I couldn't even close my left hand. No surgery; a shot of coritsone took care of it. Turns out it was caused by my resting my left elbow on the arm of a fairly hard chair as I read a book held in my left hand. Solution? Put a cushion on the chair arm. That was 9 months ago and I've had no more problems. It took about 6 weeks before I was up to speed tho.
Good luck with the surgery, Eric.Hope you get it all back.

troll