Well, I'm off to actually take a shower...hoping that might make me feel a little more human.
And just so you are clear...cortisone is from the devil!
