On Wednesday 11 of April, was Rachel’s follow-up appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon after her accident a week ago. When the doctor saw the x-ray film of Rachel’s fractured finger & examined her hand movement as she tried to clenched her fist, he strongly recommended that Rachel need to have surgery done on her finger urgently. He says that if we don’t do anything about Rachel’s finger, it will be permanently bend inwards & that she will not be able to grip properly in future.
Although the doctor’s surgery schedule was very full, he was so kind to slot Rachel’s operation as his first case for the following morning at 8.00 am. As Rachel will be under general anesthesia during the operation, she had to fast & be ready at the hospital by 7.30am on Thursday.
All this while, Rachel has been very cool about the whole situation. We are so proud of her bravery & calmness eventhough she was in pain & the prospect of going for surgery. Instead we are the ones who are more worried than her. 
Infact, Rachel says that she was excited about the operation & looking foward to it….that’s what I call “Positive thinking”…..way to go girl!
Here’s a shot of Rachel’s x-ray film of her fractured little finger.
Noticed that her pinky is bend akwardly inwards because of the fracture at the joint.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
There are two options that the surgeon can perform the surgery on Rachel’s finger :
1) He will try to reposition the bend finger by twisting it & hopefully he can straightened it & secured the bones with 2 wires inserted through Rachel’s finger. If that does’nt work then,
2) He will need to cut Rachel’s finger at the side & insert a metal plate to straighten the bones. This option will require another operation later to remove the plate.
Fortunately, the surgeon managed to perform the 1st option as this will not require Rachel to go for another operation. He will just pull out the 2 wires under local anesthesia after the bones have set & heal by itself.
Here is a shot of the x-ray film of Rachel’s finger with the 2 wires inserted into Rachel’s finger & her little finger straightened.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
Rachel’s arm in cast after she was wheeled out of the operating theater.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
Rachel waiting for the nurse to remove the plug from her right hand.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
Another shot of Rachel’s arm in bandage, resting at home after she was discharged in the afternoon.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
This morning, we brought Rachel to the Rehabilitation Centre to have her splint removed & her operation wound checked.
The occupational therapist told us that her wound looks good & he replaced the heavy & bulky splint with a simple support, but cautioned Rachel to be extra careful as there is no protection for the 2 protruding wires which had been cut & shortened during the operation. Her finger with the 2 wires exposed was only covered by a simple bandage & any contact with the wires will cause pain for Rachel. But this is much easier for Rachel as she can exercise her other fingers & her arm also.
Rachel’s new splint as she came out of the treatment room.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
A closer shot of Rachel’s new splint.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
She will need to see the surgeon again next friday for review.
Pray that Rachel will recover soon & that she will be able to make use of her left hand as before.
Read Full Post »
"You'll see that simplifying is not necessarily about getting rid of everything we've worked so hard for. It's about making wise choices among the things we now have to choose from. It's about recognizing that trying to have it all has gotten in the way of enjoying the things that truly do add to our happiness and well-being. So it's about deciding what's important to us, and gracefully letting go of the things that are'nt."
