AarghThe first day back at work is always painful: Today was no exception, though it was more literally painful than is usually the case. As I was getting out of the airport shuttle van Monday night I managed to catch my little finger in the door and wrench it severely. It started swelling immediately and was an interesting shade of black and blue by yesterday morning. I cannot bend it at the proximal joint. Fortunately typing is not a problem, in fact, it's much easier than holding a pen.
Figuring I might as well know the awful truth about the state of my proximal interphalangeal joint, I phoned up our X-ray tech who told me "Come on down." I descended to the x-ray suite, presented my pinky for inspection and soon found myself seated in a chair with a lead apron flung over me.
"You want two views or three?" she asked.
"Better make it three." Click, click, click and we were done. On review it looks as though I may have a small nondisplaced chip fracture in the PIP joint, so we sent the film to a radiologist for an expert opinion and I phoned up the hand surgeon's office. They are sending me a splint for my pinky via interoffice mail. If that doesn't help I may have to actually go and see the guy, but I'll try this first.
posted by Dr. Alice at #
