Day 1 Post-Op (Sun 7th March)

I woke up at approx 4.30am with strong stiffness in my fingers, pain was a marked increase on the night before (7/10) and had to wait until 7.30am for more painkillers. I took my MST as soon as I could which eased it to around 5/10, which was still more than the low point yesterday.

8.00am: Went to toilet, which was actually a tricky operation! I still had to keep my arm up high most of the time to keep the pain down and I took a pillow so that I could sit on the toilet and rest my arm on the pillow on my knee – it worked well! I left a pillow in the toilet for ease in future, which is probably not the most hygienic of things, but it saved time. Before the operation I had broken toilet paper up into piles of 2 sheets which was also very helpful! I got back into bed and with this exertion the pain was back up to 7/10.

I stayed in bed in the morning working on gently moving my fingers, it did become easier again with a little more range than night before. I felt quite down about the pain level after feeling so good the night before – reality was beginning to setting in and I’d lost some of the optimism. I took 5ml oramorph and 400mg ibuprofen and the pain settled to 5/10. I dozed a little, then the phone rang, instinctively I rolled over to answer it and reached with my left arm…. REAL PAIN, the first bad pain I had experienced, really made the eyes water!!! Won’t be making that mistake again!!

I had some visitors came at 2pm, which was nice, I got up and dressed (with some help), went downstairs and sat with them for an hour. I had a pillow on my knee to rest my arm and I felt a little better than in the morning. No real bruising is showing yet, there is a small line of marks around my bicep, possibly from a tourniquet – it’s a very uniform line. I can almost make a fist with my hand now, I’m not forcing it, just gently trying to increase movement.

3.30pm – 9.00pm: Worst pain so far, I got back in bed and was uncomfortable, pain was at 8/10. I had twitches and cramps in fingers, spasms in bicep muscle and forearm muscle and all over my arm. I took 5ml oramorph which only took the edge off it. I really struggled to eat tea with my ‘good’ arm also really playing up with spasms and elbow/hand pain just so it didn’t feel left out. My left shoulder is also now in pain from taking the weight of the arm all the time and holding it in a raised position while moving about.

9.30pm: I took my MST and tried to sleep, again no way to get comfy, last night’s final position was not working this time. The cat was also playing silly buggers and waking me when I did doze, which made me jump and judder arm – ouch! I also had some nightmares (recurrent problem with the morphine).