Oops! I was wondering how I could have missed the knee surgery. I'm on track now, thank you.
When I crushed my finger, I massaged everything up to the shoulder. I found that my whole arm would tighten up, trying to guard that one finger. I had to massage all the other fingers, too.
That song "the knee bone's connected to the hip bone" etc. kept running through my head. If I neglected to loosen up the whole arm and hand once or twice a day, my neck would start hurting and eventually a headache would develop. I went through 3 surgeries and 6 months of physical therapy for that finger. I sill have to stretch and massage the finger and hand every morning. As long as I keep up with that, I have full strength, full range of motion, and only occasional twinges. I never thought about rewarding myself, though. Having full use of my hand is a gift from God and a reward in and of itself. My excellent surgeon told me I could do it, but was obviously surprised and extremely pleased when I actually did.
Use your good wrist and hand to set your goals for recovery for you injured wrist.
Vitamin E oil is good. After my bandages were removed, I used a product called ScarAway that I found in Walgreens. It worked great!
The tailbone pain sounds like your pelvic bones are out of alignment. Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment is the best thing I have found to treat that. Not every D.O. uses OMT after they graduate. However, those that choose to specialize in it, are excellent, and could help with your arm as well.

Recover well, Marilyn.

It sounds like you went thru the wringer with that finger, Diana. Glad that it's fully functional!

I will check out scar creams (DH is paranoid about me infecting it, tho ).

I'll have to ask the PT person about the tailbone.... no way DH will go for an osteopath and we fight about enuff things as it is. My big worry there is if it is some sort of spinal deterioration, from arthritis or whatever other reason. DSis is suddenly having spinal problems, so I guess I'm worried about that, especially given some of the indecipherable stuff on the CT over a year ago, which sounded like degenerative deterioration.

Getting old ain't for sissies!

DraDiana said: Oops! I was wondering how I could have missed the knee surgery. I'm on track now, thank you.
When I crushed my finger, I massaged everything up to the shoulder. I found that my whole arm would tighten up, trying to guard that one finger. I had to massage all the other fingers, too.
That song "the knee bone's connected to the hip bone" etc. kept running through my head. If I neglected to loosen up the whole arm and hand once or twice a day, my neck would start hurting and eventually a headache would develop. I went through 3 surgeries and 6 months of physical therapy for that finger. I sill have to stretch and massage the finger and hand every morning. As long as I keep up with that, I have full strength, full range of motion, and only occasional twinges. I never thought about rewarding myself, though. Having full use of my hand is a gift from God and a reward in and of itself. My excellent surgeon told me I could do it, but was obviously surprised and extremely pleased when I actually did.
Use your good wrist and hand to set your goals for recovery for you injured wrist.
Vitamin E oil is good. After my bandages were removed, I used a product called ScarAway that I found in Walgreens. It worked great!
The tailbone pain sounds like your pelvic bones are out of alignment. Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment is the best thing I have found to treat that. Not every D.O. uses OMT after they graduate. However, those that choose to specialize in it, are excellent, and could help with your arm as well.

Nit every area has an osteopath available.

How well I know, Evelyn. The nearest one I can get to is 4 hours away. Then again, the nearest big stores, malls and specialty stores are all at least 3 hours away as well - Springfield or St. Louis.
We used to have a chiropractor who went for extra training with an Osteopath, but he died a couple of years ago. However, we have an osteopathic trained PhD Physical Therapist that works 2 days a week in my tiny town. There's plenty of D.O.s specislizing in OMT in the SF Bay area because there's an Osteopathic College in Vallejo, CA. I wouldn't expect any to be near you though, Evelyn.

I had an excellent chiropractor, but she moved away to be near her daughter. A good chiropractor is also hard to find.

Evelyn, we both pay a price for living in the midst of wild scenic beauty, don't we?
I'll stay here as long as I can, though. I love the river, trees and wildlife everywhere.

And I love living in the (somewhat cleared) forest.

Progress of a sorts, today.

Insurance is finally straightened out, and I will have my first PT *next Thursday*, almost 4 weeks after the accident (which was April 11th, surgery on the 13th). It's a good thing I got a handout from the doc of exercises to do at home. I hate 'em , but there seems to be some progress. The hand is looking less swollen, and for one of the 4 exercises I seem to have the same range of motion and painlessness (ignoring my arthritis) as my uninjured hand. And today, I NEEDED to hold the phone in one hand and use the mouse with my right hand (up til now I was fumbling with the mouse left handed), and I was able to do that. (Of course THAT back-n-forth sideways motion is a bit uncomfortable, but it's one of the exercises, and hey, I can do it enough to move the mouse!)

Of course I still have to type left handed (it hurts too much to move back-n-forth from the mouse to the keyboard with the right hand), eat left handed, comb my hair left handed, brush my teeth left handed, do pretty much everything left handed. (I cheat a little obviously, with some things, like putting toothpaste on the toothbrush (I have to hold the toothbrush!) and getting dressed, but I am very careful to not stress the wrist.)

Now obviously gardening is still largely off the menu as I can't water plants with a hose, or prune them, let alone pot them or move pots around.

But being able to use the mouse is a big win!

I am happy to hear of progress on healing, Marilyn. Keep it up!!

Marilyn, Glad to hear that you are making progress. It must make you feel a lot more hopeful about the situation.

I'm admiring your positive attitude, Marilyn.

Steady improvement!
I'm impressed with your left-hand typing ability.

Polymerous said:
...But being able to use the mouse is a big win!

I got the results of a chest CT scan, and the most notable finding is "extensive calcifications in the left anterior coronary artery." A clog there is what they call the "widow-maker." My dad had his at age 58. I have taken Pravastatin for years to put off mine. But if you suddenly stop hearing from me, you can probably safely guess that at 76 mine finally got me. In my case, it would be a widower maker.

Well, Daisy - may you never know what hit you if it does. My friend that died recently was standing up one second, and gone the next when his a-fib flipped into a non-perfusing rhythm. He never knew what hit him - not even a whimper. His next move would have been to drive home - that could have been a real mess. I still prefer the idea of passing quietly in my sleep - no chance of inadvertently causing a traffic accident. So, Daisy, if that's how you end up going, may you be asleep to start with, and never know a thing. I hope you have a good back up plan in place for your husband's care, just in case he outlasts you.

Thanks, Diana. I think that in that event, my son would have to take Hubby back with him to Ohio, and put him into hospice care.

Daisy Can surgery remove the calcification?

So sorry, Daisy, to hear the bad news. I gather that surgery (a stent, whatever ) is not an option?