Pull My Finger

I want to begin by apologizing to visitors who find that I've been MIA for six months. I've had a couple of adventures but not that much time to comment on them. A couple of months ago I fell on the ice which made it very hard to type for a while. Here's how I explained it to my kids:

I dropped off the van this morning to get snow tires in the midst of a big snow storm. I planned on taking the bus home, but saw it too late to get to the bus stop. Since it was only about 10 blocks, I figured I would start walking.

As I passed a grocery store, I went inside to see if they had an orange peeler. They didn't--but they had 2 liter Sprite on sale for 69 cents each. I bought four and two doughnuts and started walking again. About a hundred yards from home, my feet went out from under me and I went down. I heard a "crunch" when I landed, looked at my right hand and screamed. It was ugly. I had either broken my middle finger or dislocated it or both. I kicked my groceries off the sidewalk into the snow and took off for the nearest hospital. A kind lady stopped and gave me a ride. Unfortunately, this health care facility doesn't accept my insurance. I didn't care as long as they were willing to pull my finger back in to place.

The doctor wasn't in yet due to the snow. They couldn't give me anything for the pain because I hadn't eaten anything yet that morning (the doughnuts were lost in the snow). So, I got out my cell phone and took a picture of my hand. The doctor arrived in about 10 minutes. I held up my hand and she said, "That's a good one." She gave me two shots in my finger and sent me for x-rays. She explained that it was obviously dislocated but that it might be broken as well. If it's broken and they pull really hard on it, it can have additional distressing consequences.

They took x-rays and determined it wasn't broken and then started pulling on it. The nurse was pulling my finger while the doctor had hold of my arm--leaning against me for leverage. There was a loud "pop" and I said, "That's it? Is it fixed?" The doctor said, "No, that pop was my thumb, we have to do it some more."

After some more pulling, there was a much louder pop and it was back in. They wrapped two fingers together and charged me $700 and I went home. It's surprising how hard they had to pull to get it back in.

It looks like I won't be able to drive for a while since I won't have the use of my middle finger.

Turns out the Sprite cost me $175 per bottle--such a deal.

It's been interesting to see how many things are impacted by an injured finger. I can't tie my shoelaces, type "8", "i", "k", or ",". A few days after the accident, I took off the splint while watching "White Christmas" on TV with my wife. I said that even though they were gifted entertainers, it would be impossible to put together their dance number "just like that" as I held up my hand and tried to snap my fingers...