When It happens, it happens

Last week we decided it was time to check out the lump in my wrist, doctors have always said is a ganglion and of no worries. Since it had begun restricting my use of my hand/wrist and was bothering more than normal, I moved on from the family doctor system to specialist system. And in the private medical system here, it went blindingly fast: I met with a specialist last Friday and yesterday I had surgery - with an MRI, report visit, and mandatory Covid test in-between! As I posted last time, the MRI showed that it was actually not a ganglion, but a Giant Cell Tumor. Still nothing much to worry about as the name doesn't mean that it was giant, nor does it have much risk of being anything but benign.

It was day surgery, but with general anesthesia so I was at the hospital most of the day. The adventure didn't begin all that well as my alarm didn't go off so my wake up call was the Grab driver's call to tell me he had arrived! Thankfully I had prepared everything the night before so all I had to do was dress and brush teeth and hair.

The other hiccup in the day was utter confusion when I woke up - to the point where I was telling the nurses my name was Katie! So I took a bit longer to come around 😉 As a result, though, M had to come get me, as they wouldn't discharge me on my own. So poor M had to bike out a second 24km round trip that day (he had taken Jasmin to the orthodontist) to get me discharged! But as on the way home he bought roadside friend chicken, mangoes, and longyan, it ended up being a bonus over all.

The surgeon said the GCT was deep in the joint, but he got it all out. He kept telling me to use my hand normally straight away and not to worry about slowing healing or anything. On the other hand, apparently getting the incision wet requires a trip to the ER...

As he had also used local anesthesia and had to dig deep, it was too clumsy and painful to use my hand at all yesterday. Today is much better, though, and I'm not needing the pressure wrap already. Still, there are plenty of things I'm not using my hand for as it is quite painful. For example, Aiden chopped the ginger and garlic for breakfast cooking this morning... 

 Next Wednesday I will see the surgeon again for follow up and get the lab report. And then, hopefully this story is all finished and I will have free use of my wrist and hand - better than I have for the last 10 years or so hopefully.