This is my first post in quite some time. It’s also the first use of my right arm typing in over 5 weeks. It turns out that I spent most of my life with a compressed nerve in my elbow. This lead to constant pain and numbness as well as a lack of good sleep and function in my right hand. That made music and art almost impossible for me, but I kept on because I’m rather driven (or stubborn). On October 3rd, I had a sub-muscular ulnar nerve transposition. Dr Thoder, of Temple Sports Medicine, cut my forearm muscles and put the irritated nerve in a safe place under those muscles. The surgery was rather invasive and I’m a little over a third of the way through the recovery. I won’t playing live music again until 2018.
The good news is the pain and numbness are gone and I’m cleared to begin PT. I’ve spent the last five weeks working on my left hand – doing endless piano exercises. I also started dreaming again. It turns out that I would never get into a deep sleep because every time I bend my arm, the nerve grated against the bone in my elbow. I’ve already started drawing for the first time since I was a child.
Not only that, I can play all things I used to play with my right hand with the left on the piano. I’ve recorded a few things that I’ll be sharing with you shortly. If you have a problem that’s keeping you from doing the things you love, I hope my story will act as inspiration to get it fixed…if you can.
Until the next update,
B
