Finger Dislocation.

Believe it not, this was not my broken finger today. It was my dislocated finger. Stumbled at the end of a movie in a darkened theatre; credits rolling; I start to get up, reach for arm rest, realize too late it's not there, but I've gotten up too fast, nowhere to grab ahold, lose balance, little finger goes between two theatre chairs as I fall back, finger bends like 90 degrees, SNAP, dislocation.

Five hours in the ER, three sessions of various docs pulling my finger apart with ferocious medieval intensity in an attempt to get the bones back together in their proper configuration; three sessions of x-rays; operating room prepped for a surgery; me not to happy about going under for surgery on my pinky; last attempt at re-setting my finger WORKED! No operation needed, went home with a splint and a prescription for painkillers.

All that just to see a movie.

Here's a shot of three doctors pulling with all their strength, trying to enable my dislocated finger bone to pop back into place:

I shared my surprise at the primitive solutions the docs employed for re-setting dislocated joints. One doc's reply: "This is nothing. You should see what they do for dislocated hips!"

Posted by brian at August 17, 2008 09:47 PM