It's called a boxer's fracture. 99% of the time, these breaks come from someone who has gotten angry and punched the wall or something hard enough to snap the bone extending from the 5th knuckle (pinky) to the wrist..the metacarpal bone. In fact, this is what I saw on one website.
"The best way to prevent a boxer fracture is to avoid situations in which injury can occur from punching or hitting a hard object in frustration or anger."
Ok, people, I know what you are thinking. No, I did not get mad enough at someone and throw a punch. No, in fact, I fall into the 1% category. I was at softball practice for our church coed season which starts this week. I was about to catch a ball at first when I heard a noise coming from someone at the plate, and out of a knee jerk reaction, turned to look. Never before have I made such a stupid decision, but what's done is done. When it happened, I didn't even realize anything bad had happened. I shook my finger in reaction to the little bit of a sting that I felt. Then I realized that I couldn't move my finger at all. I jogged over to where there was a guy on our team who was a doctor and joked about needing a medic. I told him I thought I just broke my finger but wasnt's sure. He looked at what at that time just had a little bit of swelling. He said to just buddy tape the two fingers and wait until the next day. If it still hurt he wanted me to come in for an x-ray. If not he was just going to assume it was severely jammed.
So fast forward 30 minutes. I am now icing my finger which has now swollen about 5 times that amount. The pinky now bends towards the thumb...naturally. I can't straighten it, nor can I make a fist to grip anything. Zoe had a little birthday party, and while I was sitting in the background icing, another man from our church who was a doctor came to investigate. He took one look and said, "unless your finger naturally bends that way, you need to go to the ER and have it re-set."
So off to the ER we go. An X-Ray confirms my fear and shows that I do indeed have a break in the metacarpal bone. But not only that, the ball had caused the knuckle and bone attached to it to push downward and rotate like a barbar's pole would. That is why my pinky had such a bad bend in it. They put me in a temporary cast, gave me a shot and some pain medicine and sent me on my way. I was instructed to go to an orthopedic doctor today to discuss further treatment.
So, now fast forward to this morning. We go see the doctor who takes off the cast, and sticks my finger in this.
I was instructed to allow the weight of my arm to pull downward. Apparently it allows for a natural resetting of the bone. Apparently ,y weight wasn't enough to fully correct it because the nurse came in and "graciously" put her weight on my arm. Umm...let's just say that hurt a bit. Just a bit. :)
But now the bone is once again aligned and straight...still broken, but now not resembling a barbar's pole and causing all sorts of pain with that. So what's next?
This.
For 4-6 weeks. And what does that mean? No softball for me...which to be honest is what I am most upset about. It also means no heavy lifting. No getting it wet. No doing anything that could further irritate it. And yes, it's my right hand...which is my "everything" hand. This is going to be a long 4-6 weeks.
See why it is an experience I could have done without!?
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