OrthoNeuro ... You May Feel a Little Prick ... OUCH!

I was up and downstairs by 543am. I failed to prep coffee the night before so I had to take care of that before digging in to exercise. I glanced out back seeing a clear sky. Sit-ups and push-ups were tough but I managed to finish them.

I was looking forward to coffee and internet. I sat at the PC near 555am and spent about 20-25 minutes playing around. Did a good meditation and stretch ahead of a run. Left for a run around 635am. I ran 4.1 miles. It was cool enough that I wore a long-sleeved wicking shirt. It was only about 53 degrees. The cool air felt great. For the record, it was forecasted to reach only into the upper 70’s – a real nice late spring day.

Back from my run near 720am I got started on my breakfast and lunch. For some reason, I was feeling a little down about work. I wasn’t looking forward to the day ahead. I was a little nervous about my orthopedic appointment too. I made a three egg cheese omelet setting aside a portion for Mindy and a portion for Eiknarf.

I was off to the shower at 745am. At her request, I took Mindy some coffee. I let Mindy know that I didn’t have time to walk Eiknarf since I needed to leave the house near 745am. She understood. She was up by the time I was out of the shower and ready to leave. Her friend Teri was expected to visit sometime that morning. I left the house around 745am taking 270 north all the way around to the Cleveland Ave exit. I arrived at the OrthoNeuro practice at 810am.

We took care of the necessary paperwork and then they called me back right away. Dr Kerr cam in the exam room around 830am. With very little dialogue he seemed to know what the problem was even without an in depth exam of my finger/knuckle. He did, however, eventually take the time to examine my hand, finger and knuckle. In his opinion I had what’s commonly called trigger finger, an injury typically brought on without provocation. Said it’s so common that he’d already diagnosed tow other cases that morning and it wasn’t even 9am.

He quickly talked about why it hurts, where it hurts, and the possible options for treatment which included doing nothing, taking cortisone pills, having a cortisone shot, or having hand surgery. Before making a decision, however, he wanted an X-ray. That took all of about 10 minutes. He returned after the X-ray and shared that it looked normal as expected. He reminded me that he’s a surgeon and that while he makes his money doing surgeries, his recommendation was the cortisone shot. Felt that would likely take care of my issue. But he was quick to share that it would hurt. To be exact, he said that I would hate him for a few seconds until the numbing meds in the first injection kicked in.

The shot works as such: they inject cortisone into the sheath that the tendon slides through, which is the thing that is actually swollen thus preventing the tendon from gliding through with ease. He asked me to lie back and relax my hand and once again reminded me that it would hurt but to be patient. Yes, I was nervous and couldn’t fully relax. As soon as he poked me I flinched and he pulled back. He looked at me somewhat irritated and said I stabbed myself. Said we’d try again. Told me I can’t move my hand at all. Uhh, not sure how that’s going to happen. We tried again, this time getting a little further, but it hurt like hell and I flinched again. He said, “you can’t do that!” I responded curtly, “then I can’t do it.” He was OK with that, but was quick to say that I was the first patient in 30 years that couldn’t take the shot. Without giving it much though I opted for the cortisone prescription instead. They called it in to the Mill Run Target while I was there.

Off to New Albany for my work day. Not that far removed from the customer’s campus, I was there by 915am, not much later than had I come straight from home any other Wednesday. It was a tough day. To start, somebody else was in my office so they relocated me to an abandoned cubical for which I didn’t complain, but the accommodations were scant and the station filthy. Not wanting to be a pain, I simply made do. Come 11am I conducted the monthly presentation to the leadership team. That went well and left my spirits higher than they were earlier.

I opted to stay busy and not leave for a lunch. During the afternoon I had a run-in with another employee at my own company. I couldn’t understand why he was putting up so much resistance. Believe me, it was all I could do to keep my composure. I simply bit my tongue and worked through the endless hurdles he placed in the way of success. In retrospect, I am proud of the way I handled it, especially given the mood I was in that day.

The end of the work day couldn’t come soon enough. Come 510pm I left for home. Originally, I thought I would be stopping at the Mill run Target to pick-up the cortisone prescription, but after some internet research I opted not, at least not until I talked with b-in-law Craig. Cortisone is a steroid, and can cause a number of scary complications. Furthermore, taking it orally is like shooting ant with the spray of a machine gun. I shared as much with Mindy on my drive home conversation. My dad was having dinner with us and arrived while I was talking with Mindy. I let her go so she could entertain dad and finish cooking her special chicken & pasta dish. She asked that I call back once I was near Tuttle so she could cook the pasta.

As usual, traffic got heavy once south of 161. I waited to make the call until I got to Cemetery Rd. Arrived home just before 6pm. Dad asked that I remember to give him his battery charger before he left later. I did better than that and ran it out to his minivan even before we ate.

During dinner I shared the experience I had at the orthopedic appointment, making light of my inability to take the cortisone shot. Dad shared that he’s had the same shot in the same finger about five times. I got the impression his hurt him so bad that he welcomed the short term pain for the long term relief. Perhaps.

After clean-up, Mindy ran Bella to gymnastics and also planned a stop at Bath & Body to pick-up a few things at their semi-annual sale. Dad and I chatted for another 20 minutes or so. I’m thinking it was near 730pm when he departed for home with a container full of his dinner leftovers. We didn’t talk about Father’s Day plans but we plan to hook-up with him again that day.

After dad left I changed into comfy flannel shorts and t-shirt then headed out to water the front flowers. Mindy took care of all the others earlier. Watering was like therapy, something to be enjoyed. Mindy got home while I was still watering. She helped out by watering those pots on the front stoop after I passed the hose under the weeping mulberry tree.

After finishing the watering I headed inside to read for the comfy family room chair. Oh, that felt nice! So nice, in fact, that I read about 2 pages then fell asleep. That was it. I had nothing left. I was out for the night. I woke around 9pm and bounced to the floor. I woke again around 11pm and moved to the sofa after thinking I would head up to bed. I was just too tired to move. I woke again around 1am stiff from sleeping on the sofa and finally headed up to bed. I was long over due for a good night’s sleep.