About three weeks ago I was sparring with 7 other karate students. We would rotate opponents every minute. I took a few good hits but nothing bad. I tried to block a roundhouse kick with my right hand and missed with my forearm instead the kick hit my pinky. Which hurt but I had thought I just jammed it. It swelled up and turned purple but went back to normal after a few days.
The next week we were doing kick/punch drills. During one of these drills my pinky starting hurting quite a bit. It swelled back up again so I iced it and took it easy. The swelling went down but now I had a bump on the top of the first pinky joint. It never went down and became very…. tender.
After a few more days I thought I should have it looked at so off to my family doctor I went. She took one look at it and sent me to an orthopedic specialist. X-rays showed that I fractured the bone at the joint of the tip of my pinky. Then by punching away moved the fragment of bone over top the first joint. This eventual dislocated the tip of my finger downward. The orthopedic doctor stated the best route was to insert a pin into my finger.
I was ok with the idea so off to surgery I go.
Surgery day comes and I am escorted by my wife to the hospital at 7:00AM. I am prepped for surgery while my wife keeps me company. In a staging area before going into the operating room my doctor comes out with a HUGE needle. This thing had to be ten inches long and about a half an inch thick. He then told me “this is going to sting quite a bit”. He stuck the meaty part of the bottom of my hand. Sting my ass! It was every needle I have ever had in my life all at once. At this point my wife can no longer watch and turns away as he begins to move the needle in and out left to right to spread out the local. I take the pain by clinching my other fist so hard my hand starts to shake. When it’s all over I told the doctor “you weren’t kidding about the sting part”. He said, “Yes there are a lot of nerves there”. Five minutes later I cant feel a thing in most of my hand.
After an hour I am whisked into the OR and prep my hand for surgery. They bring out this huge blue cover. Blocking my view of my hand. I had really wanted to watch this but they weren’t interested letting me view the procedure. The doctor starts I feel tugging here and there. A can hear a low speed drill, more tugging, more drilling. This goes on for about 15 minutes. When its all done and I can finally see my finger is bandaged up and wrapped with so much gauze its six times the size it used to be. Below are the results. Three pins all together. The largest of the three starts at the tip of my pinky and goes almost to the second joint keeping the finger straight. The other two pins are holding the bone fragment in place. I’m given a prescription for painkillers and antibiotics and sent on my way.
I don’t get feeling back in my hand until 11:00PM that night. When it wore off the painkillers were in hand fast. They don’t take the pain away but make it bearable. All of this for a little piece of broken bone in the wrong place. The pins come out in one month. If I can stop banging the damn thing every 20 minutes until then I’ll be a happy man.
-F
