Day 3 Post-Op (Tue 9th March)

I woke up at 1.00am, a whole 90 minutes of sleep, wonderful!! I decided at this point if I get the chance pain free to sleep during the day today that I would take it, and probably should have just done that sooner. Also after researching the internet decided I would step up the range of motion exercises today. As we didn’t get chance to speak to my surgeon post op I had no advice on what to do. I decided to ring later in the day to check with him this is ok to do.

I spoke to surgeon’s secretary in the morning and she said the op went perfectly and there were no notes about what not to do so I could just get on with life as best I could. The exercises I found on the internet were 4 different ones ten times each 8 times a day, I managed 6 sets today and will aim for 8 sets tomorrow. Links to the exercise images are here:



The blog I found these on is here: http://quitelucid.blogspot.com/2006/04/cubital-tunnel-syndrome-part-four-post.html

I hope the owner of the blog doesn’t mind me re-posting these images (and if he does I will of course remove them), I found his blog very useful before my operation and was one of the reasons I also decided to create mine. I would definitely recommend it for a good read of his experiences.

The two sides of my ring finger and little finger went numb after the first set, but it slowly came back a few minutes later, I think this must have been the first time the nerve had been moved since the operation. Pins and needles increase and so does twitching after each set, so I kept it raised and still for 30 minutes or so afterwards.

I slept a couple of hours in the morning, and a little snooze in the afternoon which was excellent. Pain is noticeably lower today, achey and weakness would be the best way to describe it (3/10) more annoying than painful.

I was up and about more today, I helped cook a meal and made a coffee myself, although my right arm continues to deteriorate and is now more painful than the operated arm! Only one oramorph taken today to hopefully make me sleep at night, I took a few ibuprofen and my MST during the day. Overall I would say a very positive day with less pain and noticeably less twitching and spasming, but possibly an increase in aching probably due to my arm being tired of being held strangely. I look forward to being able to just let my arm hang again and just relax it.

I received an email from my surgeon’s secretary late evening saying:

Hi Andrew

The answers to your questions are:

1. No, you have no need to elevate your arm now.
2. Use your arm for all normal activities
3. Pain control as necessary
4. Will see you for follow-up in April

Hope this helps.

Sue

Excellent news for me, I will try and step up the use of it tomorrow. I do wonder why other people are put in a cast or brace and told not use the arm/hand for up to two/three weeks etc. My incision seems to be a lot smaller than photos of other people’s I have seen on the internet as well.