I got out of bed at around 6am, although I had been awake for quite a while beforehand. I got my stuff together and my partner drove me to the hospital, I was glad it was an early start as I had no time to get even more nervous. We arrived at around 7am and was shown to the room by someone at the reception desk. I should point out for comparison’s sake that I went to a private hospital, so if you’re in the UK and are going to an NHS hospital please bear this in mind.
Pre-Operation
When in the room I was inducted by a nurse, there were loads of questions about my general health, I was weighed, given a wristband and had my blood pressure taken. She then left us in the room for a little while before the surgeon and the anaesthetist did their rounds. I think this was the point where I was most nervous during the whole procedure, I couldn’t settle at all. To pass the time a little I got changed into my lovely gown and we made our selections from the lunch menu.
8.20am: I spoke to anaesthetist who explained what would happen and what pain relief I would get during and after the operation. He explained about anaesthetic side effects like sickness and stomach upset and said that most people when travelling home on the same day as an anaesthetic get very travel sick in the car. He advised me to take my usual morning MST tablet as this was my normal medication and explained this would also help with the post-operative pain.
8.50am: The surgeon came to see me, marked my arm with a thick black pen and checked with me the procedure he was going to carry out. He also answered a few of my remaining questions and explained the ulnar nerve is very temperamental and to expect some numbness afterwards that would hopefully disappear in the long term. He said I was third on his operating list. Talking with him made me feel less nervous and I relaxed a little thinking no need to worry until at least 10am if I was third on his list. I took this opportunity to go and sit on the toilet for a while and hurrah! Finally I went, I was so pleased as I really didn’t want to wake up desperate for the toilet!
9.35am: A nurse came and told me they were ready for me in theatre…. Much earlier than I thought!! The nurse walked me down, at least there was no time to get worked up as I had been taken by surprise. Another nurse checked my details again to make sure I was the right person having the right operation, which was strangely comforting. I was told then to lay on a trolley and was covered with a blanket. This room was really cold, so much so that I started shaking even with the blanket over me.
The anaesthetist then arrived and checked my blood pressure, sprayed solution all over my hand and put a cannula in my right hand (there was surprisingly little pain, no more than when I had one in the middle of my arm).
The nurse put on ECG pads on my neck and chest and taped them down, explaining that they need to do this because of the range of motion required during the operation. They then Injected through cannula (no needle) a liquid that he said would make me dizzy, which had no effect. He then injected the anaesthetic and gave me an oxygen mask and told me to take three deep breaths, I counted to seven breathes and that was last thing I remember. He said I would feel a painful tingle but all I got was a little bad taste at the back of my mouth, no pain and no discomfort. I can’t remember any sensation of falling asleep at all.
Post-Operation
I woke up in the recovery room, it seemed like no time had passed at all. The nurse offered me a sip of water and said ‘lets get you back to your room’ and with that the bed started moving to take me back to the room. I didn’t seem to be in recovery long but must have been there for approx 30 minutes before waking up after working out the timings. The first thing I thought when I cam back to my senses was to check I could still move fingers, which I could a small amount, great! There was no real pain at this point, just a heavy dull ache (4/10 on the pain scale). When back in the room I had to slide back onto bed in room with good arm, the operated arm was put on a pillow next to me. I have no real memory of the journey from the recovery room to the room in the ward, which is strange. The bandaging was not too large (see photo), but I was shaking a little for first few minutes in the room, but this soon went as I settled on the bed. I noticed on the clock that it was now 11.00am.
Five minutes after settling in the room the pain around my elbow/forearm started to rise quite quickly (7-8/10). I rang for the nurse and told her and was given 10ml Oramorph solution which soon took it back down to a reasonable level (4/10), just mild discomfort again within 2 minutes.
I now started to check out the feeling in my hand, the little finger and ring finger and half of my palm were completely numb, no sensation at all. The middle finger had 50% sensation and the thumb and other finger 100% sensation. There was a lot of yellow liquid stain over my hand and the top of my arm which I presumed to be the iodine. I also had small scratch like cuts between fingers 1, 2 and 3 which I couldn’t work out at all. No pins and needles in my hand at all, just numbness.
I felt I came out of the anaesthetic very quickly, no sickness, no drowsiness, normal conversations, clear thoughts and can remember everything perfectly from being brought back into the room. I had been warned that some people take a long time to come out of an anaesthetic, so I was very pleased with feeling bright straight away. The nurse took my blood pressure and heart rate every 30 minutes or so for first 2 hours in the room. I had bottle of water that I sipped slowly as I had a very sore throat, painful to swallow.
12.30: I ate some lunch, some melon slices and approx 60% of a jacket potato and beans with a glass of orange juice, very nice. I was feeling no real discomfort or sickness, but my arm looked swollen to almost double normal size, but a lot of that could be bandaging.
2.30pm: The cannula in my right hand was starting to become annoyingly uncomfortable and at this point I wanted it to be taken out.
3.00pm: I asked the nurse if the surgeon will be coming round to speak to me or if I could get ready and go home. She explained he was still in theatre and would be for a few more hours but she would ring and find out if I could go home. She returned a few minutes later and said that if I had eaten and been to the toilet I could go home. She advised that I should keep my arm elevated when possible and that the outer bandaging could be removed after 48 hours. Underneath I have a waterproof dressing that I could remove after 7 days. She said that they had used dissolvable sutures and would need to see the surgeon again in 6 weeks.
3.30pm: The nurse removed the cannula from my hand which I think was the single worst pain of the day so far! But at least it was short. I took 5ml of my Oramorph solution in preparation of a painful ride home. It was a long walk to the car (I should have had it driven round to meet me at the exit but didn’t think). I had to keep the arm elevated, as there was much more pain if I let it drop below heart. I had prepared with two pillows in the car which I used to rest my arm on my knee which worked well, I also took my sick bucket from the hospital room. Even driving very slowly, every bump in the road was quite painful, although I could lift my arm if I knew a bump was coming! I experienced no sickness in the car at all which I was very pleased about! It seemed a long time to get home due to bumps, I was very glad I had taken the pillows.
At Home
I got home and went straight to bed. I raised my arm next to me on two pillows, took 400mg ibuprofen for the swelling and laid for about an hour. The pain was still 4/10, really not bad at all, much better than I had expected or even hoped.
5.00pm: I suddenly became very hungry and ate a good dinner and drank a lot of fluid, my throat was still quite sore, so it would have been a good idea to have throat sweets/strepsils ready. I moved my fingers carefully every 30 minutes or so just to keep making sure that I could!!
8.00pm: Very strong pins and needles in the numb part of my hand turned into strong burning sensation, pain level 6/10. It turned out to be the feeling returning in my hand and fingers and by 9.00pm approx 90% of feeling had returned. I was ecstatic about this as I was beginning to worry it could be permanent. I had random twitches and spasms in my fingers every few minutes, not painful, I just assumed it must be the nerve settling in to its new home.
End Of The Day
I was extremely happy with the level of pain, feeling almost euphoric that the journey had started and it had been nowhere near as bad as I had imagined – possibly due to the huge amounts of pain I had been in for months beforehand. No pain today had been worse than on a bad day pre-operation.
I took my 30mg MST tablet and settled down, I got approx 2 hours sleep as there was no way of getting my arm comfy enough to sleep soundly. I tried for 6 hours in different positions and eventually dozed for a while.
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