The Hand Story

This story takes place in November of 1999


      Well, I'm not gonna say exactly how I broke it.  Some of you know, but for those of you who don't, don't worry about it.  :-)  Anyways, here's the whole story (starting 5 seconds after I broke it).
        I looked down at my hand and my last two knuckles were kind of sunken in.  The bone that connects my ring finger to my wrist (the bone in the actual hand - not the finger) was kind of sticking up almost poking through the skin.  So I thought "ah crap... it's busted".  I didn't want my mom to panick and start freaking out, so I came downstairs a little shakin up but for the most part, pretty calm. I said, "Uh.. Mom?  I think I broke something," and she said "Oh no... What did you break?  The mirrors in the hall?" (thinking i ment SOMETHING like.. not a body part) and I said "my hand," and I held it up and she started freaking out.  Even my dad got grossed out.  That's how bad it was (darnit I should have taken a picture of the original break). You know how if you make a fist the knuckles all go up? Well my ring finger knuckle was sunken down, and that hand bone was broken in half.  So my mom called the pediatrition (if we go there before the hospital we get a $50 discount cuz of Health America or something) so I got rushed there and the doctor was like, "I can't believe shes not in more pain," cuz I was jokin' around about it and stuff. So anyway, he gave me some kind of metal flat splint type thing with a rounded edge for the fingers and nice blue padding in it.  It was fairly comfortable.  From there, I got sent directy to the hospitol to get it x-rayed, and the x-ray guy was really hot. He looked about 20 and he had like blond hair and blue eyes... nice! So anyway.. I had to answer some questions about stupid stuff (like asking me if I was pregnant and stuff like that) then I got the x-rays. For some reason they're not allowed to tell you whether its broke or not (the system sucks) so my mom said "I know you can't answer whether it's broken or not, but should I go to work tomorrow, or am I gonna have to bring her back up here to get her hand set.  The x-ray dude said, "Uhh....I wouldn't go to work," and then he kinda laughed.
        So I go to school the next day with nothing on my severly broken hand but the nice blue splint and some gauz or something, and I take 2 major tests with my left hand. Then I get called out at about noon to go back to the hospital and get it set.  First I had to go to SV Hospital to pick up my x-rays (didn't get to see the dude though) and my mom went to get a blood test while I waited to get the x-rays.  In the waiting room, I met another guy with a busted hand.  He was talking to some girl (probably his gf) and I over heard him say something about punching a wall (what a retard!).  So that's how he broke his.
        I picked up the x-rays, and Mom got her blood test, and then we headed out to some other doctors office to get it set.  That's where I met Dr. Smith.  Little did I know I would be seeing quite a bit of him over the next two months, but I'll get to that in a little bit.  In the waiting room, I met another guy with a broken hand.  My mom asked him how he broke his hand.  He said "I punched my car."  Heh.  Once again, what a retard!!!  So my mom gave him a little lecture - you know the type - "Did you learn yoour lesson? blah blah blah", and then the guy asked how I broke my hand.  I said,  "I punched my bed,"  (hehe) and he laughed and then my mom told him.. how I really broke my hand. ;)
        So we got called into the little room, and Dr. Smith came in, and we all looked at my x-rays.  WOW.  It looked pretty bad.  The bone was broken completely in half, bent, kind of twisted, and the two halfs of the bone were separated completely apart.  It kinda looked like this (Keep in mind this isn't my actual x-ray. I wanted to show you what it looked like so I did a search for hand x-rays, and I found a fairly decent one, so I saved it, and I altered it a bit to make it look the way mine looked):

        I wanted to get  my x-ray scanned and put on my webpage, but I guess Dr. Smith thought I was kidding when I asked so I didn't get to keep a copy.  Anyway, he made me lay down so he could set the bone and he told me it was gonna hurt really bad.  I guess I was expecting it to hurt so bad, that it actually didn't hurt that bad (know what I mean?).  That's why it's always good to expect the worst.  When you set yourself up to expect the worst, what you end up with isn't nearly as bad as you expected. The only thing that REALLY hurt was after he set it (I actually felt the bone pop back into place!) he had to twist it to get the finger straightened out again. Then I had to get it x-rayed again to see if it was back in place (I miss the first x-ray guy!! I had some chick this time) after he put the cast on me. And no, it wasn't a fiberglass cast. It was one of those heavy, ugly, white, cementish, PLASTER casts.
        Well, I had to wear that cast for two weeks.  It was NOT fun.  It took a lot of getting used to.  Living without a right hand isn't exactly easy.  The hardest things were probably brushing my teeth (at first), getting dressed, taking notes and stuff left handed, and buttering a piece of bread (Try it!  You'll see what I mean!).  I eventually got used to all that little stuff though.  After the first two weeks it got a little easier.
        Then I went back to see Dr. Smith (As much as I hate doctors, he's actually pretty cool. He's fun to joke around with and ask retarded questions to and stuff).  I got the cast taken off and I got rex-rayed again (by the chick) only to find out that my two weeks of casthood (new word) was for nothing.  The bone looked almost the same as it did the first time I went in.  So I got one day off of casthood (another new word).  They made me a half cast type thing to wear that day, but the way the nurse did it, my hand was back so far that it was killing my wrist, so I took it off and I wore my original blue splint thing (that thing sorta grew on me).  Here's some pictures of the way my hand looked (the hand, not the bone) after the two worthless weeks of castdom:

The one on the left is the back hand view, and the one on the right is the front of the hand view.  The right hand (the one on the left side of the picture) is the broken one (but you could probably see that).

        So the day after that I went in for surgery.  I had to get an IV (I HATE those things) and then they put something in it to relax all my muscles or something, and then they gave me some kinda gas, and I went to sleep.  While I was asleep, Dr. Smith had to reset the bone, then he had to push on it to get the bend out of it.  Then he put a temporary pin in the bone (I got to keep the pin... Maybe I'll get a picture of it up here sometime in the future).  It was about 2 inches long and it had a little hook at the end.  The hook stuck out of my skin and had a little yellow pad around it so it wouldn't get caught on the cotton in my cast.  Yes, another 3 weeks of a new plaster cast on top of the pin.  Those three weeks weren't as bad as the first two because I was already semi-used to using my left hand for everything.  Plus the cast was a lot looser since the pin was holding the bone in place.  During those 3 weeks, I went roller blading.  I know it was crazy, but I couldn't help myself!!  I'm addicted to skating and it's been to long!
        Three weeks later I went back to see Dr. Smith, who by the way told my mom I was a "neat kid" cuz I asked him about a million pointless questions (Why do bones crack?  Does cracking your knuckles really give you arthritis?  Since bone's are hollow, when I get the pin out can I put some seeds into the hole and have myself a personal marraca(sp?)?  Crazy stuff like that...).  The nurse took the cast off, I got another x-ray (the chick again), and then Dr. Smith came in.  We looked at the x-rays and they looked fairly okay, so it was time to take the pin out.  He took some kind of tweezer like thingy's and tightened it around the pin and then slid it right out of my hand.  It was so weird cuz I could feel the pin sliding out of my bone, but it didn't hurt at all!  I can't even describe the feeling it was so weird.  The bone was still broken, just lined up straight, so I had to wear a half cast for another 2 weeks.  The half cast wasn't bad cuz I could take it off to get a shower (and give my wrist a break) and stuff.  Here's a picture of my hand with the pin sticking out of it and a picture of Dr. Smith bending my hand right after the pin came out to make it bleed so the hole in the bone would heal faster:

        That takes me up to about a week ago (January 18th) when I went back to see Dr. Smith.  I took off my half cast for the last time and got another x-ray (I'm surprised I'm not glowing by now).  The bone looked okay and it seemed to be almost healed, so I was done with casts!!!!  I was so happy! :)  I wasn't quite done with Dr. Smith though.  I had to do these little hand exorcises (making a fist and then straightening my hand again), and then go back to see him again in a month so he could check out my hand one more time and see how good the muscles were doing.  I still couldn't lift anything with it for 3 weeks, and I wasn't allowed to go skating or sledding or anything for 2 weeks.  Mom told him I went skating with the pin, and he was pretty much shocked that I would do something so crazy (guess he doesn't know me so well), so he made a point to tell me this time that I couldn't go skating.  Darnit.
        So thats my story.  It never really turned black or purple.. It just got numb (I guess nerve damage or something), and there wasnt really any swelling... just after I got the first cast on cuz it was so darn tight. Ice made it feel better though. Also made it stop itching a little.  Man, that thing itched like crazy!!  One thing I found out though was that bag's of frozen corn get colder than ice packs, so I was sitting here at my computer one day with a bag of frozen corn balanced on top my cast, and Michelle (my sister) took a picture of me.  She thought it was hillarious.  Go figure....
        I'd just like to go on record of saying that I will NEVER.... EVER.... let myself go through all that again!!

This is me with my cast the day after my surgery sitting with my best friend, Kim.  The monkey hanging from my neck is from my identical twin brother, Imposter.

BACK