In the past year and a half, I\u2019ve undergone hip replacement surgery on my right side and rotator cuff (shoulder) surgery on my left side. I\u2019m hoping to schedule a third orthopedic procedure in mid-April. After no such procedures ever, my body seems to be falling apart all over, all at once. One of the disadvantages of not dying young, I suppose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of arthritis, I\u2019m scheduled for a ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition on my right thumb. The surgery consists of removing the trapezium bone on the affected side and replacing it with a \u201cunused\u201d tendon from my wrist. This has a very high rate of success and is usually good for 10 to 15 years. Since I\u2019m 78 years old now, there\u2019s a good chance that 10 to 15 years will be \u201cenough.\u201d Don\u2019t know for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve put this operation off for a while. I\u2019ve tried medication and steroidal injections. To no avail. It\u2019s now very painful to even sign my name, and many things I used to do (snapping my fingers, opening jars that aren\u2019t really simple, unlocking some doors with a key) are now beyond my abilities. There is one key I need to use to gain access to a private mailbox company after hours. I need to take along pliers to turn the key because I can\u2019t generate enough torque without the extra leverage. I hope I\u2019m not observed by a policeman who concludes that gaining access to a building with pliers after dark is a suspicious activity. I can probably explain things satisfactorily, but you never know. If he thinks that my pliers look like a gun — anything could happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem with the surgery is that it includes a fairly long recovery period. I will need to wear three different types of cast\/brace\/splint for two weeks each after the surgery. I\u2019ll have some physical therapy somewhere along the way. Since this is my dominant hand, this will interfere with such things as eating, dressing, showering, and other bathroom activities. I haven\u2019t tried brushing my teeth left-handed before. We\u2019ll see. Fortunately, I don\u2019t live alone, and Bonnie is willing to help me if I need it. She was a nurse for 40 years and the things I\u2019ll need shouldn\u2019t be all that strange to her. The doctor doesn\u2019t want me driving — but I\u2019m probably not going to obey that suggestion. I have practiced driving left-handed and believe I can do so safely. I will probably text less than I do now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How this affects my gambling activities remains to be seen. Fortunately, I\u2019m in a position to shut things down gambling-wise for a few months if I need to. I\u2019m going to try to have a backlog of these weekly blogs already prepared before I undergo the procedure, but I may need to shut this blog down while I recover. Even though I use my thumb when I use a keyboard, I think I can temporarily revert to a fingers-only technique should I need to. It\u2019ll take longer, but I should still be able to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll miss at least one of my monthly improvisational showcases. Not that I\u2019ll necessarily need to — I can still perform most of the skits wearing a brace — but the leader of my group restricts cast members with \u201cdevices\u201d (walkers, slings, splints, crutches, etc.) from performing. I\u2019m scheduling my surgery for April 23 because there\u2019s a monthly showcase on April 19 and that should allow me to only miss the May showcase and be back for June. (www.lvimprov.com<\/a>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bonnie thinks this arthritis is a sort of carpal tunnel problem due to so many years of gambling activities. Although carpal tunnel is a wrist ailment and my thumb is a nearby-yet-different part of the body, I\u2019m skeptical that this disease is due to repetitive use of my thumb. I don\u2019t use my thumb much when I play, and I have a family history of arthritis. But wherever it came from, it hurts a lot and I\u2019m going to get it taken care of — I hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the past year and a half, I\u2019ve undergone hip replacement surgery on my right side and rotator cuff (shoulder) surgery on my left side. I\u2019m hoping to schedule a third orthopedic procedure in mid-April. After no such procedures ever, my body seems to be falling apart all over, all at once. One of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,557],"tags":[561],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879675,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879674\/revisions\/879675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}