Second and last visit with the occupational therapists today. Couldn’t get Heather this time but I loved Ida just as much. She immediately started talking about that head transplant article that I keep seeing on the side of my facebook timeline (or whatever the heck it is). Apparently it’s real? At any rate, they are having a laugh over there at the bone doc’s office. We segued from there to the rich man’s version of texting via a Rolls Royce with a built-in pipe organ that you can play from the driver’s seat. We overheard this via another patient and Ida was googling like crazy. It’s okay, she was also multi-tasking, as she had me all wrapped up in towels and hot pads of some sort and was waiting for Titanium Pinky to “cook” before she got to the point of “manipulating” it. That was my word and she spooked a bit at that and said the word “courtroom’. I told her I would NEVER take her to court but I know that kind of thing happens because well, there are people who will sue someone or some entity whether they have a valid reason to or not. I don’t think that my OT has been in court. I think that the Umich health system has experienced something like this and has advised everyone how to be careful to avoid court. Sigh.

Anyway, we had fun with Titanium Pinky and I “graduated” to a couple of additional exercises and a “buddy” thingy to use during my hand exercises to make sure my fingers re-learn how to make a proper fist without any crossover. Since I have to drive the Ninja next week anyway, I am doing an experimental trip to work with it tomorrow. I will be okay *anyway* but I think that the new buddy thingies will help. Yikes! Rocks had shoulder surgery a while back and her ex would not trade vee-hickles with her so she was reaching over with her left hand to shift. 1) We all take things like driving for granted and 2) I can’t even imagine being married to someone who wouldn’t let me drive the automatic until my finger healed, let alone days when there is too damn much ice on my commute for the Ninja’s performance taaaars to handle.

Before my first OT session, I filled out a form about my injury. There were lots of questions about how much pain doing various activities caused. You know the 1-10 pain scale, roight? My answers were 1 at the most. I have not had a lot of pain throughout this whole thing and I am not stupid enough to try to do things that I KNOW will stress my finger enough to cause excruciating pain.

Do I care about my hand’s appearance? I was initially puzzled by that question because I have always loved how my fingers looked. They are strong, flexible, functional fingers and I have used them to do many things in my life, including some specialized things like playing musical instruments. I quickly realized that there are probably many folks who are dealing with the kind of arduous multi-surgery process involved in re-building a completely mangled hand. My heart goes out to them.

That said, Ida and I were talking about the wrinkles that we all have at our knuckles and wrists. Apparently some folks (as they age?) get freaked out about those wrinkles and want plastic surgeons to remove them or smooth them out or whatever. I LOVE those wrinkles. They aren’t really all that different than they were when I was a child. They are there for the purpose of allowing us to bend our fingers at their joints. It would never have occurred to me to ask someone to remove those wrinkles.

At the end, we bid farewell and Ida said that if we met again, she hoped it was at the mall. I don’t go to the mall (unless I am forced to go to the “genius” bar) but she doesn’t know that and I got the point!

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