Broken, Not Broken

So when I fell at about mile 2 in the Utah Spartan Beast on July 20--just over a month ago--I felt confident that my finger was broken.  The medics agreed, and they applied a makeshift split made of a popsicle stick and tape.  That kept the finger straight and provided a small amount of protection.

I got home late the next day and visited the doctor morning after that.  I did not get past the desk at my primary care physician's office; they don't deal with such things and told me to go to the urgent care clinic.  The urgent care doc said that it did indeed look broken and referred me to a hand specialist for x-rays, diagnosis, and treatment.  When I called for an appointment, they gave me the first available:  July 31!  That was pretty rotten, as it failed to account for the importance of timely treatment for a broken bone.  

Quick side story:  the first time I had a broken bone was in the Navy in 1992 or 1993. I was at the base in Newport, RI for a few months, so it must have been SWOS-DOC in 1993.  I broke my right index finger playing volleyball one Saturday.  When I went to see the doc on Monday, I learned that even that short delay of two days was too much.  He looked at it and said he was sorry, but at that point all he could do was put a splint on it.

So on Tuesday 7/23 I went to the hand specialist first thing in the morning snd asked to be seen that day.  They turned me away, but they did move my appointment up 6 days to that Thursday, 7/25.  At the appointment they took a series of x-rays, which showed no evidence of a fracture.  This led the doc to theorize about a full or partial tendon rupture.  She had her technicians make a new splint from heat-molded polymer; this one kept my finger bent instead of straight.  I wore that until my follow-up appointment a week later.

At that appointment the doc decided that my finger needed to be straight after all and told me to wear buddy bands.  Well, even with some serious cranking on the buddy bands, I was unable to get it straight again.  I got frustrated with the ineffectiveness of the buddy bands and made my own splint out of a piece of padded aluminum.  That worked a little better, but again I was unable to get the finger straight.

Around this time I started thinking about Desert Orthopedic Center, kicking myself for not going there right away, back on 7/22.  I decided to get a second opinion, so I made an appointment; the earliest available was 8/23.  At that appointment they agreed that the finger needed to be straight and made  more appointments for me to see the hand surgeon and the occupational therapist.  The meeting with the surgeon is still pending, but the OT is keen to get that finger straight.  Sadly, they have not yet produced the promised splint, so I am stuck using my own, which is not so effective.  Anyway, the finger stops moving at about 90 degrees, and it hurts to try to push past there--but I'm making a little progress.  Fully straightening the finger won't be as bad as the leg two yeas ago, but I'm still not looking forward to it.

Stay tuned. 

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