It has now officially been over six months since I last posted to this blog. Yikes! That's not the usual time frame I want between posts, and it really isn't ideal given what the last several posts were about. I can offer all sorts of explanations for the delinquency of my posts: my arm was hurting too much, it was the end of the semester, I had just had surgery and was in no condition to post, the play was finishing up and I had no time, the play was done but now I was playing catch up, etc. The list could go on and on. And, truthfully, I do have some good excuses for why it has been more than six months since I last posted. A lot has been going on in the past six months, including with my arms, and I really didn't know how to start a blog post that would explain everything. And then there's the whole issue of it being easier to keep putting things off once you've already put them off for so long. However, I promised updates on my arms, and I am here, at last, to give you an update. I think I'll save the other stuff for future posts (which will hopefully come sooner rather than later).
When we last left off in adventures of my arms, it was the beginning of November and surgery had just been scheduled for the end of December (the 30th to be exact). Surgery would be at Seoul National University Hospital-Bundang (about an hour north of Pyeongtaek), and it would be cubital tunnel release surgery on my right arm. The doctor would move the nerve to give it more space to pass through my elbow; he was also going to shave part of the medial epicondyle (part of the humerus) in order to give the nerve more room to move. I only had six weeks until surgery, and I was looking forward to those six weeks being up. Let's just say that feeling did not change throughout the rest of November and December; if anything, it became stronger. November and December were really difficult months for me. The pain got worse, and I was able to do less and less. Surgery was going to be a relief. I could not wait for the day of surgery to come.
And come it did. The morning of December 30th dawned bright and clear, and we left early (for Korea) to head to the hospital. My roommate Kari and my mom were with me. My family had come to visit for Christmas, and my mom, Abby, and Kara were still in country. We left Abby and Kara at home, as they didn't find the idea of spending the whole day at the hospital thrilling. They were going to have their own adventure instead. I was very happy, however, that my mom would be with me. She was flying back the next day, unfortunately, but she could still be with me in the hospital and take care of me the first day and half after surgery.
Anyway, we got to the hospital around 8 a.m. and found the outpatient surgery center. After changing into the hospital clothes (thankfully Korea does pants and tops instead of gowns), I was taken to the pre-surgery patient waiting room (patients only, no family). I had to lay down on a hospital bed until it was time to go into surgery. The only thing I could do was stare at the ceiling, which I did for close to an hour and a half before it was my turn. Yuck! Then, they wheeled me over to the operating rooms, a trip that took us back through the surgery center lobby and out and down into the main hallway. Once in the operating area, I had to wait a little bit longer and go through the last checks before surgery (verifying which arm, etc.). Thankfully, we had picked up my mom and Kari on our way through the waiting room, so I didn't have to be by myself. However, both of them could only be with me for the trip through the hallway. Once we got to the operating center, they asked if anyone spoke Korean. Because my mom speaks none but Kari speaks some, they would only let Kari come back with me. She had to put on scrubs to do so, but it was nice to have someone to talk to for a change. Fortunately I didn't have wait as long this time, and, before I knew it, they were administering the anesthetic and wheeling me off for surgery.
After the surgery itself was over, I woke up in the recovery room with my arm wrapped up and bandaged almost to my shoulder, groggy and hurting. While this is to be expected after surgery, the cultural differences of being in a hospital in a foreign country, surrounded by people speaking Korean, make for a harder post-surgery coming-to. My brain had to immediately switch back to the cultural coding and decoding necessary to figure out an unfamiliar part of a different culture. I had never had surgery before in Korea or at a Korean hospital, so the whole experience was one of watching, observing, and waiting to be told what to do (thankfully Korea is very good about telling the foreigners what to do instead of simply expecting them to know it already). While it is something I do on a daily basis, it certainly complicated the post-surgery recovery process.
Before I could be moved to the regular recovery area, I first had to go for x-rays on my right arm. However, the operating rooms and surgery center were on the third floor of the hospital, and the x-ray machines were on the first floor. So, they had to wheel me out of the surgery area (where Kari and my mom joined me), down the hall, into an elevator to the first floor, and through the hall to radiology, where they proceeded to twist my arm in several different ways to get the views they needed. Boy did it hurt! The x-rays were quite possibly the most painful part of the day as they twisted my just-out-of-surgery arm in ways that I don't think it should have been bent or twisted in the brace. It hurt so badly that tears were welling up in my eyes.
Eventually the x-rays were over, and it was back down the hall, up the elevator, and through the hall, this time to the main recovery area. I had to rest there for a couple hours before leaving. After the acrobatics for the x-ray, plus normal post-op pain, I needed some pain meds, which they were eventually able to give me. I was also quite thirsty by this time, as it was now mid-afternoon and I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since before bed the night before. However, I was told that I couldn't have anything to drink (even water) for several more hours, even though my mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton.
After waiting in recovery for more than an hour, they delivered my post-op prescriptions to me and told me that I could go home. And so home I went, sitting in the backseat with my arms propped up on pillows, praying that the ride home would go by quickly and smoothly. The hour-long car ride felt much longer with all the pain, but we eventually made it home, where I crashed for the rest of the day.
My recovery proceeded pretty normally from there. The first few weeks were mainly spent recovering from the effects of surgery without much indication as to how successful the surgery had been. Since surgery was during Christmas break, I had about two weeks off before I had to return to school. The first weeks back were hard (and painful). However, things did start to turn around at the end of January. I noticed a drop off in the pain and an increase in what I was able to do. I was getting a little bit better day by day, week by week, a pattern that has continued ever since. I had a doctor's appointment in March, two months after surgery, and I was recovering as I should be. The doctor was pleased with my recovery and not surprised by the pain I was still experiencing. In fact, he even made a little joke out of it at one point. I had told him that I was having some bone pain in my elbow, and he basically said, "Well, duh, I cut off part of your bone," a little "humerus" reassurance that everything was okay (yes, pun fully intended).
My arms have only gotten better since then. About the last week of April, I woke up one morning feeling like something "switched" in my right arm. I had a lot less pain and could do a lot more. Something felt different. It was a huge leap forward in my healing, especially since I felt like I had stagnated the previous few weeks. I could now go longer without resting and my arm wouldn't really hurt. This continued to improve to the point where, by mid-May, I could go several hours without resting. I could also do more work (defined as anything that required me to use my arm), and I needed less rest between work times. My healing took another giant step forward last week as I was now able to go many hours without rest and I could work throughout that time (not for hours straight, but with simply taking breaks rather than resting my arms on pillows). I am confident that I am healing as I should be and will be completely healed (or practically so) at the end of six months as my doctor said. As would be expected, my left arm has been healing far faster than my right arm, since it was only hurting out of compensation for the right one. It hasn't seriously bothered me since probably March and needs far less rest than my right arm even now.
I have one last follow up appointment with my doctor in June before I head back to the States for the summer. As of right now, I only have positive news to tell him. My arm continues to get better and better, and I can do more and more things. I am looking forward to next school year when I should be able to do all the "normal" things without too much trouble. For now, though, I'll keep doing things in spurts with some rest in between so that I don't tax my arms too much. I want to do things but also be smart about them so that the healing also continues. I am so thankful that things are so much better now. The adventure is almost over. I can only attribute that healing to God, especially the few times my healing has "jumped" forward. All I can do is praise Him and thank Him for all He has done and express my gratitude to all of you who have been praying for me this year. I know that your prayers have helped my healing and encouraged me and given me the strength to get through this year. It has been a long, difficult, and painful year, and I could not have gotten through it without God. I can only pray that God has been glorified through all of this.
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