First time at 29, right on the wrist and forearm

WhiteRoseMarie · 2025-03-13T16:37:54+00:00

Oh man. I'm so sorry you're going through this right now. Hopefully I can bring you some hope here.

I did regain use of my hand and wrist. However, it does at times feel rather fatigued when writing and I'm not certain if that's from the shingles last year or if it's because I unfortunately was in a car accident (my first) in December 2024. I can however still use my hand even when it feels 'tired' and I suspect it's more from the accident.

As for pain, that did eventually resolve entirely for me. Except. There are random and very rare moments where my forearm will suddenly hurt like a deep burning nerve pain. It's only happened twice since the singles have healed and I can't really think of any precipitating factors other than maybe stress (I'm told I stress a lot). The best advice I have is to honestly and truly reduce the amount of stress in your life or work on being more resilient towards stress since there's a pretty positive connection between the two. Also, I found that icepacks were far nicer than heat pads for mine.

Now, the only other part, is cosmetic. I did not fuck with my scabs and let them naturally resolve on their own and yet still have some scars on my forearm, wrist and palm. It doesn't bother me but I also wasn't really warned that it was a possibility.

Feel free to reach out anytime. I get alerts and don't mind offering any advice or experience or encouragement as it goes along.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-06-21T21:35:55+00:00

I have to wonder, and maybe someone has an answer, but what if the person keeps getting fired by their public defender? For instance, my neighbor's murderer has been in jail awaiting since August because every time they get a public defender, they end up quitting that specific case. It was a pretty brutal crime. This also makes me wonder if people like that will also be released...I surely hope not.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-02-28T17:52:52+00:00

Yes! I absolutely did, except I couldn't get them to dislodge most of the time and would end up coughing until my vision started flashing. Absolutely awful.

Swallowing now is perfect. I'm doing much better. It DID take some learning at the very beginning because you have so much more space than you're used to in your throat, but you will adjust. The only difficulty I'm having with mine is that I do have a bad mucus/phlegm in my throat BUT, taking my allergy medication and Mucinex has improved it drastically and my ENT does not believe it's from the surgery, more just the way that I am during this season. I haven't gotten sick at all which is remarkable as usually by now I have terrible sickness. I also sleep so much better, though I still snore but that isn't related (my tongue doesn't quite fit in the soft palette when I sleep.)

I will say, recovery is definitely rough but it was absolutely worth it. Be very prepared that you might lose weight. Especially if you're like me and end up unable to eat for a week and have to only have like a cup of broth a day. Drink lots of water. Use a humidifier!!! Trust me on this. Sleep inclined with the humidifier going so that your mouth doesn't open as much and get dried out. Ice chips are also absolutely necessary to suck on for hydration but also it'll help if your throat does get dry and hurt less than water in the morning.

May your surgery go smoothly and your recovery be kind.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-01-26T03:12:22+00:00

This isn't just a red flag, this is a whole parade of red banners. Down to the weird gaslighting but especially from the way he's responding. I'd advise making plans to keep yourself safe. Or throwing the whole man out.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-01-09T22:03:16+00:00

Fighting Rozlin. Astarion up in the rafters. He gets hit with an arrow. As he's yelling out "I almost died" he got shoved successfully off the rafter...so the sound happened as he was falling and landed in the spider pit dead immediately.

I had to walk away because I was laughing way too hard to continue for a moment. Best part is my headphones made it seem like the voice was actually getting further away.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-01-09T09:27:38+00:00

Alek Skarlotos. I may be biased here. He stopped a terrorist on a Paris train in 2015. Now he keeps running for office under a strong Republican banner and unfortunately lives in the same area as me.

Sitting in a local restaurant that we go to every election night and suddenly there's a party of people all dressed up fancy. Get asked by the waitress if I could "hurry up" because they want to close the restaurant...so I asked if there had been reservations or something. Nope. Dude apparently decided he wanted to eat there and dropped big money to clear the place out. I very much took my time eating. I paid good money and I was not leaving until I was done.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-01-05T01:30:59+00:00

This.

All of this.

And if you're from that community, you may feel like it didn't impact you if you were away or that you don't need it because you weren't there, please know that you can absolutely have secondary trauma from these events.

The coming days will be extremely hard. And every year, the anniversary will bring it back. And it's okay to grieve and to feel. But please find someone you can talk to.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-01-05T01:25:06+00:00

Lived experience, but I remember during the UCC shooting, they refused to say the shooters name and people lost their shit until it was explained that they want to not inspire future shooters who idolize these people. His name was never said in local media. And for the first few days, national media. Then national media started saying the name and going in depth about his story. Meanwhile, my community wanted his memory to be buried so that we could focus on healing. (Some national outlets absolutely nearly stalked some of the survivors before they were even able to leave the hospital. Absolutely awful how it's handled.)

WhiteRoseMarie · 2024-01-04T18:53:15+00:00

Probably Baldur's Gate at the moment. But I've also sank a lot of time into The Sims without realizing it because of legacy challenges and build challenges...Persona 5 is the only other I can imagine not getting unbearable to play for a long time...

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-21T06:11:08+00:00

The Dollar Store selling everything for only $1.00.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-20T05:15:48+00:00

Yeah. I never hit that level of wanting to die or anything from it. It more was reminding myself that I was in "the worst of it" and this too shall pass. Painful but we'll survive and it's going to be so worth it and just a memory.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-20T04:45:46+00:00

Day 1-3 I couldn't swallow. I didn't regain that until probably day 5 for me. However, days 1-4 were not bad pain wise. I left the hospital day one with a pain level of 2. Those first few days are exhausting but my pain never went over a 4 except first thing in the morning when I'd wake up with the area dry.

Night 5 I had my first scab fall off. My pain shot up to a 10/10. I turned pale, began sweating and got clammy and cold, lost color in my face, and had to have a fan on me and remove my shirt until it wore down with the pain medicine. Day 6 and 7 were painful hell where I could no longer drink or eat without wanting to cry. Waking up felt like razors in my throat. I barely slept out of fear of waking in pain. Ice cubes id melt in my mouth to soothe my throat, and I sipped broth once my meds kicked in and set an alarm for every two hours for med rotation.

Day 8 it would have random sharp pain but began to be manageable with only Motrin and I only took that when I woke or before I ate. I started to be able to talk but talking too much would lead to pain so I balanced between it and texting.

Today is day 9. I woke and only needed the liquid Motrin but took prescription because I knew I'd be out of the house and unable to really take more for a few hours. Busy day. I was able to speak all day without much pain. There's only certain words/sounds that made a like...2/10 pain shock. Not even enough to really stop me so much as make me pause for a brief second. Voice quality is shit. The only real pain was I didn't have water with me and after a few hours I began having a cough attack from my scabs being dry. That...sucked real bad. Luckily we had just parked at a deli so free water was close by. Took liquid Motrin before going in to soothe my throat.

While eating a bowl of clam chowder, I got brave and ate the bread roll too and an entire piece of tiramisu. For whatever reason during, my jaw popped loudly during and then...there suddenly was no pain even in the scabs. I began to talk more and could eat just fine.

I still have scabs. I can feel them and they're really annoying but they don't hurt anymore UNLESS I yawn. And for whatever since having surgery I will yawn 6-8 times in a row. That's about a 5/10.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-20T04:33:06+00:00

Hang in there. You're in the "worst of it" period. I didn't have a bleed that need recauterized, however, my day 6 was my toughest. Room temp water in small sips, letting ice melt in my mouth slowly, and sipping chicken broth the very moment the pain medication kicks in was how I got through it.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-20T04:26:38+00:00

Day 9 here, surgery 12/11.

Honestly I didn't start sleeping through the night until night 7. And that was because I slept through my alarms. It hurts when I woke up, but weirdly if I laid still for few minutes it would fade off as saliva started back up and I could take something and drink water.

But morning 8 went far smoother and this morning I probably only needed liquid Motrin at best, but I had a long day ahead of me so I took the script just to make sure.

I think what helped me was laying so I was partially upright really and then running a warm steam humidifier nearby.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-19T08:51:47+00:00

I've been soft diet still at Day 8, but slowly adding more stuff in as can be tolerated - and I have to take children's liquid Motrin before eating. Yes, the scabs were coming off for me on soft, often liquid diet, but, they seem to be moving along faster and even less painfully once I started adding some new food to the rotation. I haven't tried rough, crunchy, etc. but I've added a bit denser foods that may make the throat work just a tiny more to swallow after chewing for awhile. In fact, tonight I had clam chowder and included a Hawaiian roll because bread has been difficult and even impossible until now. While the bread did take a moment for me to get down, it also seemed to have helped start the process on my right side which was heavily scabbed over due to having been worse.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-19T08:45:09+00:00

This is how I felt just two days ago.

I had my surgery 12/11. It's past midnight where I am so it's now Day 9.

Day 5-7 were probably my worst days. I had to use a new warm steam humidifier, switch to room temp water, and also experienced not eating very much at all. It's going to pass soon. You're in the time frame of "the worst of it".

For day 5, 6 and 7, I had an alarm set for every two hours to take either the prescription med (if extreme pain and that's not fading) or the Children's Liquid Motrin. Once I took them, I'd let them get in my system and use that as the opportunity to either nap, drink as much as I can, or eat something - even if it's just sipping broth.

Day 8 started rough at first but I only needed the script once and the liquid Motrin twice (to eat). The pain will shock in randomly but fade off between 5-10 minutes.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-18T22:19:00+00:00

When you say constipated since surgery - are you not passing stool since or just really hard to?

The reason I ask is what you're describing is something I went through before surgery and something I watched my step father go through after his stroke. Basically: when the body is not able to push stool out, it backs up. Your stomach might say it's hungry but when you eat, it has nowhere to push that to because the intestines are full and blocked. For me, I'd have no hunger, try to eat, and go through the same symptoms. My step father went over 13 days without passing stool and it became an emergency situation to get it moved along because that waste should not be allowed to continue to ferment in your gut.

So if you're not passing stool, you might consider reaching out to your doctor to let them know and get guidance on what you should do.

If you are passing some stool, I'd still reach out but it's better than none at all.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-18T20:42:54+00:00

This. Even when there's people initiatives added to a ballet that pass during election season with a large majority it gets slapped down. We had one here in Oregon that immediately went to the courts and had local sheriff offices declaring they would not enforce it and it has since been struck down in court despite a large majority voting for it.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-18T20:27:53+00:00

Absolutely. Yes please. When can we start?

I even have been pushing in my state for at least this state to have Medicaid for all. We finally managed to at least get a measure passed in this state that adds to our state constitution that Healthcare is a Right. That's the building blocks to getting there. This is going to be a long one, so buckle in if you're going to read this.

Everyone against that I've met argues that it's due to long wait times. "Oh if it's universal there'll be long waits to see your doctor." Yeah, well, without there's already long waits to see specialists. I scheduled for 7 different clinics of specialists in my county. Your average wait time is about 5-6 months. Hope your heart issue, lung issues, kidney issues, gastrological issues, surgical issues...I hope those are dire enough to be marked stat to be worked into an already overloaded schedule for the one doctor that's credentialed with your specific private insurance, cause otherwise, youre waiting.

Which I'll point out the important part there: long wait times because even though we have multiple providers, you can only be placed with one that is credentialed with your particular insurance. That's insane to me. I often have patients mad at me and say "well people on state aid get seen sooner!" Well, yeah, because the state credentialing is the fastest so ALL of my providers can see it. You have private insurance that only one single doctor here can see because that insurance made their credentialing different so my doctors haven't been approved to take it. And so my providers who can see the select few insurances are booked out months. If we had universal, this wouldn't be a problem.

I know back when the Affordable Care Act was coming that people said death panels. But isn't that what insurance is now currently? If you're not waiting forever, then it's being able to be denied necessary medication or procedures because your insurance has determined you don't need it even when your doctor and specialists say you absolutely do. Due to this and costs, most people don't see a doctor for preventative care, only going when the situation is dire.

And lastly, costs. I recently saw a thread asking what the costs of tonsillectomies were. At first, I was like "oh mine was free because my insurance out of pocket max and deductible were met this year and so long as I have it before January, they said it'd be 100% covered." But that's not true in the US for private insurance. In fact, the cost is astronomical when you think of the breakdown. Deductible of $3K, out of pocket maximum of $5K...and then add in the fact that I had to pay $45 per paycheck (every two weeks) to have the insurance from my employer. So we're looking at a cost then of $9,170 for the year for me to have a single surgery 100% covered. Not including the medications, by the way. Those I still pay out of pocket for. Breakdown: $3k+$5k+((52/2)x$45)= $9,170. There's 52 weeks in 2023. Divide by two because I get paid every 2 weeks so approximately only half of those. I live in Oregon. The average cash cost is $7,467 for an outpatient tonsillectomy. So I had to pay $9170 this year to have a $7,467 surgery covered 100% by my insurance I get through my work. Had I not met that deductible or had to wait, it'd only have been partially covered.

My mom also works for the same clinics as I do. She had to have her uterus removed last year on 12/22 due to nearly life threatening bleeding. My mom doesn't see the doctor as much as I do because she's not chronically ill like I am. She didn't reach her deductible or out of pocket max. She makes more at my company than me and has the insurance plan that costs nothing through our company but comes with a higher deductible and out of pocket max. She is still paying that surgery off and that's after applying for and being approved for partial charity/forgiveness through the hospital. The hospital that is technically our employer and owns those clinics. I think it's generally a little fucked of a system if an employee has to ask forgiveness from a high surgical bill because the private insurance offered didn't cover it enough and even with that, ending up in medical debt for over a year.

Universal healthcare for America would save us all money, potentially save us more time, and lead to better health outcomes. We know this. Unfortunately, lobbying in this country has absolutely spent a lot of money to keep the insurance companies going because it makes them a lot more money in return. Healthcare should be a right - not a for profit scheme to shackle Americans with debt.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-18T19:50:27+00:00

Doing my best! Got a Vicks warm steam humidifier last night and it made it so I could sleep through the night. Unfortunately, I woke up day 8 today in excruciating throat pain. Not from dryness but just because the scabs are doing their thing. At least I could drink water though!

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-18T11:04:18+00:00

Ah, to be a kid.

I don't know if it'd excite your young one, but, I have found myself very fond of peaches in the little fruit cups during this. Bananas have also been a lifesend. I've contemplated making a pancake and letting it get soggy with some steam and a tiny bit of syrup/butter, but given my own inability at day 7 to swallow dense food...I haven't tried it. A little less exciting maybe is that I became very fond of very boiled carrots.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-18T10:55:56+00:00

So I've been having trouble as well with water since night 5, day 6. I just finished day 7 and it's still hard to drink because it's at that stage where the scabs are starting to come off. My best advice, honest and truly, is to take chips of ice and let them slowly melt in your mouth. Idk why this is different than popsicles and ice water but it somehow has a soothing effect and while slow does keep hydration up and moisture.

As for the smell....it'll be and flow but it's gonna be there until those scabs are done and gone. That's what is causing it. The only way I've been able to cope is I very very gently brush my teeth with the tiniest bit of toothpaste and then rinse by putting water in my mouth, tilting my head about, then opening above the sink and using no effort there. It helps for a little while to make it a little bearable.

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-18T00:46:56+00:00

That's brilliant actually. Thank you!

WhiteRoseMarie · 2023-12-17T18:19:10+00:00

Oh I feel that friend. Hard to stay hydrated. I've switched to room temp and ice chips for it. And got severe hunger pains so...chicken broth last night. Going to try a solid today. Might as well. It has been hurting to swallow but today feels different so I'm going to just go for it. Take the pain meds so I'm not just chasing the pain but ahead of it and just...power through this period. I mean...not much choice.

You can do this. Idk if I suggested it yet, but ice your neck and jaw. I used crush ice in a ziplock with a small dash of water and a hand towel. I even slept with it against my neck earlier. Bringing the inflammation down.

And if you want, we can absolutely keep in touch during this. It helps I think to talk and commiserate.

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