The view from my window

It's about time I do another blog post to update everyone on my hand status and my location in the world. At this moment I am in a little speck on the map town called Lester Iowa which I have adopted as my second home. Lester Iowa is about 3 miles from the tri state marker showing where the boarders of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota come together. I have attached a picture of what I can see from my kitchen table as I write this. We have already had two snow falls this year and it is only early November!

Since my last blog post my life has been a bit of a roller coaster. I have worked through 2 months of pretty intensive physical therapy and I am now able to make half a fist. My pinkie and ring finger still do not bend enough to be useful to me but I have enough hand strength that I am able to shear again and that is the important thing:)

I started shearing again in the middle of September, staring with small jobs. I was able to knock out just a few at a time and slowly begin to get a feel to what my limitations are. Since my left hand was the one that was hurt and I am right handed I found that I did not have too many issues with shearing even without being able to bend all my fingers. I found the hardest part has been shearing goats. Goats require more manipulation of the skin and a firm hold when shearing around the head. I had some rough days fighting with goats because of my weakness but I did get them all done (with a little help from my sweetie:)

People have been incredibly understanding this year since I have has to move around shearing dates and refer out jobs that I couldn't handle. This fall had to cater to my healing and the availability of my help so I want to take a second to thank everyone for their understanding and encouragement as I continue to get back up to speed. I found this fall also was nice because I was able to group my work into chunks instead of having it spread out over 3 months. It was nice to get everyone done and then be able to go visit friends and have time for all my physical therapy and doctors appointments! I feel like I am going to continue with this schedule in the future as it really made life simpler.

I am currently out in Iowa where I have been able to push myself to my limits and really work my arm to try to regain my strength. We shear about three days a week out here and for the most part they have been long days so I have been able to see how my hand responds to stress (answer: not so well). I have woken up a few times the next day and was unable to move my hand at all. But with stretching and soaking in hot water and rest days it comes round again. I am now aware of the phenomenon of weather changes and how it effects compromised body parts. When people complain that their bad knee hurts when a storm is coming, they are not kidding! My hand aches when the weather is changing and there is nothing that helps completely to numb the pain. But I hope that the more time I put between this incident I will think about it less and less. 

So for now I am achy but working so I am happy. It is nice to be working with a team of supportive shearers. Nice to have lots of lambs to shear. Really nice to be healthy. 

As for my future plans, right now I have one more surgery scheduled right before thanksgiving. This is a quick outpatient deal where they will open up my hand and remove the scar tissue connections that are preventing my fingers from fully closing. I will have about a week to recover (just to let the stitches heal) then I am ok to shear again. From here on out I am supposed to move my hand as much as possible so that scar tissue doesn't re-adhere the tendons. I really hope I can make a full fist after this. But even if it only gives me back a fraction of my flexibility I think I will still be happy. I know what it feels like to not be able to move those fingers at all and I am functioning well enough with my current limits. I am so grateful for what this year has taught me and I'm looking forward to finally putting it all behind me and focus on next year and the opportunities I will have. 

I'm already thinking about spring and can't wait to see everyone again:)

Long hard road...

On July 2, 2013 Kevin and I were shearing out west of Frederick Maryland on a farm with about 160 big Charolais/Southdown cross ewes. We got a good start on them but we knew right away it was going to be a tough flock. On my 19th sheep I was moving into the long blows (ie. the sheep was laying on its side) when the sheep kicked and got its foot in behind my handpiece which drove it into the back of my left hand. 

Kevin took me right away to Frederick memorial hospital where we sat for 6 hours before a doctor saw me. I had a large gash in the back of my hand and could not lift my middle and ring fingers. When I finally saw a doctor they cleaned it out and referred me to another doctor who said he wanted me to come see him the next day to clean it out again and possibly sew it up.

The next day I called this doctor to verify my appointment time and learned that I could not see him because he did not accept my insurance. I was told that I would have to pay "possibly several thousand dollars" to see him and they told me to look elsewhere for care.

What followed were several stressful hours on the phone calling doctors and my insurance carrier trying to find someone to fix my hand, which at this point was still an open wound and two dangling fingers. Even my insurance company couldn't help me find an appropriate doctor. My own family doctor declined to see me because they knew they couldn't fix the tendons. I did finally end up getting an appointment with a doctor in Frederick for A WEEK LATER. I kept up with the calls and finally spoke with a sympathetic nurse who told me I had three options, call my insurance for doctor recommendations (did that), wait for the appointment I already had (no freakin way), or go back to the emergency room. So that's what I did.

24 hours after that conversation, one hospital transfer, and several OxyContins later I was in surgery (on July 4th, God bless America) getting my tendons sewn back together. I was discharged later that day in a soft cast with orders to keep it dry and follow up in 2 weeks. 

This worked out to my advantage as I was still able to go on a planned road trip to Canada. The week of sitting in a car helped keep my hand still and clean and I didn't go crazy with boredom. 

Upon returning I went to see my doctor for follow up and the drama continues as the doctor whom I was scheduled to see in my follow up was not the one who did my surgery. Somehow because of it being a holiday the doctor who was on call when I was admitted was not there on the 4th and so my paperwork was mixed up and I ended up seeing the wrong doctor. He did check me out though and prescribed a full finger brace and no physical therapy.

When I went to the in house PT she was very concerned about the unnecessary use of a full finger brace and highly recommended follow up physical therapy. They eventually decided on a half finger brace but still no doctor ordered PT.

The next day I searched online for possible physical therapy references in Sioux Falls SD (where I will be the next few weeks) and ran into more problems since I didn't have a doctors notice and then ran into another problem that now my surgeon wanted to see me himself. Well that does me no good when I'm halfway to Missouri. 

To say that this injury has been a constant struggle would be an understatement!

But in spite of it all my prognosis looks good. I'm going to continue to push for physical therapy and hopefully I'll be able to shear by the end of September. 

Which brings me to the important info for anyone who was planning to have me shear this fall. Because of the uncertainty of my hand strength and because there are only 30 or so jobs that I already had counted on for this fall, I've come up with an acceptable (for me) option for helping get everything done safely and efficiently. Kevin has agreed to come out for 2 weeks (around sept 22-oct 5 roughly)to help me. This will allow me to shear only as much as my hand will allow and Kevin can help get the work done. There is too much work going on out west for him to stay much longer but we will do what we can on a first come first serve basis. I know this option isn't ideal for some of you as you may have planned on earlier or later shearing dates but I cannot commit to shear anything on my own until I know how much my hand can handle. I am happy to refer you to other shearers if you would feel more comfortable with that option or if you decide to stick with dates when Kevin will not be here.

I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive through this whole ordeal. I don't see this impacting my spring 2014 run at all. But I'm going to have to take one day at a time for a while until I'm back to cruising speed:)

Photo curtesy of Pieter DeMooy