they gave me percocet, which worked wonders.

a little over a week ago i had surgery on my thumb again. this time it was to remove the screws and plate i had put in two years ago. i went back to my hand surgeon at the beginning of the summer to see if there was anything we could do about the pain. my thumb hurts when i do anything for too long to try to lift too much. he said the only real solution would be to take the hardware out, though there's no guarantee it will take the pain away. the pain could just be due to the severity of my fracture, or it could be due to the tendons scraping against the ends of the screws when i use it. there's no way to know. basically, my doctor said it was my choice - was the pain bad enough that it would be worth it to get surgery again? i decided that it was. even though there's no guarantee the pain will go away, the possibility of it getting better was enough for me to say yes. and this is the best time to do it since i don't have a job or any real responsibilities this summer.

so i had the surgery last monday. i get the stitches out on thursday. the pain was pretty bad for the first few days. i'm pretty sure that was the first thing out of my mouth to the nurse upon waking up from the anesthetic - "my hand hurts!" though, i can't be certain, since those first ten minutes after waking up are kind of fuzzy in my mind. they practically tried to force the pain meds down my throat. i agreed to take them, only because it was hurting really bad - much worse than i remember it hurting the first time. last time i don't remember it hurting at all the first day - probably because they loaded me with pain drugs before i woke up. so anyway, i've been taking the drugs a lot this time, though they don't seem to be working all that well. when i left the hospital, they gave me percocet, which worked wonders. unfortunately, my doctor prescribed me darvocet which barely helps at all, and it makes me extremely irritable, which i hate. at least i'm to the point now where it's not in a ton of pain so i don't really need the meds.

and let me just say, i forgot how completely inconvenient it is to have only one working hand - the non-dominant one at that. the first few days i couldn't use my hand hardly at all. pretty much any movement hurt. at least now i can use it a little bit more, though i'm not supposed to lift more than two pounds.

right now my biggest annoyance is the bandage. you know when you have your hair in a tight ponytail all day and then you let it down and it hurts? like it doesn't want to go back to it's normal position? well as the bandage loosens on my hand as i'm using it more, the hair on my arm is starting to move. it was smashed down at all sorts of weird angles, and now it hurts. such a random thought, i know.

as much as i can't wait to get this bandage off, i am really not looking forward to getting the stitches out. it's such an awkward, uncomfortable feeling...pulling. ick.