Omg that surgery day night 👀👀👀👀🥺🥺🥺🥺 why did the block have to wear off at 11pm and not the 8am the Anesthesiologist had hoped for.?? This obviously gave me a terrible night, thank goodness I had cat napped on the sofa previously. I had taken 1 tramadol and 0.1ml of thc/cbd combi oil. But these did nothing by 1am, the hot crushing pain was ridiculous, so I had to take the morphine I’ve been prescribed. I can fully move my fingers at 1am, though feel tingly too.

DAY ONE I ended up taking 1x 10mg morphine at 1.30am and 1x tramadol 50mg at 5am and 8am back to 1x 10mg morphine, to get ahead of pain, and stave it off. Always hard on the first day to get it right and fast enough, once I’m in a good comfortable enough routine, it will be easier. I don’t expect to feel no pain at all, just would like more manageable pain. My days plan is to ice, elevate,and watch trash TV, and cat nap where possible. The day went reasonable in naps and spreading meds out, ice helped a lot. Don’t discount paracetamol, they can get you a bit further with time. Just hoping tonight goes better. YouTube video of me straightening my fingers, they feel so stiff, so good to try and move them. If my pain doesn’t at least settle tonight, at least I’ve slept most the afternoon away, and I’ve eaten well too. Mostly felt like a high crushing sensation pain.

DAY TWO I actually slept last night, and though I’ve wiggled fingers, elevated and iced continuosly my fingers have swelled up 🤦🏻‍♀️ so today is chasing that down. Pain wise I’m in a much better position than yesterday. That could be from sleeping really well. I had my morphine at 10pm and that kept me going until 4am for tramadol.

The thumb area feels very swollen and crushing at times, so I’m being very careful with the ice and elevation, making it higher than before to ensure its above my heart. YouTube video of my swelling and movement. My armpit is feeling less tender today and the area where the tourniquet was. My biggest pain is the thumb itself a hot burning pain. With a touch of inner wrist sharp pains. Learning to eat left handed has been easier than I thought. Night time is definitely worse for pain, even with morphine. Thumb area is tight tight tight.

DAY THREE What a terrible night again, just couldn’t stay asleep. Needed meds earlier throughout the night too. Hopefully I can cat nap during the day like I did on Wednesday. Just pure throbbing pain all night!!😭😭😭😭 Yesterday I noticed my left hand where the cannula was put in, has a superficial thrombophlebitis, a hardened raised vein. It’s where it’s clotted and had trauma. It’s been super painful to the touch, and given the ‘good’ hand a general ache. I’ll have to keep an eye on it, and maybe mention it at the 2 week appointment.

Today’s the day I’m noticing pains elsewhere, like my shoulder (probably from the weight of the bandage) or from the nerve block. So my plan of action is just rest and distract myself as much as possible. Remind myself it’s a necessary evil to go through for a good result afterwards. My blog post from last year’s CMC joint fusion I like to reread what I felt like last time to compare it, this helps me mentally. As it seems I was feeling similar pains then too. YouTube short of finger flexion exercises Stinging style pains are here, the thumb is waking up. Wrist pain too from heavy bandage.

I’ll post again at 1 week post op.