Progress!

Well, a bit has happened in the two odd weeks since 'Fingergate'. While Rhona and I struggled through the icky dressing changes, her moreso than I, we rode a few highs and lows together. One day my finger would look 'pretty good', and others a little blacker than it possible should. About five days after the incident we both decided that it wasn't looking so great, so after a phone call to HealthDirect, we returned to the Armadale ED around 4pm.

When I was seen by one of the nurses there, she asked if I had been contacted by the Royal Perth plastics clinic. I hadn't, but we had received a bizarre call the day after my accident (New Year's Day) from a registrar at RPH Plastics. They asked if I was the doctor who had attended to a patient with a cut finger. A bit of a mix-up with the referral, methinks. We didn't hear from them again.

Back to the nurse at Armadale, who had turned her attention to sorting out my RPH referral, which seemed to be in the system, but somehow not. She expressed concern that I hadn't been to seen by them yet, and rang RPH directly. After a little bit of phone tennis, she sent a surgeon there some photos of my middle finger and told me to report to RPH Plastics in the morning, which was Tuesday 5th Jan. 

The same surgeon told her to remove the stitches from my finger and get me to take my wedding ring off, in case of swelling. The tip of my middle finger had turned very black, leading to the conclusion that the reattachment hadn't gone so well, and that some of it had died. Quite a weird feeling to be told part of you has died. Reattaching a finger is always precarious, I was told, and the stitches could have hindered the blood flow to the area.

All was not lost though. The other nurse attending commented that it was 'nothing that can't be fixed', and he then suggested that one course of action might be a skin graft. The first nurse asked when I last had a tetanus shot (eep!) and I said it was about ten years ago, actually realising that it was well over fifteen. I was then informed that if it had been less than FIVE years, I needed to have a booster. Well, shit.

He he he...the other nurse prepared to give me a tetanus injection and take my stitches out. Thankfully, the injection happened quickly and fairly painlessly which I complimented him on (my arm did ache for a coupla days after though!). He dryly replied that he tries not to hurt his patients, and joked that done pretty well for his first attempt. The stitches came out without incident too; or pain, for that. So, after my finger was re-dressed, Rhona took me back home while it was still daylight.

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The following morning Rhona and I approached the front counter at the Plastics Dept at Royal Perth to check in. We were told there was going to be a bit of a wait, and it seemed that my appointment hadn't been scheduled. Looking back, it might have been that I was only told by the Armadale nurse to go down there at 9:15am, but I didn't actually have a time booked. We initially thought that I wasn't even in the system, as my referral disappeared and reappeared depending on who looked into it.

After a three-hour wait I was seen by the very surgeon who had spoken to the nurse in Armadale the night before. She said the best way to move forward was to let the finger regenerate and remove the dead cells as they deteriorate. So, it was a just waiting game now. She got a nurse to dress my finger and show Rhona how to do it, so we could change the dressing at home every second day. I was told to make an appointment for the following week to check my progress.

Well, that appointment has come and gone, and after another lengthy wait, my finger was examined. The medical staff seemed happy with my progress and even said that I could wait two weeks until I saw them again. It would only be a nurse visit too, so that might mean less of a wait time, which is always a bonus. Because of the upcoming public holiday, they made my appointment for Friday 22nd Jan (which is five days away from the time of writing).

I'm thankful that I don't have much pain, and I am relieved to only have to change my dressing once every two days. I'm very grateful to Rhona for doing that every time. There are more things that I'm able to do now, which is also wonderful. I can cook, I can game, I can do laundry, I can pick things up. Just can't get it wet or play the guitar!  I'm curious to see how my finger will recover. It's obvious that it will be some time before I can touch a guitar string again, but I'm hopeful that I will be able to go back to how I used to play. I may need to experiment with open tunings and only use three fingers for a spell. Or, depending on the healing process, I may need to find a guitarist and do some duo work! We shall see what the future brings. At any rate, things seem to be moving in the right direction.