Broken hand...

Saturday night I was going up the stairs in my house and took a misstep. I fell and my right hand tried to break the fall, but hit the wall at a bad angle, causing a fracture of the 4th metacarpal (the bone under the ring finger). I thought my finger was jammed or sprained as there was a lot of swelling and pain in the finger, but I could still make a fist. That night I had a restless night and kept waking up in pain.

Sunday, I went to an outdoor event in Tokyo still thinking it was a sprained finger. At this point I was in so much pain I thought a finger fracture could be possible, but still didn't think it was bad because I could wiggle my fingers and make a fist. Everyone who saw it said it didn't look bruised or swollen. By Sunday afternoon, I finally listened to the pain and went to the ER on base. Since there is no urgent care center (where I would have chosen to go in the US instead of the ER) the ER is the only option for weekend injuries and serious illnesses.

When I checked into the ER, I'm pretty sure the staff there thought I had a sprain or hairline fracture in my finger at most. I could move my fingers and there was no serious bruising. They sent me for x-rays to be sure. The x-ray tech thought he was looking for trauma in my finger. Once he looked at the x-ray films, he came back in my room twice to ask if I had pain in my hand. I admitted I had some, but it felt like a bad bruise. On his third trip into my room he says, "There's some bad news for your hand. I'll mark it for the doctor." I was escorted back to the triage area.

John was waiting for me in triage when I told him of my possible fractured hand. The doctor came in shortly and confirmed it was a fracture and ordered me to be splinted up. At the naval hospital in Yokosuka, everyone with a broken bone in a particular week sees the orthopedic specialist on the same day. So, tomorrow I head in to see the orthopedic specialist and find out how serious the break is, if it needs surgery, and hopefully have a hard cast put on. I also hope to get an estimated healing time.

So that's my broken bone story. Looking forward to finding out the next step and healing as fast as possible. My hand is in a lot of pain and every single task irritates the fracture. I know it's going to hurt, but I can't wait to get the bone set so the healing can start.