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Carpal Tunnel surgery recovering a lot longer than I thought.

NickD on Wed June 02, 2010 7:13 AM User is offline

Understood it was six weeks, more like six months, that tendon where your thumb muscle is connected to is severed so it has nothing to pull against. Can't even clip my finger nails on my left hand, even open a small alligator clip, opening a tight jar lid is out of the question.

Had an allergic reaction to the arm block, entire arm was dead for weeks, but starting to come back to life with a lot of pain. My right hand is still very numb and instead of just three fingers, all the fingers are numb. Told that nerve has to regrow at a rate of one inch per month, and since it over six inches, will take at least six months before I get feeling back. Can still move my fingers and thumb, but extremely weak. Before surgery, had a bone crunching grip, now my hand is like a dead fish just hanging there.

Couldn't help my daughter move back, wife tried to carry her 70# TV set and darn near dropped it, quickly reached down to catch it, oh did that hurt, base of my hand is all swelled up now. Saw my doctor yesterday, said don't do that. It's going to take a lot of patience for me to recover, and just hope I do. But going through a phase of depression now, feel helpless. Cycling and kayaking is out of the question, can't even work the hand brake, have to use my left hand when driving to get my car into reverse, can't even release that catch. Also have some AC work to do, not sure if I should try to do that with one good hand.

Your most important tools are your hands, take good care of them.

GM Tech on Wed June 02, 2010 8:57 AM User is offline

Sorry to hear your recovery is so slow... but heads up-- I once changed an alternator on a Camaro with one hand- my left wrist was shattered and had pins and a t-bar holding it straight for 6 wks- my grip was the most the rehab people had ever seen on their scale- with my right hand- left one was about half... I know about the depression-- but I really needed to be able to change that alternator to make me feel better- and help my entire attitude..... Hang in there-- it will get better....

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The number one A/C diagnostic tool there is- is to know how much refrigerant is in the system- this can only be done by recovering and weighing the refrigerant!!
Just a thought.... 65% of A/C failures in my 3200 car diagnostic database (GM vehicles) are due to loss of refrigerant due to a leak......

NickD on Wed June 02, 2010 10:29 AM User is offline









Must have been the effects of the anesthetics, really went crazy and purchased this thing. From a old couple that had it since new, only 375 hours on it, they had it for sale for over a year, made an offer and they took it. Wasn't exactly sitting on my can, been working on it for the last four weeks. Oh, I am not happy with that two part Rustoleum garage floor paint, follow the instructions, darn stuff is chipping off, should have used the more flexible single part stuff.

Was able to cut off three inches from the trailer tongue and redrill the holes with my left hand so I could close my garage door. Completely rewired the trailer with new lamps, electric marine brakes and a seven pin RV connector. Didn't have to add the brakes legally, but this thing is close to 3,000 pounds and we have idiots driving on the road. While I cannot use my soldering iron wire strippers, or side cutter with my right hand, it was strong enough to hold the wire so I could do that with my left hand. Told my left hand, it about time you started doing something.

Also redid the entire electrical in the boat, mostly corrosion problems, pulled all the instruments, cleaned and recalibrate them one by one and completely redid the accessories like the horn, nav lights, bilge blower and pump. You mentioned the alternator, was only getting 13 volts, but disassembled it using my 9" opening vise, really in good shape except for corrosion, getting 14.5 volts out of it and 52 amps. Uses a Paris-Rhone I haven't seen in a long time.

Boat has a Volva Penta 275 stern drive with a 5.0L Chevy engine with a Prestolite distributor, weights were frozen, had to take that all apart, again with the vise as an aid. Still uses ignition points but was getting a full 1/2" fat blue spark, no sense in changing that.

The challenges were in using my brains to get a job done with just a left hand. Reverse lock was not set up correctly, had a large coil spring to be put back on, came off easy. With two hands and two long pair of needle nose pliers, would have been easy. But I used bare copper wire to slowly tie it in and was able to get it back in. Every little task is taking 3-4 times as long, but was having fun. That bow cover and canopy were new in the box, original owners never used them. 2" short of hitting the stamps, left hand couldn't do that, so tossed each one in my clothes dryer, got it nice and hot so my left hand could manage it. Really got this thing in sharp tune, starts the instant you hit the key, and purrs like a kitten. Did have problems in sucking water with that sea water pump, so cleaned all the fittings and hoses, was sucking air, shoots out water now 30 feet through the exhaust coolers.

We took it for a very enjoyable ride last Saturday, just me and my wife. She had problems managing this 10 footer, but there was plenty of guys around that jumped into the water to help her while I was trying to manage the trailer

Was able to mount an old Blaupunct radio had laying around and converted it for direct connection to her MP2 player, didn't know I could use a sabre saw with my left hand.




Also mounted a depth finder that took me a whole day, what's the rush?

Today, I am suppose to repair my step-daughters AC, been going through the steps in my mind, have no idea how I am going to do that. Now that is a two handed job, maybe I will just teach her how to roll down the window. Anybody ever work on AC with one hand?

Edit: forgot to resize the photos.
2nd Edit, really messed it up now.

3rd Edit, maybe this time.

Edited: Wed June 02, 2010 at 10:51 AM by NickD

mhamilton on Thu June 03, 2010 11:50 AM User is offlineView users profile

Nice! Love that dash, reminds me of the C4 Corvette

FrankD. on Fri June 04, 2010 8:34 AM User is offline

Nick this sounds very serious and I hope you have a full speedy recovery.

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FrankD.

NickD on Fri June 04, 2010 8:35 AM User is offline

After looking at my own photo, occurred to me that I don't have a dimmer on my dash lights, either on or off. But will never boat at night in our inland lakes, use to boat at night a lot in Lake Michigan with all those lighthouses as a navigational aid. That was fun.

HECAT on Fri June 04, 2010 9:26 AM User is offline

Wishing you continued progress in your recovery. Sometimes it just takes too long. About 10 years ago, I had to take 3 weeks off work for recovery from non-orthoscopic rotator cuff surgery (big slice) and breathing complications that came along with it (3 days in ICU before I could come home). Managed to use the recovery time wisely; got the house painted. Understand you can't sit still, but give yourself a break and time to heal. Nice boat!

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meaux on Fri June 11, 2010 3:10 PM User is offlineView users profile

Dang Nick... Hope you get better real soon... I've had 'trigger release' on 3 fingers and both thumbs... Heck, now I've developed a bad case of tennis elbow... Maybe I should go buy a Boat?

Well, now that I think about it, not a good idea in these parts...

Get well, you old fart!

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Lazy bum who lives off his wife.

01 BMW 530i Sport, 92 Porsche 968, 85 F150, 72 911, 08 GM SUV, 01' Ford Lightnin'

NickD on Sun June 13, 2010 6:35 AM User is offline

Thanks, but preferred being called, Lefty, for now. Read about a growth hormone study for us senior folks to help aid in the healing process, they won't give you those unless you are a professional athlete. Hand is still swollen, they talked about steroid shots, but decided to let me go for awhile. Feel that is causing my entire hand to be numb. Can only hope when I wake up in the morning, that feeling will come back. But not today, maybe tomorrow.

One reason to buy a boat is if you need rain, rained all last weekend, and raining this weekend too. Also worked when I purchased a new snowthrower last fall, only snowed twice and really not that much where I couldn't shovel it by hand, but I didn't mine that.

NickD on Thu December 02, 2010 9:51 AM User is offline

Had my yearly physical, my doctor tells me a guy my age should expect at least a year to recover from this surgery. Should have told me that in the first place. Am slowly recovering, can finally use my wire stripper with my right hand to strip 14 AWG wire and getting feeling back in my thumb. Maybe by next April, will be back to normal.

TRB on Thu December 02, 2010 10:07 AM User is offlineView users profile

My dad had the surgery a little over a month ago. He back to his old self with just a little tingle still in 1 finger.

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NickD on Thu December 02, 2010 3:20 PM User is offline

Pleased to hear about your dad, feel I had a bad reaction to the anesthetics, did make me sign a discloser to hold them free if that killed me. Need a little work done my on left hand, they can forget about the anesthetics, had worse cuts than that working on stuff.

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