All Better

Went to doctor yesterday and they took the stitches out of my thumb and wrist. It is doing well. The thumb problem turned out to be a bone spur that had broke off and was 'floating' in my thumb. (I have a bone spur on my left thumb to and so does hubby.) There was a ganglion cyst in my wrist almost on the main artery that is used to check your pulse so doctor had to be really careful when doing that one. She made a crooked incision there to avoid it. So now I have two new scars.
The first thing I did was take a long, hot shower without a plastic bag duct-taped to my arm.
For the next couple of weeks I am not supposed to the dishes - or at least without gloves on, that is if I am doing them in standing water in the sink, which I don't do unless doing skillets, which hubby has been doing for past year as I couldn't pick them up. So nothing new there as she said it was ok to let water on the incisions if just rinsing dishes off to put in dishwasher.
I do intend to continue to practice my use of my left hand for things i used to do with my right hand. Just in case.

Ganglion Surgery

My surgery to remove the ganglion cysts I had, 1 in wrist, and 1 in thumb, went well, and I am recovering fine. Really learning to type 1-handed, with just a little help from fingers of my right hand. Hardest part is convincing my left thumb that it can work the space bar for me. It refuses to obey.
May not post much over next few weeks will I have big bandage around most of right hand. Kind of cramps my ability to do much. So will watch lots of TV and read some online stories at wwwwomenwritersblock.net and a few books I have had stashed for 'sick days'.

Ganglion Cyst

It looks like I may not be posting much over the next month or so. I have had a ganglion cyst on my wrist for about 15 years. The past six months or so it has become much larger and much more painful. This link tells about these common type of cyst if you are interested. http://http//orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00006 or at http://http//www.assh.org/Public/HandConditions/Pages/GanglionCysts.aspx

I took some photos of my wrist and thumb but you can't see that much. I have the one that is below my thumb which is about an inch or so across, and I have one in the joint of my thumb. They are caused by repetitious use which in my case has probably been from using a keyboard to much and to long. I started using the old Royal typewriters about 45 years ago. Those old ones took lots of finger power to make the keys go down enough to print since they weren't electric. I was thrilled when I got my first electric typewriter. Then it was on to cash registers as I was a cashier at most of the jobs I have had. At the other jobs I had I used computer keyboards all day. Computer keyboards are a lot better than those old typewriters but still it is a constant repetition of the joint.

Mechanics get these same type of cysts from turning wrenches and screwdrivers even though the cysts are more common in women than men. Some sports cause them like gymnastics and golf, and rodeo roping.

The surgery is a day surgery, in and out the same day, and is set for about the middle of this month. So my first question to the doctor was how long before I would be able to type with my right hand again.

She said it would be about a month. I right handed so it will be very awkward to do lots of things for that month although I have already been trying to do some things with my left hand instead of my right. But typing with just the left leads to some weird spelling.

I will look at emails and will try to answer them if I can, but don't expect much.