Bandages and Splints

A week after surgery I had two back-to-back appointments with a nurse, to change my dressings, and a physiotherapist to fit a splint. The parting shot from the surgeon the previous week was “don’t let the nurse fiddle with the sponge”. The sponge, he explained, was there to help the graft take and he would personally take that off in a couple of weeks.

The nurse was duly warned as she started to remove the dressing from my hand.  After just a week the evidence of surgery was not pretty with a pair of incision lines running up my palm.  Both rather black and scabby looking. The nurse however pronounced herself very satisfied with progress with both the hand and arm where the graft ahd been taken from.  At this stage I didn’t get a look at the graft on my little finger which remained hidden under the sponge. A much less bulky dressing was applied and I was sent on my way to see the physio.

He took some rough measurements of my hand and started cutting a piece of plastic into a basic splint shape covering the wrist, palms and fingers. The plastic (thermoformable) was then heated in a water bath and then moulded to fit my hand.  See picture below. The physio explained that this should be worn at night to keep my fingers straight otherwise they would probably start to fold over again. It makes sense as this had been their position for months. I was also given exercises to do to keep my fingers moving

Week 2, Sponge and stitches:

A week later I was back to see the surgeon who removed all the dressings, including the sponge, and I got my first look at the skin graft. Most of the stitches in the palm were self-dissolving so the remnants were easily removed. The graft had taken well and the non-dissolving stitches were taken out here and on my arm.  I was then given a demonstration of how to wash and rebandage my wounds on a daily basis. The bandaging was getting progressively smaller, which I took as a good sign. However, the best bit of this session was not having to rebandage my arm, which had been getting really itchy!

Week 3, New Splint:

The following week I got to see a different physio, and was able to drive to the clinic on my own! She made a much smaller splint for me and again reduced the size of dressing.  I was also advised to leave the dressing off during the day so the edges of the wound would dry up and heal better.  You can see the progress in the pictures below.

Week 5, physio check-up:

Back to the original physio who was really pleased with my progress, especially the mobility of the fingers. Doing the exercises was clearly helping, even though it was a bit painful at times. A final appointment was booked in four weeks time.

Week 9, physio revisited:

With the little finger in particular remaining really straight, the only advice was to start weaning myself off the splint.  The physio explained that the recommendation was normally to wear the splint for 12 weeks after surgery but my progress was god enough that I could now lose the splint if I wanted to.  Healing is still ongoing with the joints of the little finger still being swollen and, first thing in the morning, very stiff. Regular exercise is helping with this as is trying to use the hand as normally as possible. I’m back playing guitar and typing with more fingers again.  Both activities require retraining of my little finger that keeps wanting to hit the ‘q’ rather than the ‘a’ key when typing and isn’t always hitting the correct string on the guitar, but its getting there.

Reflections on Progress:

As I type this the healing process is still ongoing, but I’m really happy with the outcome so far.  Definitely worth it and I’m looking forward to my next operation on the right hand in August. This is going to be a double dermo-fasciectomy, but at least I know what to expect now. The bad news is that, the day after the operation on the Thursday, my wife and I are travelling about 5 hours to a hotel on the Norfolk coast to attend a wedding on the Saturday! I’m looking forward to the ceilidh in the evening with my arm in a sling!