Mabon Elk Rut Moon
As cancer season faded out in late September, so joint season took over in early October. Kate’s surgery for her painful thumb took place yesterday. Tom Crane had the same surgery last year. It’s a well practiced procedure with consistent results, after the swelling goes down and the three months of swaddling the hand is over. There are many things to learn how to do right handed: tie your shoes (not), hold a stair railing going up, take a shower without getting the bandage wet, dress yourself. And many more.
She also got a platelet injection in her right thumb, the one that has rheumatoid arthritis. This is a non-covered procedure that improves joint function in some people. The physician takes your own blood, puts in a centrifuge, separates out the platelets, then injects those platelets into the base of the thumb. My physical therapist’s mother got three years of back pain relief from platelets.
While Kate figures out how to engage life with one hand, the physical therapist has me doing an increasingly long series of exercises to exorcise (ooohh, exercises to exorcise) the referred pain from my arthritic cervical vertebrae. I like p.t. because it’s non-invasive and has worked well for me each time I’ve done it.
Here on Shadow Mountain we’re all about joints in October.