{i've been hhmming and ahhhing about whether to post about this, or call NHS direct, or just ignore it and hope it just gets better, but i've fallen onto posting anyway.}
i cut my arm last night, and i know i hit some nerves or tendons to my hand. my hand has been hurting and tingling, and half of the back of it is really numb; i've been bashing it with the remote control, and prodding it with my nails, and there is a sizable area that i really can't feel.
i've damaged myself like this before, except for the numbness, which is new and is worrying me a little.
obviously this is not good, but is it really bad and something i need to have seen to? when should i start to worry that its not going to just be fine?
"Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world"
Yes, it is, you need to get it checked out TODAY. In the meantime keep the cuts clean and a dressing over them and try and keep your arm/ hand still; use a support or bandage it as that can help to keep it still and get it checked out. If you don't you could get permanent damage to the movement of your hand which will cause you a lot of problems aswell as potentially putting you at a higher risk of developing problems with your joints and making it difficult for you to do anything and grip things. Depending on the damage done it may repair on it's own.
Also, if you have hit nerves which the lose of feeling makes me wonder these can be incredibly hard to heal and need o get looked at as soon as possible to get any chance of you getting the feeling back in the area as nerves are not very good at healing themselves.
You need to get this all assessed so I would go to A&E, get it checked out and then they can skan it and things if they feel necessary and it may be that a surgeon has to take a look at it. It definately needs checking; damage to nerves/ tenodons can in a large proportion of cases be permanent if you don't get it checked out. And this will cause a lot of problems with it being your hand involved.
You should get it looked at as soon as possible; waiting for the feeling to come back will just prolong it and if needed will make it less likely to be repairable
Ok, I went to a&e on Sunday evening (after sleeping most of Sunday day). All of the staff I saw were really nice, so it wasn’t an horrific experience. Because of another cut that spurted when they took the dressing off I even got bumped up the waiting list, so it took 4 hours rather than 7!
The orthopaedic guy examined my hand and prodded me with needles, and confirmed that I have lost sensation, but all my movement is fine.
I have an appointment at the fractures unit tomorrow morning, and they may be able to operate to get the feeling back. Apparently because there is a lot of scar tissue around my arm and hand, any operation would be difficult so they may decide to just leave it. The doctor suggested however that if I had lost movement of done more significant damage then they defiantly would operate, but just sensation loss isn’t too awful which is why they might not.
I was also told that any time I cut my forearm that deeply I am risking doing damage to my hand movement, so to try not to in future.
I am staying with my mum tonight (so I can’t be online much as she has a dialup connection and pays by the minute – I am typing this in word at the moment), and she will be taking me into hospital early tomorrow morning.
I am also about to phone the crisis team, and am likely to be seeing them at some point (I’m doing online first cus that’s easier, although the one of the crisis team staff that I get on with is on tonight which is why I’m not leaving that until the morrow). I think that I should have made contact with them before now, so it was good that the hospital encouraged me and set it up.
I’ll try to update again tomorrow
"Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world"
I'm glad you got checked out. Hopefully everything will turn out Ok.
Well it breaks my heart to see you this way,
The beauty in life, where's it gone?
And somebody told me you were doing okay,
Somehow I guess they were wrong.
My RYL family:
I-used-to-be-positive is my big sister razorxkissedxwrists is my mommy alyssa.star is my sister phoenixflames_forever is my cousin concreteangel, helpmydeath, xxbeckyxx and queer fringe are my little sisters bob--says--hi is my twin
