For those of you with missing digits

How much would I miss this guy? Semi-seriously.

Just chatting with a physical therapist friend. She said that given the location of the break and the fact that it will have to be pinned, I'm looking at two surgeries and likely months of pt. Maybe amputation isn't a bad idea?

 

I'm not missing a digit-but unless you some need where you can't handle the rehab and down time-like the football player who chose amputation- I'd give the surgeries a chance. I have some teeth that might need to come out someday, but I am doing everything I can to keep them as long as I can.

 

i dont get it.....which ones broke

 

Looks like the pinky finger.

 

I've warned my pinky on numerous occasions that if it doesn't start cooperating it's getting lopped off. Definitely not a team player.

 

So, was this a splitter injury?

 

Pinky finger is pretty effed up. And it's a work injury, which means I'm at the mercy of worker's compensation insurance and 'the clinic', which really worries me.

I just met a friend of another friend that works in ortho at a prominent area hospital. She said 6-8 months before I return to full duty is a likely possibility. Which really sucks since I just paid off a number of high interest credit cards and built up a little savings. Workers comp and light duty pay for that long is going to put me right back in the same situation.

This is an injury that never should have happened. I could likely sue my employer and the manufacturer of the defective device causing the injury, but I don't want to be that guy. I also don't want to lose my @ss.

And I don't want anyone else to get hurt. I'm not the first, but I will be the last. That's one thing I will make sure of.

 

Please, don't jump to conclusions until you have it evaluated. It might not be so bad. Whatever you do, keep your body parts for as long as you can. Once that finger is healed, you will tell everyone else to not give up on it.

 

An amputation like that will heal a lot faster than the pinning and rehab. However I'm not aware of any surgeons who would offer that as an alternative on the hand. Have they?

We do selective amputations on toes but that's for different reasons.

That said I always recommend leaving this life with as much of the original equipment intact as possible.

 

Yep, just thinking out loud.

I know an old dairy farmer that broke a finger as a child. It was never treated properly, and never developed as it should. It was always in the way, and he tried to have it amputated as an adult. When his physician refused, he said he would be back in for some stitches . Ended up with having it surgically removed.

 

That's a tough decision there.
When I had knee surgery I got sick leave pay but it was not near what my regular pay was.
A fine tooth blade on the sawzall should make a nice clean cut there

 

Mother lost a couple toes from diabetes

 

My little finger was broken but not bad, don't remember how long it took to heal up, its crooked now but it works good

 

Lol. Actually, there's not a lot of sensation in the area at this point.

What's also making me sad is that with all the extra time I'll have in the next couple months, I can't fish. I mean, I'm sure I can cast left handed and crank with my right, but I don't know how I'd handle the pike and bass that I always catch.

 

Smashed my left middle finger in Jan 2006 at work,hurt like heck but just thought I'd lose the nail in a month or so.I have a pretty high pain tolerance so I told supervisor within 5 minutes of it happening said I'd wait to see how it feels by day's end,but would go to doctor if it got worse.Was very cold day & I was wearing heavy lined leather gloves so that numbed it some apparently.


Kept hurting in the evening,was swelling & the pain went up my arm & shoulder so I couldn't sleep.Told supervisor next morning,"I think I need to see doctor now..." After xraying found out it was broke in 3 places from the tip to the first joint.My first 0nly (so far) broken bone at 42 years old.

The splint worked for a couple days but it started to swell again & pain was getting worse.At the scheduled follow up exam the next day they noticed red streaks going up my hand (apparent blood poisoning) so I was sent to emergency outpatient surgery (this was Friday afternoon at 5PM after my jobsite was closed up for the weekend & everyone including supervisors went home for the weekend ) I was numbed up pretty good & laid down on my side while the surgery was done.Removed the nail,bone chips had severed a couple tendons & other work was done.Was on light duty for a few weeks,the finger was still pretty crooked by early summer after it healed,but eventually straightened up mostly.

Surgeon said it was the worst he'd seen that wasn't actually severed.To this day there's no feeling in the very tip & when the temps/barometric pressure changes or a storm is on the way my entire left hand/arm will ache a little,not real bad though its gradually getting more each year.Part of that is just arthuritis/getting old too I'm sure.

 

my little finger starts hurting when it gets cold too, broken many years ago

 

Here you go, probably even better than a sawzall