:angel:
I just had a CMC artroplasty on my right thumb almost 3 days ago. The doctor prescribed Endocet in a 325 mg tablet form to be taken every 4 hours. During the first 2 days, my major discomfort was that the bandage was so tight it hurt and was quite uncomfortable. This morning, I woke up and the tightness was gone so I assume that there had been some swelling and it has abated. I could feel some pain at the site of the operation between 3.5 to 4 hours after taking the endocet so if the pain came at 3.5 hrs, I took the pill a little early. Today, I'm taking the endocet at a 5 hour interval. I'm just going to wait unil I feel some pain beginning to start and as long as it's 3.5+ hrs, I'll take a pill. Right now I'm extremely relieved to find that, for me, this has not been a painful experience. At least so far. I'll be in this plastic split and tight wrap for another week. Then it's a cast for about 3 weeks followed by therapy once a week for 2 months.

Right now, I'm seriously considering talking to the doctor about doing the left thumb as soon as I feel the right has recovered sufficiently.

Hi, Bissel. Johnny Long here from Chattanooga, TN. Had my right thumb done on Friday Dec. 3... the day after your ordeal. My Doc has arthritis himself (not CMC,though). He told me "We'll have to do this on a Friday because it wipes my hands out for 3 days!" It's wrestling with the forearm tendon that does that. Great Honk!

Dr. Hayes (The Hayes Hand Group) removed the trapezium, inserted the tendon section (calls it an "anchovy") into the gap, and flipped over a tendon on top of my hand to hold it all together. His post op comment: "No wonder you've been hurting so bad... there was NO cartilege in there at all." No wonder!

Despite a DRAIN with a suction device installed in the incision, I had a LOT of swelling. I removed the drain Sunday night as per the Doc's instructions. It was painless! The swelling was such that at my first follow-up. last Thursday, he put me on a course of Prednisone. Finished it this am. Now I have a skinny hand and a FAT FACE!

I have two steel pins sticking out of my thumb -- with little yellow plastic balls on the ends. I asked for a RED & GREEN -- for Christmas. :O)

For a PIC, paste in this link:
[url]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v155/LongJohnSilver/Hand%20Surgery%20-%20Thumbs/ThumbPins.jpg[/url]

PAIN, PAIN, PAIN. When the swelling was going down, it cause huge surges of pain -- everything was being rearranged in there, I suppose. Now I'm taking 1/2 an Endocet every 4 to 6 hours... depending on how much I can stand. Am popping Ibuprofin too...

IF you want to see ALL the pics of my hand -- and how my split is fitted, paste this link into a new browser window:

[url]http://photobucket.com/albums/v155/LongJohnSilver/Hand%20Surgery%20-%20Thumbs/[/url]

My splint was SO HOT that my hand would itch and burn after a couple of hours. I used a Dremel tool to add holes and enlarged them with a steel
punch. MUCH, MUCH BETTER! :O) One does what one can.

Let's keep talking -- encouraging one another. I can use all the knowing sympathy I can get! :O)

Johnny

(Rev. Dr. John Wade Long, Jr.)