Post Op

The surgery went very well. Everyone at St. Joe's was amazing. Used a nerve block, actually two, and only needed a little over an hour of the two hour scheduled. Had a decent night's sleep getting up once for a percocet which kept the pain to a dull throb. Home care nurse came just before noon to change the dressing which gave us an opportunity to snap this picture. My son Mike stayed the night and did a great job of looking after me.

SI have an appointment to see the hand surgeon tomorrow.

And finally, a big thank you to Bea for helping me get through the day.

Coping Well

The pain is now under control but I'm still coming to terms with the upcoming amputation. I am able to use my finger at present and it seems odd that, in a week and a half, it won't be there. I mean, it's functional and I look at it and it even looks fine, well, that part not covered by bandages anyway, and I just can't imagine it being gone. And then I was clipping my fingernails the other day and I realized it would be the last time I clip that one. Too weird.

Just some random thoughts on what I'm feeling right now. It'll all be fine I know. If you are interested in seeing the wound, I have posted an image on Flickr. Beware, it's not pretty.

Amputation

Yup, that's right, amputation was the verdict when I saw the hand surgeon today. As soon as he unwrapped my hand he matter-of-factly stated "I can't do anything with that. It [right index finger] will have to be amputated." I asked if he was serious but of course, he was. The bone is open to the air and is surrounded by cartilage and tendons - all the skin is gone. Not a pretty sight believe me. If all goes well over the next two weeks, I am slated for surgery on Tuesday, October 19. Guess I'll have to learn a new method for tripping the shutter on a camera. Shouldn't affect my guitar playing though. As for every day activities, well we'll just have to wait and see.

For now I just have to live with the pain. The doctor used some surgical scissors to remove tissue from the wound today and just now, 6 hours later it is settling down some.

Calcinosis Infection

I know my original intention was to keep this blog positive but lately that has been difficult. And now I have a new problem to report. the basal knuckle of the index finger on my right hand has become infected and it is, to put it lightly, making my life difficult. A week ago today, last Sunday evening, I noticed that the knuckle in question was red and swollen and it was causing me some discomfort. I progressively grew worse such that by Wednesday I could no longer put off a visit to urgent care at a nearby hospital. Over the next three days I was given antibiotics by IV, saw a hand surgeon who switched me over to oral antibiotics and am now receiving daily visits from a nurse who changes the dressing on my now draining, very raw looking and painful knuckle. (Of course getting the IV started was also a major challenge just to add to the discomfort.)

I have calcinosis in said knuckle and apparently some bacteria have made their way into the area through a small opening in the skin caused by the calcinosis which, in turn, caused the infection.

So, there you have it, yet another complication from scleroderma.

Spring Meeting

The London Group of the SSO had their spring meeting this past Saturday.  There were approximately 18 people in attendance including a couple of new members which was encouraging.  

Our speaker was Sally Bell, B SC. Pharm., Rheumatology Pharmacist, St Joseph's Hospital.  Sally gave a very informative talk on the various pharmaceuticals used in the treatment of Raynaud's and GERT, two of the more common manifestations occurring in scleroderma patients.  

I learned a lot but a couple of things stick out in my mind,  both of which might be helpful to readers of this blog so I'll share them.  The first concerns diet which is an important factor in conjunction with medications for controlling reflux.  The fact that surprised me though is that high fibre diets, something we hear about frequently these days, is not always a good idea for scleroderma patients, in fact it can be counter productive.  I did a little research and there is some evidence that a high fibre diet in patients with scleroderma can actually cause severe constipation or bowel obstruction.  So beware.

Another interesting discussion centred around calcinosis.  Someone brought up using salt water to ease the skin  eruptions which can accompany calcinosis and one of our members, Jill,  informed us that this has been very helpful in her case but that one should avoid using table salt containing iodine which can further irritate the area.  Instead, she recommends pickling salt which has no iodine.  She suggested using approximately one tablespoon of pickling salt per gallon of water.  So there you have it.

Our next meeting will be on September  26, 2009 at which time we will be hosting the AGM of the SSO.  Dr. Janet Pope will be our speaker.