EPTtl;dr
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I got my forearm stepped on by a skate during a hockey game. I was rushed to the hospital where, after a few tests, the doc stitched me up and sent me home.
The next 4 days were pretty uneventful; I would just lay around the house, mostly watching tv because I couldnt use my left hand. The day after I got back from the hospital I learned that some of the tendons in my wrist/forearm had been severed, and I would need surgery to have them reattached. I dont honestly remember a whole lot about this time, except that the pain wasnt too bad, they had given me some pain pills at the hospital(I think they said oxycotton on the bottle, but the doctors kept refering to them as percocet). I had gotten cut on a friday night and my surgery wasnt scheduled until wednesday...this was before the popularity of livestream, so I got pretty bored.
I can remember the morning of surgery quite clearly, it was dull and overcast, or maybe it's always like that at 6am, I dont know. The surgery was scheduled for 8am, I had to be there an hour early, no food or drink for the last 12hours, usual stuff. So I got there, got a curtained off bed, changed into that silly hospital robe thing, laid in bed and waited. It wasnt long before a nurse came along, and pushed me and my bed down those long plain hospital hallways. Needless to say I was pretty nervous, I know there was really no reason to be, I was in capable hands and all that, but I was still a bit scared, I think most people would be. I was wheeled through a set of double doors and into a spacious room that I could only describe as; clean. It was undoubtably the operating room, it was also quite intimidating. My bed was wheeled beside a smooth flat surface that had some curtains suspended over it, when the time came my arm would be laid out there, the curtains lowered and the doc would get to work. The anesthetic team came in and hooked me up to another IV type thing, I cant say for sure what it was supposed to do, if anything, after it knocked me out. They asked one of the 'higher ranking' doctor types, that were now rushing in and out of the room regularily, if it was time. It turns out it was time because they said good night, one of them actually said something along the lines of 'dream about hawaii', I woulda said something smart back to him, but I never got the chance.
I woke up in the recovery room, then fell back asleep. Then I woke up again...and fell back asleep. I did that a few times before I realized how badly my arm hurt. I guess I was groaning or something because a nurse suddenly appeared beside me with a small cup of water and some T3's. I took two and promptly fell back asleep. I woke up what felt like hours later(turns out it was only about 5min) and my arm was still aching terribly. Another nurse appeared at my side with another cup of water and 2 perc's. I took them without hesitation, anything to escape this agony. After I had been awake about 10 straight minutes the nurses decided I was well enough, so they wheeled me, still in my bed, back to the O.R. Prep room(I duno what you call it) where I had begun my adventure at the hospital this morning. I got dressed, with much assistance, and walked drunkenly around for a few seconds to prove that I could, and let the nurses see I was ok to go home. They agreed I was ready to leave, so I fell into the wheelchair they provided, got pushed to the hospital entrance and tumbled into my parents car for the journey home.
From the surgery we learned that I had severed 8 tendons in my wrist(2 for each my pinky, ring and middle finger, plus two major wrist tendons), the ulnar nerve, one artery(there are two in the forearm), while the other artery had a small cut in it and tons of flesh and muscle. The skate had cut all the way down to the bone of my ulna and there was a small scratch on the bone.
I cant say that I recall anything of the next three weeks of my life other than faint emotions; annoyance at dropping the remote or frustration of being so incapable, Im kinda glad I dont remember much of it. During my 4 day wait for surgery the tendons in my arm had had retreated further up my arm, and they had to be stretched exremely hard just to be reattached. Tendons are very much like rubber bands. If you were to cut that rubber band and make it into a 'rubber string' and stretch it hard, you could image that at one end is your wrist, and the other your elbow. Now if that elastic were to get cut, it would snap and revert to a loose state, retreating into your 'wrist' and your 'elbow'. My tendons had done exactly that and now they had just been stretched, and sewn back together, it was immensly painful. To live with the pain, I was taking a perc about every 1hour 30min. I couldnt last longer than that, and its so hard to even try when you know releif is only a gulp of water away. At the max I was taking about 16 pills a day. I would wake up every 2hours or less during the night, feeling like I had slept for days, pop a pill and fall right back to sleep. I had no idea what I ate, how I ate or what I had just watched an hour ago on tv. I would make a mental note as to when I took the last pill, and I would really focus on it, but ten minutes later I would have no idea how long ago it was since I last took a pill. It wasnt a fun time.
After three weeks of missed school, I was doing much better and we decided it was time for me to rejoin my college classmates. At the time my arm was immobilized in a massive cast and I hadnt moved my elbow, wrist, or fingers for the entire three weeks. I became somewhat of a minor celebrity, everyone knew who I was anyway, and I did my best to catch up on what I had missed. I talked to the head course instructor guy and he was nice enough to let me drop three of my six courses without penalty, so I could have a smaller work load, and catch up on the dropped classes during the summer term. I was going to therapy twice a week(tues & fri), but I couldnt drive anywhere myself, thank you family.
On the fourth week since surgery I got the cast taken off my arm, and for the first time I saw the damage:
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![[image loading]](http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6360/1102091125.jpg)
I was, to say the least, thoroughly freaked out. That was my arm...my arm. Jesus.. Then the doctor that had operated on it came in and started telling me and my parents about what to expect in terms of recovery, and how I would never have proper feeling in it again, never have full movement again, never have the same strength or dexterity. I got really freaked out then. But life goes on.
Over the next few months I went through a variey of different casts, designed to pull my wrist back, because I couldnt do it on my own, and to strengthen my fingers. Moving my fingers in the early stages was one of the most unpleasant things imaginable. The best way I could desribe it is; like rusty cables acting as tendons. Surrounding the initial wound there was a massive clump of scar tissue, naturally the body senses a cut so it sends 'scar cells' to the rescue. What they do is basically glob everything together in the effected area, eventually stopping the bleeding, but now it was causing problems. There is nothing in the body that breaks down these cells, or tells them their job is finished: that means my tendons were being globbed together with my skin, and my veins and all the sort of other nice internal things. So, to begin with I could only move my wrist about an inch in either direction, because the tendons were stuck to the wad of scar tissue around where the wound was. Wiggling my fingers was both difficult and painful, again pulling them through the scar tissue. I could actually feel the tendons sliding through my hand as I stretched out my fingers, like rusty cables. After much time and effort I was able to slowly move my wrist further in both directions, until finally, only a few months ago, I could stretch my wrist as far as I wanted, and I couldnt feel it pulling at the scar wad in my wrist.
Okay...to wrap up.... They plugged the severed artery so it wouldnt receive blood, and, either Im crazy or, new veins seem to have surfaced in my wrist around the failed artery, yeah Im crazy. The biggest issue now is my ulnar nerve, which was severed where the skate blade entered(obviously), its still growing back. They said since Im younger than 21 theres a good chance it will grow back on its own, and I wont need surgery to repair it. At this point, there is some feeling returning to my damaged fingers, and I dont think I'll get surgery even if the nerve doesnt come back fully.
![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Gray812and814.PNG)
(The light blue on the pinky an 1/2 of the ring fingers are what I'm refering to, and what I used to not be able to feel at all. As I said sensation is slowly returning.
)I'm playing hockey again this year with only minor difficulty handling a stick. The most difficult and annoying thing I find about my 'dead fingers' is building pylons. I can hardly split my fingers(think vulcan greeting, I cant even get close to doing it) and those two fingers are really just along for the ride with the rest of my hand. So I cant build pylons easily, I have to hit 'b' with my middle finger then jump over to hit 'p' with my index, its really a hit or miss option. Good thing I dont play toss. Although I have to actually take my hand off the mouse to hotkey scanners as 9 and 0.
Nowadays my arm looks like this :
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![[image loading]](http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/9897/1511091539.jpg)
--Well thanks for reading, if you have any questions feel free to ask. =)
Q: Is feeling still coming back to your fingers?
A: Yes, I think so. The nerve has to grow about a foot, from the cut to the tip of my finger and they said it wont grow at all for the first month(due to trama) and then it'll grow about an inch a month after that. So It'll be about 13 months from the time I got cut until they nerve should be regrown. It was very easy to notice growth a few months ago but lately I cant say definitively that I'm getting noticable sensation back, but there's nothing I can really do but wait. I'm satisfied with the level of sensation I have right now, of course more would be better, but I'd be alright with what I have right now.
Q: How long til I could masterbait left handed?
A: I havn't invested much effort into finding this out, but I would say...I dont think I could do the whole job goin lefty even now. Also the two bad fingers (pinky and ring) unconsiously curl, so I would end up scratching myself inadvertently...lol.
Q: How much mobility can you expect to get back?
A: At this point I think I've gotten back most of what I'm going to. The gripping movement is completely normal, the two fingers are always in unison though. The vulcan hand sign thing, and spreading the fingers is really pathetic, I can get about an inch of seperation between each finger at the fingertip. My thumb is as good as ever though!!
Q: Can they remove the scar tissue if it doesnt loosen?
A: Yes they can. Its really not an issue anymore because the scar tissue doesnt noticably impede any movements. They couldnt do this early in my recovery because, how they would do it is to use some kind of sonic pulsations, I dont remember exactly, that would break up the scar tissue, but they couldnt use it at the time because it might have ruptured the tendons(well the sutures holding the tendons together), and I woulda gone back to square one.
