The Patchwork Man

Many thanks

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Many thanks to those who contacted me to express concern about my medical “emergency”.  I guess I should explain what happened.   

On Sunday I was trying to fix a blender and my right hand got ripped up when the blender rotor started automatically without the glass bottle attached.

Unfortunately, the main damage was to my index finger and Monday I had emergency microsurgery, a complex two hour operation to try and reconnect nerves and arteries in the finger. Naturally my right hand is in a splint and I have to do everything with my left hand. However, my voice recognition program works pretty well. 

I am very fortunate that my little apartment is only a 10 minute walk from one of Tokyo’s biggest and best hospitals, Tokyo Women’s University Hospital.

I get the splint off next week but I will continue using voice type to reduce stress on the finger.

Since the nerves and arteries in the finger could not be connected. directly the doctors used little tubes through which the organic material regenerates. The nerves re-grow at the rate of about 1 inch or 2.5 cm per month, so it will be maybe two or three months before I can pick my nose delicately at cocktail parties with appropriate good manners.

 I am increasingly artificial. The tendons and one shoulder which were torn in an accident were later replaced with tendons from a cadaver in an innovative but hugely expensive new operation done in the US. The walking dead?

My abdominal hernias were repaired using sophisticated technique that creates a woven lattice from your own muscle tissue pinned with a few wire sutures, which occasionally set off alarms in airports. “No that ain’t a bomb in my abdomen! “

The hernia operation was done in Canada and amazingly inexpensive despite the hospital stay .

As for my finger, well, I think it’s emblematic of my personality.  Wrong finger. Should’ve in the middle one.

Am I a zombie? Or just a patchwork man?

Julian