So I’m planning to go ahead with my elective surgery on Friday. It’s a double-dose thing: on both my right wrist and elbow on carpel tunnel syndrome and whatever to get rid of the near-constant tingling in my hand and fingers.
The surgery was originally scheduled for the end of March, but here in Massachusetts only emergency surgeries were allowed at that time. Now mine can be done, but I’m nervous as hell. I’ve been very careful since before our governor ordered the closure of all but essential businesses, thanks to Mark Sumner’s cogent explanations. Many thanks to him; glad he’s back blogging here again. Anyway …
I’m scheduled for a Covid test on Monday, because the hand surgeon’s practice doesn’t want me to go there if I’m positive. So what I’m agonizing about is do I want to go there if I’m negative?
Back when he first recommended the surgery, the hand doctor said that the longer the weakness continues, the more likely the damage could be irrecoverable. Yes, there’s weakness, too. Thanksgiving was perilous for everyone around me whenever I tried to pick anything up, no matter how simple. And my right hand is my dominant side.
But now? Damn, I don’t know. I’ve had tinnitus in my right ear since I was a teenager and got used to it. Can I get used to the tingling? The weakness? Should I just wait awhile longer — two months, four months, six months, a dollar?
The photo at the top is the place where I go to contemplate and meditate. But practical decision-making is not found in those places.
It feels too soon to have to make a decision. Am I nuts to go ahead with it? Kossaks, what say you?