Wrist Surgery a Good Enough Excuse to Be Away from The Keyboard

I don't even know where to begin. Somehow, the time just slipped through my (wrist-braced) fingers. But I will try to remember the last month and a half since I last stopped by.

New Year's Eve we visited with Uncle Matt and Aunt Kristen during Jack's dinner hour -- he had to work -- and that was a nice way to begin ringing in the new year. It was a crazy dog party as well, with Matt and Kristen's four dogs and others belonging to guests, including one incredibly large mastiff. It was every man and woman for himself trying to keep the dogs at bay while eating the delicious food they set out ... and up. After Jack went back to work, the girls and I went home and had our own New Year's celebration. I got Brigid to bed and then we watched a movie, waiting for Jack and the ball to drop, whichever happened first. Jack got home in time to have some snacks and ring in 2010 with most of his girls. Seven days later, I was in Burlington visiting a surgeon about my wrist.

It started more than a year ago -- pain in my left wrist. After an MRI, X-rays, EEG and wearing a brace, the local orthopedic surgeon sent me to Burlington to a specialist who took one look at the MRI and said I had a tear in the cartilage between the two large bones in the wrist. He scheduled surgery for two weeks hence. Jack and I went over on Jan. 22 for the outpatient procedure. Aside for an interminably long wait after they got me into a gown and IV, the surgery went off as planned. They gave me a nerve block in my arm -- came in through the neck! -- and my left arm went completely dead. It was the weirdest feeling, or lack of feeling, in the world. It was dead. There was no connection between the limb and my body. They wheeled me in to the OR from there and knocked me out. I woke up with thick bandages on the arm that I had no feeling in, which was a blessing because we had the drive home and across the ferry.

I was out of work for about 10 days before returning Feb. 1 for my follow-up appointment. The wrist was painful and ouchy because of the incisions, but when they took the bandages off, we discovered there were no stitches -- just steri strips. I was given the green light to drive and return to work under light duty and -- get this -- no excessive typing. My wrist is back in its brace to support it because when I move it, it causes pain. I can't lift anything heavier than 2 pounds with the left hand, so that makes it hard when Brigid says, "Up me!" Otherwise, it's getting there day by day. I've had bad days where the wrist is quite sore, but most days are better. I go back in March for a six-week check-up.

As for the girls, they've been great -- keeping an eye on Brigid while I heal, lending a hand while I'm down one. Coincidentally, Jack was off the same week I was out of work, so that was a true blessing, even if they were furlough days from CNHI. At least the management furlough days are averaged out of the paycheck over the quarter. The poor reporters are docked a day's pay in whatever payweek they take the furlough.

Brigid continues to explode developmentally. Her vocabulary and ability to use it never ceases to amaze me. Her conversations are now regular kid-speak instead of toddler-speak. She can make rational (and many irrational) statements, answer complex questions, pose complex questions and follow multi-stage directions. She can still be quite volatile at times, but even her temper seems to be more in check when she is given the opportunity to get a hold of herself. She has an interest in what day it is and where she goes on any particular day. She'll ask at bedtime, "Where am I going after I go to sleep?" Meaning what will she be doing the next day. I'll tell her it's a school day or a Saturday or a church day. She knows she goes to dance class on Wednesdays and swim class on Saturdays. She knows we see Uncle John at church on Sundays. It seems to help her sort her own world when she knows what part she'll be playing in it every day.

Margaret has been busy with play rehearsal for "West Side Story" and loving it. Patricia, too, is immersed in her play rehearsals in drama club. Both have performances in March.

It is Saranac Lake Winter Carnival time, so last Saturday we took the girls to see the ice palace. We haven't been in a while, at least I haven't been, and it was very cool. Literally and figuratively. I neglected to bring a camera, so alas, I have no pictures from the day. But Brigid seemed really impressed and was very excited when we saw the "ice king," someone walking around with a crown and crimson cape. We ended the afternoon with dinner at the Mexican restaurant, Casa del Sol. It was great. Haven't been there in years, either.

The next thing on the horizon is my meeting Connie in Syracuse for our birthday get-together to scrap the weekend away. Don't know what Jack and the girls have planned, but he may take them back up to Saranac Lake for the carnival parade if it's not too cold.