Tag Archives: broken finger

Oh You’ve Got Green Eyes, Oh You’ve Got Blue Eyes

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It’s amazing how many searches have come to this site since I wrote about breaking my finger. It seems I’m not the only one out there with digit damage wondering how long it’ll be out of action for. I’ve not been to BJJ for two weeks now, and I’m really missing it. I’ve still been training at TSD, but only with non-contact stuff. We did some chokes and escapes last night and even just trying to do a decent lapel grap was agony. It’s definitely getting there, it’s just very annoying that it’s stopping me from training how I’d like to. I’ve ditched the splint for today to see how I go; so far, so good.

I’m sat here now with an absolutely horrible cold. It’s been kind of lingering in the background for a few days, but I woke up this morning and felt like death warmed up. All I wanted to do was grab a hot drink, crash on the sofa with a duvet and work my way through the Star Wars films while napping and recuperating. Unfortunately I’ve put a load of new processes in place in the payroll system at work and this is the first week of testing them, so me not being here was never an option. Despite paracetamol and ibuprofen it still feels like my brain is trying to bash its way out through my skull, and I can’t wait until it’s time to go home.

I finally fixed my car over the weekend too, which is a massive relief. I remember telling people back in summer that it felt almost like my clutch was slipping and I was hardly getting any power uphill, and it’s been doing that ever since. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. I went through everything I could think of; checked plugs, HT leads, air filter, ditributor cap, rotor arm – but everything seemed to be fine. I had some oil blowback under the air filter which worried me (uh-oh, head gasket??) but no water or milkiness in the oil. I just couldn’t figure it out and was going to resort to taking it to the garage to pay an arm and a leg just to investigate it, but on a whim I picked up some new oil in Tesco of all places (yeah, I know, me in Tesco??). I topped up my oil with the new stuff and gave it an hour or two, and voila, working car! The old stuff must’ve been just about gone (it’s really hard to tell on my dip stick, which isn’t very helpful), but since changing it it’s been like a new car. I’m so pleased, and at the same time really embarrassed that I didn’t check before spending thirty quid on a new set of leads which I haven’t even got on the car.

The post title? No reason other than I was listening to New Order – Temptation on the way in today and it’s stuck. Whack it up on Youtube and enjoy yourself.

Neither Here Nor There

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Right about now I should be sat in a car on my way to the midlands with a bag full of equipment, starting to get nervous about taking part in the British Tang Soo Do championships. Instead I’m sat at a desk clock-watching and waiting for the weekend.

I knew from the start of the week that I wasn’t going to be able to go, thanks to a mix-up at work with annual leave, and in a way that’s almost a blessing in disguise. I didn’t break my finger until Monday night and at the time I didn’t know it was broken, but if I was still going at that point and found out that I wouldn’t be able to compete I’d have been absolutely gutted. As it stands I’m more annoyed than gutted. I’m envious that I’m not going up with the folks from our clubs, and I know envy isn’t an attractive quality in anyone, but it’s tough. I’ll be going along to training tonight to show some support for the few left down here in the normal class, but I won’t be able to do very much myself.

I spent my lunchtime up at the hospital in the fracture clinic. I had an appointment at 11:45 and when I got there I couldn’t believe how busy it was and how many people were waiting to be seen. In the end I waited just over an hour for my appointment, an appointment which took approximately ninety seconds. By that point it was more despair than anger at having to wait so long to be told almost nothing. According the specialist I saw it will take about a month for the bone to set properly, and if I catch it wrong before then I’m going to know all about it. He didn’t say I definitely couldn’t train, which is good news, but told me I should wait until I can stub that finger on a table without it being agony before I try anything much. I’ve tried it since. It’s still agony.

As I won’t be able to train at BJJ tomorrow, I’m already trying to come up with ways to occupy myself so I’m not left thinking that I should be somewhere else training or competing. Luckily dog agility has moved to Saturday mornings now that it’s too dark in the evenings, so that’s the morning taken care of. I intend to do a lot of cooking I think; I enjoy it, it keeps me occupied and I get to eat the results :) . We’re all getting together on Saturday night for a few drinks and some films to try to cheer up one of my good friends who’s had an exceptionally rough time of it lately.

Time to actually choose some music for the drive home. I grabbed a random one without looking from the pile of CDs in my car this morning, and the scandinavian girl singing at me was a real blast from the past and instantly took me back to earlier in the year. Spooky. Spooky and really distracting when driving!

Them’s The Breaks

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Well, my finger is definitely broken. After being badgered into going into Minor Injuries last night with my kinda gross-looking purple sausage finger, I went back this morning on the advice of the nurse I saw for an X-ray. I got down nice and early but it still took about an hour and a half before I was able to see the pictures and see what I’d done.

If you look at your finger, look at the last bone where your fingernail is. Right where your fingernail starts, that’s where I broke the bone underneath. The top-down X-ray shows it straight with a faint line where the crack is, but the side-on one is different. You can see the last bone looks quite wrong, instead of it following a smooth curve like the rest of the bones, it sort of bends up part-way along. It got snapped backwards clean in two. Apparently the bleeding from inside the bone is why it looks like a massive, swollen black chipolata.

It’s unlikely it’ll need anything doing to it, they’re happy that it’s naturally reset in a good enough position and that I didn’t break the joint, and therefore not needing pinning. I’m going to the fracture clinic on Friday to have a final say on what I need to do. For the time being it’s just a case of wearing my splints, resting it and taking lots of paracaetamol and ibuprofen for the pain and swelling.

It sounds daft, moaning about the last bone in my little finger, after all it’s not exactly vital or used much, but it’s incredibly inconvenient. I can’t write properly because I can’t rest my hand on that finger any more. I can’t type properly as my last two fingers are tied together in a splint. I can’t put my phone or wallet in my right pockets as putting my hand in is agony. I’ve been told absolutely no contact sports, and this is my biggest problem. No sparring, no kickboxing, no squad training, no BJJ. It leaves me with, wiiiith……. well, forms practise I suppose. I really hope the fracture clinic tell me it’s not going to take long. There’s only so long I can not train properly and put up with this ‘flipper’ on my hand before I go mad.