The Finger

It all started on Monday, July 5. For Family Home Evening, Tyson and I went to play basketball with his family. Honestly, I'm not a good athlete and I'm not competitive but Tyson and his family are so I was trying to "get my head in the game." I must have done a really good job because, not only did I score half the points for my team, I fought Tyson for the ball and ended up breaking my finger. At first everyone told me it was just jammed and not to stress. Luckily, Tyson found me a finger splint which helped keep my finger straight.

On Wednesday, we all drove down to California to spend time with my family. Tyson and I decided that I should probably have my finger x-rayed just to make sure nothing else was going on. My mom took us to urgent care in Glendale. The doctor said that he didn't think it was broken because I wasn't in a lot of pain. They x-rayed it anyway and TA-DA!! Broken. This is what happened.

The tendon in my middle finger snapped back and pulled part of the top knuckle socket off. So, the tendon and part of that socket are no longer attached to my finger.

This picture shows (basically) what happened to my finger. Notice the box in the top left corner. Just add part of the bone to the tendon that has ruptured and voila! My injury.

Later on Thursday, we met with a hand specialist in Pasadena who said that I may have to have a pin put through my finger to keep the bones from healing incorrectly. Great. He also suggested that I have that surgery done in Utah so that I could have proper follow-up appointments. Still not too thrilled with the idea of a piece of metal being shoved through my bones, I agreed to meet with another specialist in Provo.

Tuesday morning (yesterday), I met with another specialist. He looked at my previous x-rays and wanted to take new ones to see if anything had changed in the past week. The new x-rays showed no movement and the doc advised me to not have the pin inserted. HOLLA! I was all for that news. The tried to fit me with a splint but none of the sizes fit. They were either too big or too small. The office made me an appointment for Thursday to meet with their physical therapist who would make me a custom splint. After leaving the doctor's office, my mom and I went back to my apartment to pick up my wedding dress because it needed to be cleaned. The office called and told me the therapist would meet with me today and I should come back right then. YAY! We hopped back in the car and got back to the doctor's office. The therapist fitted me with a custom splint and we had a great time chatting with the PA and the other patients. I have to wear this splint for the next eight weeks. I have another doctor's appointment on July 27 to re-x-ray (is that right?) my finger.

So, if you are coming to the wedding reception, be gentle if you shake my hand. HURRAY FOR NO PIN!! LONG LIVE THE SPLINT!!