Posts Tagged ‘Surgery’

a personal photography project

Posted: 24/07/2012 in photography
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outside of my project 52 and collaboration projects with Nick and Shannon I’ve been quietly working on a little personal project which although it may seem a little sad and depressing, has actually helped me avoid feeling that way as I wade my way through the misery of a dank and wet British summer, relied on the NHS to hack me open and fix my hand and generally try not to feel too sorry for myself I thought that I’d try to capture some gritty dark and depressing style photo’s.

I’ve shared a few of these style pictures with you throughout the year and whilst I’m not entirely sure what draws me to them as they are undoubtedly pretty dank they are the style of photo I most enjoy capturing and getting just as dark, grainy and depressing as I can in post editing. I think what I’m trying to say is that dark and depressing photo’s make me happy.

I hope that by sharing these I make one or two of you smile too even if it’s just with my stupid captions.

Journey through the light

Hold my hand as the light at the end of the tunnel shines bright.

this is summer 2012

Global warming my arse, it was pouring with rain and freezing cold when I captured this shot last week.

just another teen romantic

What did your teen bedroom look like?

Get out-of-the-way old man

Can’t you see I’m far more important than you and am rushing to very important places.

she knows how to use them!!!

This just reminded me of the ZZ Top classic Legs.

Love Fades

I love the way this chalk etching is slowly fading away within its brick frame.

do you have the key?

I’ve got a real thing for old locks, I think it’s the mechanical beauty and precision in their manufacture that draws me to them time and again.

past glory slowly fading

I love this old Merc and can’t help but wonder about who purchased it new as an aspirational tour de force with its rock solid build quality and how even after all these years it’s still going, is it still owned by the same person or has it been passed from owner to owner and loved a little bit less with each successive tenure.

whats the bet the wheels will be gone come morning?

I’m positive this car doesn’t belong to a drug dealer

the lonely vigil

Is he longing for escape, is he waiting for his owner to come home or is he simply surveying his kingdom?

Once again I hope you’ve enjoyed this little insight into the type of pictures I find myself seeking out when not shooting with a particular idea or theme in mind.

What type of art inspires you and makes you happy?

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

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Ouch 7 the recovery process

Posted: 23/07/2012 in ouch, photography
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Apologies for the delay to this post but I’ve been doing my best to avoid the computer for the last week or so.

My surgery went ahead as scheduled or rather rescheduled on the 12th and the initial prognosis is good, upon opening up the side of my thumb it has been established that there is no tendon damage and that whilst there was a lot of scaring around the median nerve it too was in tact so they were able to do something called neurolysis which essentially consisted of un-sheathing the nerve and cutting away the excess scar tissue, this process is unlikely to return the sense of feeling to the tip of my thumb but should theoretically at least do something to stop the nerve from sending phantom signals back up into my hand and arm saying it’s in pain.

Hold on I’m not sure that makes much sense so I’m going to try to explain a bit better the reasons I was pushing for this surgery in the first place, not having any feeling in the tip of my thumb has not been the end of my world, it’s made my typing a little clumsy and I’ve burned it while cooking a couple of times but what has been unbearable is that the median nerve that serves the thumb has known there was something wrong with it and sent random shooting pains back up through my thenar (the pulpy bit of your hand beneath your thumb) and into my forearm. These pains have been fairly random but were largely brought on by things like having to drive long distance especially in difficult conditions like heavy rain or stop start traffic where I might subconsciously be gripping the steering wheel harder than normal. My boys also have an uncanny ability to single out this weakness and bite, kick or grab out at it resulting in often days of being unable to sleep properly.

Right back to where we are now they’ve done the surgery, I’ve been through a week of being stoned out of my box on happy pills that barely dented the pain nor helped my sleep and  I’ve been back to have my dressing changed and spoken with a specialist hand nurse who’s given me some simple exercises and things are definitely improving, I’ve run out of the hospital prescribed happy pills and am now just subsiding on over the counter analgesics, these do seem to be working though and whilst I’m still getting cramping through my thenar it’s believed by the specialists that this will improve with time and I may even regain some feeling in the tip.

My stitches come out on Friday and they’ll take a decision then as to whether or not I will benefit from physiotherapy, they will also decide then whether I will need to return to see my consultant surgeon in either two months or three as this is the soonest that things are likely to have settled down enough to judge if there has been any permanent improvement and whether or not further surgery might be necessary.

I’m allowed to drive again once the stitches are out which will be of huge relief to the wonderfully patient and kind Mrs Bunny Chow who has borne the brunt of childcare duties and been running around trying to do the school runs etc.

I’ll leave this there as I’ve pretty much exhausted my patience for one-handed typing.

thanks again for all the kind messages and support.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

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Ouch 6

Posted: 11/07/2012 in ouch
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you’re probably wondering how I’ve been able to type this so soon after surgery to my thumb and the simple answer is that I haven’t had the surgery yet, I went through all of the de-lousing, fasting, stressing and panicking and presented myself to the day surgery unit yesterday at the prescribed time where I waited and sat about for a while before a kindly nurse led me through to the inner sanctum and went through the checking in procedure with me, checking that I’d done everything I was supposed to, ensuring that I’d removed my wedding ring watch etc, fitting me with an ID bracelet explained the infamous backless gown, paper underwear with flattering giant access panel and super sexy anti deep vein thrombosis leggings.

I then got to be fitted with an ID anklet just in case I managed to lose my id bracelet when I was told that my surgeon was there to see me, excellent I thought she’ll just want to discuss what they’re doing again and prod and contort my battered thumb some more before making some drawings and explaining her plans. My initial assumption was initially proved correct, she battered, prodded and contorted me whilst asking if she was causing any discomfort, I nodded in the affirmative to all of her prods and pokes whilst doing my best not to scream, when eventually after all this (she was probably only at it for five minutes but it felt like hours) she said that unfortunately she was going to have to cancel my scheduled surgery due to an emergency that had come in. She then went on to apologise that I had wasted my journey and time off work and that of my carer etc. She then went on to say that she would try to fit me in again after her holiday in 3 to 4 weeks.

I fixed her with my best steely gaze, she obviously understood this to mean that I was preparing to wreak havoc or cry, either way she suggested that on second thoughts that although due to the complexity of my procedure only a consultant would be able to undertake my operation she would speak with Mary the bookings clerk and see if she couldn’t perhaps postpone one of her scheduled operations from Thursday (12.07.12) until after her holiday and slot me in then.

At this point I was dismissed to go and get back into my normal clothes, disposing of my gown, sexy socks and flattering paper underwear.

I was then taken in by a kindly nurse of the old school who could clearly see that I was rather unimpressed and given a strong sweet tea and a biscuit whilst Mary ran around and did her thing, presumably with some success as I’m to present myself for surgery again at 12 tomorrow.

I do hope that they actually go ahead this time as I’m in agony today from Mrs Surgeons proddings and pokings and not sure if Mrs BC can take any more of my grumpiness.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

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Ouch 5 the De-lousing begins

Posted: 05/07/2012 in Mr Bunny Chow, ouch
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I’ve mentioned previously in my ouch posts that somewhere along the line between stabbing myself and now I have picked up some sort of superbug/infection that could cause major problems to post operative patients and as such beginning this morning I have to put ointment up my nose three times a day, wash my entire body and hair with a special antibiotic soap (hair’s only every other day) and then powder my armpits and groin with an antibiotic powder, in addition to this I have to obviously wear fresh clothing (I do anyway although trousers may go a couple of days) but much to Mrs Bunny Chows joy and delight also a fresh towel and bedding daily.

English: A ruptured MRSA cyst.

This photo from Wikipedia should give you an idea of why I’m going through with the de-lousing.

If you really want to know more about MRSA (no it’s not just one bug) but a type of bugs then have a read through or just accept that whilst it doesn’t seem to have affected my life so far too badly aside from never-ending coughs colds and sniffles and more spots and the like than your average pubescent.

Wish me well and think of the poor long-suffering and very sweet Mrs Bunny Chow.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow

Ouch 3!!!

Posted: 01/02/2012 in iPhone, Kindle, ouch
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Superficial palmar nerves.

Image via Wikipedia

for those of you that have been following my saga I wanted to give you an update on the state of my thumb, if this is a new story line to you then you can catch up here before continuing.

After much badgering of my GP and the appointments clerks at my local hospital I finally managed to see a specialist hand surgeon for an opinion as to what could be done about my hand.

He sucked his teeth in obvious irritation and said that I should have been refered within a week of the injury and that he would be writing a strongly worded letter to my GP advising him of his displeasure. He then said that there were two lines of thought on late presenting nerve damage, the first being to go ahead and operate as soon as possible anyway and the other to allow any scar tissue to form and inflammation to dissipate before attempting surgery.

The kindly surgeon then refered me for X-Rays whilst he went off and spoke with some colleagues for further opinion. Mr Surgeon came back to me a short while later to say that he wanted me to see a different surgeon at the plastics hand clinic at another hospital on the other side of town the following morning.

Being in agony after kindly first Mr Surgeons manipulations, pokes and proddings as well as the thought of rush hour traffic I decided that public transport was the order of the day to get across London for my early appointment, this was needless to say as unpleasant as can be expected of any brush with London’s transport system and I spent the majority of the journey with my nose wedged firmly in the armpit of a fellow commuter whilst trying my best to read my kindle.

On a minor aside this was the first time I’ve taken rush hour public transport in some time and I was amused to count four other kindle readers within a radius of a couple of metres, they’re obviously taking off.

Anyway I’m waffling, I made it to my appointment on time even though I’d given myself plenty of extra time to arrive early, I checked in and was seen relatively quickly, by NHS standards anyway by a specialist nurse, who repeated much of the previous days excruciating poking and prodding as well as tests to establish relative muscle wasting and retained strength as well as examining my X-Rays from the previous day.

He then disappeared for the best part of an hour with brief revisits to inflict more pain and ask more questions before reappearing with another slightly less kindly but equally professional looking Mr Surgeon who explained to me that he believed that I had indeed partially severed a branch of my Median Nerve which he also gave a very long and complicated name and also suffered a minor fracture of my thumb at the joint where I had managed to stab myself.

He also promised to dictate a strongly worded letter to my GP about the importance of quick referrals in cases of suspected nerve injuries. He then went on to say that in consultation with his registrar Kindly Mr Surgeon number one, he believed that the fracture had now healed itself and that there was now too much scarring and inflammation of the muscles surrounding the nerve for surgery to be immediately successful and that he would be referring me for physiotherapy before re-assessing me in a couple of weeks.

He also recommended that I regularly massaged the wound site and my hand with moisturiser, and try to use the thumb as much as my pain threshold will allow.

So that’s where we are, I am waiting for them to get in touch with physio appointments and follow-up appointments whilst continuing to consume vast quantities of analgesics.

Many thanks for all the kindly messages of support I’ve recieved and also extra special thanks go out to Mrs Bunny Chow for putting up with my extra grumpy self.

TTFN

Mr Bunny Chow