50,000 VOLTS (at least it felt like it !)

I thought I`d like to tell of my little trip to the hospital last Wednesday. I had to have a Nerve Conduction Test on my arm to find out why my left hand is dead from my wrist to the end of my little and the next finger along.

I am already waiting for surgery on it but the test is part of the proceedure to make sure the consultant did`nt miss anything. Well, I have a friend who had the same test and all she told me was that they put electrodes on your hand and elbow and that it takes about 15minutes.  Nothing to it, I`m thinking.  How wrong can a girl be ? Well, I was ushered into this little room in a new part of the hospital and was greeted by this tiny lady doctor who asked me a few questions and then started to put these little clips on my fingers, wrist and elbow. Still no problem. Then she started fiddling with these little knobs on her `state of the art` computer, which at that point I was attached to. I was totally absorbed by the screen and what was on it that I had forgotten what was going on with my hand temporarily...But only for a brief moment............OOOWWWW..the pain as my hand jumped in the air a total of five times!  A little warning that it might hurt would have been appreciated I can tell you!

So I had the test in 3 of my fingers, my wrist and my elbow. Each time I was shocked 5 times. Because some damage was found I had to have the test repeated 3 times, so I make that a total of 75 electric shocks in 15 minutes.  I was very pleased when that was over I can tell you, and the doctor said that I definetely need an operation on my elbow to release the nerves in my hand.  So come January, I think, I`ll have the op and I`ll have to type with one hand for at least a fortnight! Fortunately, I am right-handed so it won`t be too much of a handicap and I will be having day surgery so no overnight stay for me thankfully as I have an extreme aversion to hospitals even though the one I`ll be admitted to is only 1 mile from my home. I would`nt have the op at all but I was told in no uncertain terms that I would lose the muscle tone in my hand permanently without it, so no choice there.