Thursday, December 14, 2006

bad break

I fell while skating on November 20th and knew right away I'd broken a finger because it was pointing in the wrong direction. An arduous night at a Waterbury emergency room ended with doctors pushing it back best they could and telling me I needed surgery. I had snapped my right middle finger at the base and broken a joint in the hand.

Two days later a hand specialist put it back together with a graft and two 4 inch pins. In the three weeks since I've had a series of casts, my hand reformed, stitches and pins removed, the beginning of physical therapy, and a lot of pain killers.

I'm a right handed artist, I'm a fainter with a low squeam tolerance, and I've got a doctor phobia from hell. Everything about this situation is what I would have liked most to avoid.

Yet, even though it's a bad break and rotten in so many ways, so much about it seemed to go so right. From the tough friends who stayed by my side that night, to the orthopedic nurse standing next to Karl when he got the call who immediately began arranging my care, to even the left handed scissors I'd accidentally bought the week before. So much was in place it was as if it was planned.

Painting, sculpting, spinning, skating, puppeteering, and blogging were dropped for the constant tending of my hand, and a lot of sleeping and eating. But things are starting to return a little at a time. I've gotten pretty good at one handed typing, so I'll be keeping a documentary of my recovery from hereon. I'll post pictures of my hand, but I promise nothing grosser then this xray (though I've got some real gag inducers for anyone with a sick curiosity.) The goal is to get my hand back fast and complete, as well as shed my squeamishness enough to look at the first xray of the break, which I still can't do.

So onward goes the blog. Onward goes my strange, amazing life.

But no more goddamn fortune cookies.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh dear! Sorry to hear that... I suppose that means you'll have to adapt in lots of ways.

I suppose there'll have to be some kind of silver lining maybe just in the change of perspective.

When Pablo Casals broke his wrist he exclaimed, "Good! Now I won't have to play that blasted cello again!"

But in fact he did play it again. Anyhow, it' nice to have limits sometimes, and I suppose a broken finger might be as good as any.

At least you can still type... and write.

Linda S. Wingerter said...

its true, part of the reason i took up the other hobbies was that my hands were so tired and sore from full time painting. i wanted a break! lol. anyway now i have a lot of time with a great hand therapist who is going to teach my how to not let that happen again when i get back to it. something i should have done a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

Linda,

I have just discovered your blog. Very interesting. I am typing as a lefty because I broke my finger at the joint a few days ago and I am looking for the fellow disfingured. Actually, I'm trying to get an idea of what the surgery (for the pins) and recovery immediately thereafter will be like.

I don't have a lot of time for research since I am a mother of two tiny ones, only 18 monts apart. My youngest turned 10 months old today. I have a precious few minutes while they nap. Care to share a quick story of the surgery itself and immediate after-effects? I was wondering when I will feel well enough to drive to work again. They are trying to get other people to handle dogs for me while I teach (I'm a dog trainer three days a week).

Cheers,

L

Linda S. Wingerter said...

Oh! I missed this last comment until now. I don't know when it was posted, but for anyone looking to talk about broken hands, PLEASE email me at merfire@gmail.com . I am more then happy to share experience and give support to my fellow maimed and injured hands.
Linda