Cording and hand pain

Traci, the sleeves didn’t help with the thumb pain, but the gauntlets did. I also found squeezing beanbag balls helped. My LE therapist suggested I get a thumb splint for sleep, but it didn’t help--the pain (at the base of the thumb) disappeared on its own.

My cording comes and goes, but the forearm cording was gone within a week. (I get it in the armpit sometimes). My eye continues to improve, though it’s still bloodshot from the subconjunctival hemorrhage; and if I look in a highly-magnifying mirror in bright light, I can see the suture necessary to close the incision made to remove the emulsified old lens and insert the new one (apparently, not folding), as well as a bit of a milky streak along one edge of the iris. But I have also discovered that close up, my eyes aren’t brown (like my sister’s and mom’s), but rather green-and-amber hazel! (mostly green). Turns out that my unusually large pupils made my eyes look brown from a normal distance, and the cataract only amplified that. (I can see a slight difference in my left eye, which looks more amber than green).

No LE flareups whatsoever, Traci. My I.V. was in my L hand, and they didn’t do anything below eye level. A bit more nervous about the trigger-thumb surgery coming up Tuesday--first, because it’s on my LE arm (though I had no problem with the cortisone shot, and both the surgeon and Dr. Feldman, “the Lymph Whisperer,” who actually founded LANA and is an advisor for StepUpSpeakOut.org, say the surgery will not cause a flare or cellulitis--they’ll be incredibly careful about infection control and you can bet that until the sutures come out and the scar heals, so will I); and second, because the triggering has gotten milder when it appears at all, so I feel weird going through with it. I was going to back out of it, especially since I have an important music conference in Iowa with concerts to play at the end of Oct., and was nervous about whether that’s enough time to heal (but when I had my L thumb done years ago, I was playing again w/in a month). The surgeon’s NP talked to him and he says that because it took 8 weeks for the shot to have any effect (and it made things worse for the first 6 weeks), if I ditch the surgery the cortisone might wear off before my concerts and a new shot might not kick in in time. So I’m gonna swallow hard and do this. Worst comes to worst, there is an on-site LE therapist they can bring up to Recovery to wrap my arm if it swells.

Sorry I am not able to find the video for you PM me and we can compare note on the massage techniques.

Edit: just noticed that most of your pain is in your hand and not in the arm. Mine was mostly in the arm and armpit.