the fingah

So... this is probably more for me to have medical documentation/journal than anything else, but here's the scoop on my fingah (say it like an angry Italian lady).

Like I said in my last post I injured my finger while tubing at Soldier Hollow and attempting to slow down the tube before crashing into some kids. I succeeded at avoiding the kids, but my hand hit the concrete-hard snow in the process and jammed my finger. Luckily it was at the end of the day so we were able to enjoy ourselves up to that point. After a couple days of waiting and watching my finger to see if the swelling would go down I decided to hit the InstaCare for an opinion. The Dr. took an X-ray and discovered that it was fractured and dislocated and referred me to a hand specialist at Alta View.

The hand specialist numbed it, tugged on it and put it in a splint and took more X-rays and discovered that it was still dislocated, which told him that the ligaments were also torn and that it required surgery (sutures and pinning). They had to cut off my wedding ring. Sad. Surgery was a little surreal, as it was a partial general anesthesia and as I was coming out of it I could hear sounds of the pin being cut, the doctors talking about going on a cruise, etc. My hand was in a splint, then a cast, and now a splint again that will last for another 6 weeks. Yesterday I got the pin removed (holy hell that hurt!) and today I started hand occupational therapy for range of motion. It is very stiff and hard to bend and hurts, but I'm supposed to warm it up first and then massage it for about 5 minutes 10 times a day. All of this seems sooo CRAZY for such a small appendage, but they say I'll never be able to bend it if I don't start now.

My ring finger all swollen the day after tubing.

Waaaaaah! My cut wedding ring. :(

Xray of my finger post-op and the pin through all 3 bones.

The tip of the pin.

The Dr. said the ligaments were 'blown'. This is 8 stitches later post-op.

My hand all bruised and swollen

The pin (compared to my index finger) and after the Dr. bent the tip because I wanted to keep it.

The splint that I need to wear for another month.