1 post tagged “surgery”

In case you haven't been following my twitter feed, let me bring you up to date.

I went into surgery eight days ago to remove the metal plate from my left arm, the one that was inserted during my previous surgery five months ago. Ironically, this plate was to reduce the amount of time I would spend healing, but instead intruded itself in such a way that my wrist was unable to fully flex. So the very thing that should've made it possible for me to heal quickly actually prevented me from fully healing.

After spending three days drugged up on OxyContin, I switched to using ibuprofen because I knew that it would reduce the swelling a bit more. I've been taking ibuprofen, typically at three or four doses a day.

This phase of healing is familiar --- I remember the few weeks after the previous surgery where any movement of my fingers would not be immediately felt, but result in an inflammation that was sometimes fairly painful 20 or 30 minutes later. I'm anxious to get started getting the rest of my motion back, but until I get out of this phase where every bit of work results in pain, I'm not directly motivated.

Although I've never been completely away from doing the day-to-day business of my company, obviously being unable to type at full speed and use both of my hands for most of the time has had its toll. And of course, with the economy being what it is, this couldn't have come at a worse time. It's hard enough just finding the good projects, but when it's even harder to respond via e-mail or hack some Smalltalk code because I can't type and hold the control key down and use the mouse all the same time, it's discouraging.

Anyway, I'm hoping this new surgery will do the trick. I get my sutures out next Tuesday, and then I can begin aggressively retraining my muscles and restretching my tendons to give me at first the ability to hold small objects, and then hopefully typing relatively soon thereafter.

I appreciate the kind words that those of you who sent to me during my presurgery jitters and post surgery recovery. It has made going through this difficult time at least a bit  easier. Thank you!

As most of you probably know, I produce a podcast with Leo Laporte called FLOSS Weekly. I've been lining up some pretty amazing guests over the past few months in spite of barely being able to type. Using my voice to produce a podcast at least seems like something I can continue to do in spite of my hopefully temporary handicap.