I'm just a lovely ray of sunshine aren't I?

I had an appointment at the Hand and Upper Extremity department at the Orthopedic Specialty Center (Sounds so ominous and official doesn't it?). My hands have been very very weak and sore for a long time now. I used to go to PT/OT for it, but it did not do very much to help with the pain. I let a long time go by and finally it got to a point where I can't even grip a pot of water long enough to carry it from the stove to the sink (I mean we are only talking 3 feet here). So I decided it was time to call them. I brought Aiden with me to the appointment and Calleigh and Riley went to "school". It was Riley's first time ever going to daycare and I was a bit nervous because he is very attached to me right now. He did well though.

At the appointment they were running about 25 minutes behind and when I finally got seen the Dr. was very surprised that my tendon had lasted as long as it has. It is very inflamed and swollen and very tight. He pushed on it and poked it and felt around and I at one point had to ask him to stop because it hurt so much! He kindly obliged and took a break for a minute before going to town and really pushing on the tendon and moving my hand, wrist and thumb all around. It hurt.....a lot! He told me that it is called DeQuervains. It is like Carpal Tunnel but instead of being on the top of the hand it is in the tendon that goes from the thumb joint down to the wrist. He decided he wanted to try the cortisone injection in only one hand at the moment (my left hand is much worse than the right but they are both pretty bad). Aiden was very fascinated watching them sterilize my hand with betadine and then giving me the lidocaine shot and then the cortisone shot. Let me tell you......it hurt like hell! Even though it was numb I could still feel him pushing the needle all around to move the cortisone around. Then he told me I had to "minimally use" my left arm for three weeks. I have to keep this stupid brace on my left arm for three weeks and "minimally use" it.

I have three kids under the age of 7....is this man nuts? He should come spend one day at my house and then tell me to minimally use my arm!

I also have to have my right arm in a soft brace to help support it for a week. Then after three weeks of the brace I can decide if I want to do a cortisone shot in the right wrist as well. We will see how this one does first. Also in six weeks if the cortisone is not helping they will go ahead with surgery. He said they would normally do another shot of cortisone but he is concerned about how stressed and tight the tendon is. So if rest and steroids don't help surgery is the only thing that will.

Doesn't it sound like so much fun!!