Yes, you will be back on the river!
Maybe the surgery really isn't the answer - maybe the hand pain would be alleviated some other way.
I've lost faith in surgeons.
Somewhere else today I read of a woman who went in for routine surgery (getting a stent), and she never woke up. In her sixties. Who was this... where... did I read it here? It wasn't Joan Rivers, but someone local, I thought.
I really hope and pray you'll be well, and in good hands (medically).