Help me with my trigger finger

Hi Elly, welcome.

General anesthetic for a simple trigger? Is there something else going on? Is there a good reason you can't take locals? My surgery for 3 fingers at the same time was done with local. The entire procedure took only 15 minutes for all 3.

General anesthetic means intubation, gas, feeling miserable when you wake up. Even just getting propofol for such a short job should be plenty, no intubation, wake up clear-headed. A good local - by that I mean whole hand is numb, so you could think of it as regional - will last about 8 to 12 hours if the doc uses the right long-lasting anesthetic. That means waking up in the middle of the night, so have your pain pill on the bedside table. I chew up mine so it will work faster.

I admit I was nervous, so a nurse stood by me and held my other hand and we chatted. After the first needle stick for the local my hand had no feeling at all. I had no IV, nothing to mess up my mind.

What's a wait list for this? Can't you get on a schedule? You are allowed a second opinion.

I have had both thumbs released, and 3 fingers released. I have had it done with general, twilight and local on different occasions. While I do prefer not to be awake, the effects of general after the surgery was worse than the surgery. While no surgery recovery is pain free, this one is not bad. For one of the releases, I worked that morning, and worked a half day the next day. That was probably not my best choice and I should have probably taken the day after surgery off, I was only on Advil by that point. I have always received pain meds after surgery, but not taken very many, except when I also had other things done at the same tine.