Finger Follies

I wound up taking myself to the ER Tuesday evening after seeing that my middle finger was continuing to swell.   How did I get to this point, you ask?

It started with Dom wanting to get chicken tenders from a local chicken shack called Shark's.   This was a Sunday afternoon on November 10th.   I wasn't feeling it but I went ahead and picked up an order of it for him after getting a few groceries from the place next door.

It was a bit windy that day and when I opened the screen door to Sharks, it started pulling away.  Not wanting the door to swing open after I got in, I grabbed the handle with my left hand.  I didn't realize how close to the frame the handle was.   As I pushed the door closed, I felt the door slam against my middle finger.   I winced as I quickly pulled it out.  

My finger was hurting for the rest of the day but I didn't notice anything else amiss.  As the week went on, my lower part of the middle finger stopped hurting and the upper felt less but still lingered.   By Friday I started noticing my finger beginning to swell.   There was a small area of discoloration forming to the left of my finger.

I tried to ice it a few times a day but it didn't seem to help much.  I called myself trying to compress it with a band-aid the evening of Monday the 18th.   But after a few hours I took it off because the pain in my upper finger was getting worse.

I contemplated staying home from work the day I finally went to the E.R.  Dom solidified it by saying he wanted me to stay home because he had a doll package coming.  I honestly was not really relishing going to the office so decided to heed his suggestion.   By the end of the day I decided that I needed to get my finger checked out to make sure it was okay.

It was a good thing I went.  It ended up the discoloration around my finger was a bacterial infection.  The nurse told me that she would have to poke my finger with a needle and squeeze it to get the pus out.   That was disgusting to see the grayish white pus ooze out.   It was painful too as she squeezed my finger.

Afterwards she cleaned the wound and applied a splint to my finger.   She mentioned that there was a tiny fracture in the finger and would need time to heal.   She did not give me a definite answer when I would be able to remove it.   I would also need to take an antibiotic to kill the bacterial infection.

I'm glad I went to the ER.   I was also relieved that there was noone in the ER the time I went so they were able to see me right away.

I will say it has sucked having this splint.  It has made routine things like typing, washing dishes, showering, and even putting clothes on a challenge.   I am grateful that the injury was not in my dominant hand.  But it hasn't made it any easier.

I had a follow-up with my primary physician and he told me that I would be able to take it off the splint after two weeks.   That was a relief to hear.   So I'll get to have my splint with me while visiting my sisters for the holidays.   It'll make for a great conversation piece with the family no doubt.