No, Aaron, they don't need to amputate...
I finally have some news on my hand! I went to my regular doctor on Monday, got Xrays done, and brought the Xrays to a specialist today.
The Good: Doc thinks I can get my old worker's comp claim re-opened for this. He said he'll do everything he can to get them to! I just have to find out what company it was. I thought since I had reached a settlement with them, it was just DONE... but this IS a different (unforeseen) problem, CAUSED by that injury, so he said it's likely they'll agree to it. Definitely worth investigating.
The Bad: Surrrrrrgery. :( There are two tendons that go to the pinkie finger, and he thinks one of mine ruptured -- either due to bone fragments related to the earlier wrist fracture, or irritation from the dorsal plate in there now. He says sometimes the screws in those plates move around over time and mess with the tendons. They don't use those types of plates anymore -- if I had that same injury happen today, I would get something put in under my wrist, not on top of it, because they don't have to worry about the tendons down there. (So no one thought to do that in 1995? huh) He says they can transplant another tendon in my hand that I don't need (he called it a "donor tendon") and he'll remove the plate because it doesn't need to be in there anymore and will only cause more problems like this.
The Ugly: I believe he said six weeks of pretty much not being able to use that hand after surgery. I could be wrong about that number, my head was kind of swimming with information overload (he used a lot more technical terms, which I'm sure I would butcher if I tried to repeat them here). But the hand will be held stationary in a splint type thing. Hello one-handed typing!
~
So! If worker's comp will cover this, I'm going to see about possibly having him fix the wrist a little more so I can turn it over. If not, I'm pretty sure I'm only going to worry about fixing the finger, because I've lived for 14 years with the other issue and I've done just fine (he seemed impressed with that! I guess he's used to people rushing in to fix stuff?).
Oh, and the doc was VERY good-looking. Almost distractingly so. >.> Didn't mind him holding my hand and making it do things. Nope, won't mind seeing him again. lol
The Good: Doc thinks I can get my old worker's comp claim re-opened for this. He said he'll do everything he can to get them to! I just have to find out what company it was. I thought since I had reached a settlement with them, it was just DONE... but this IS a different (unforeseen) problem, CAUSED by that injury, so he said it's likely they'll agree to it. Definitely worth investigating.
The Bad: Surrrrrrgery. :( There are two tendons that go to the pinkie finger, and he thinks one of mine ruptured -- either due to bone fragments related to the earlier wrist fracture, or irritation from the dorsal plate in there now. He says sometimes the screws in those plates move around over time and mess with the tendons. They don't use those types of plates anymore -- if I had that same injury happen today, I would get something put in under my wrist, not on top of it, because they don't have to worry about the tendons down there. (So no one thought to do that in 1995? huh) He says they can transplant another tendon in my hand that I don't need (he called it a "donor tendon") and he'll remove the plate because it doesn't need to be in there anymore and will only cause more problems like this.
The Ugly: I believe he said six weeks of pretty much not being able to use that hand after surgery. I could be wrong about that number, my head was kind of swimming with information overload (he used a lot more technical terms, which I'm sure I would butcher if I tried to repeat them here). But the hand will be held stationary in a splint type thing. Hello one-handed typing!
~
So! If worker's comp will cover this, I'm going to see about possibly having him fix the wrist a little more so I can turn it over. If not, I'm pretty sure I'm only going to worry about fixing the finger, because I've lived for 14 years with the other issue and I've done just fine (he seemed impressed with that! I guess he's used to people rushing in to fix stuff?).
Oh, and the doc was VERY good-looking. Almost distractingly so. >.> Didn't mind him holding my hand and making it do things. Nope, won't mind seeing him again. lol