When you spend two nights away with your wife alone in a hotel, and the most pleasing moment you have is eleven at night...all by yourself in the hotel hot tub with some latex tubing, a broom handle, and a barbell...well you are either 1) getting old, 2) really weird, or 3) have a problem.
Guess I better explain that one! No, I am not that old! I don't think I'm weird. But I must admit, I do have a problem.
It's been a while since I have given you the hand update and medical report, so here goes. I am still in therapy, and doctor is keeping his fingers crossed that there is no more surgery. Movement is coming back steadily, albeit very slowly and still quite painfully. I am typing this with two hands and that is the good news. Bad news is I still can't turn the hand over palm up, I can't use the mouse right handed, or lift anything very heavy at all. Pain is mostly a constant thing. For 6 weeks I have gone to therapy 3 days a week and have an every day regime of 20 exercises, 30 reps each, minimum 3 times each day. For you mathematically challenged, that is 1800 repetitions a day...with all kinds of gizmos, including a shovel handle, barbells, therabands, rubber bands, a hammer, putty and several squeeze contraptions. Our coffee table looks like a hardware store. Friday was also a "stretch day", which means the therapist inflicts additional pain by yanking it in all directions. By the time we got to East Lansing it was a major case of the hurts really bad.
Which brings me to the hot tub. The only thing that gives me any real relief from the pain is heat. My therapist has this big crock-pot full of hot melted paraffin that I stick my hand in before my exercises and it feels oh so good. The hotel didn't have that but they did have a steaming hot tub. So Friday night and again Saturday morning and night, I dragged all my contraptions through the lobby, crawled in the hot tub with them, and did my exercises as the hand soaked in the heat. It was pure ecstasy!
It also elicited a very strange look from the manager, who chased me out when he came in to lock the place down at 11:00 PM. What the heck, it was well worth it.