Aug. 03. After spending about four to five hours at another ER (free parking!), I felt little compassion for my paranoia. The medical staff seemed annoyed about assessing the break. The triage nurse tried to immediately send me packing, but I stood my ground all the way. After all, it's my right and after I compile a link list to all the disabilities concerning the Brawler's Fracture, you will be enlightened. I rarely visit the hospital and I paid my fair share into the Health Care fund. They made me feel guilty, but I could not care any less. It is my hand and not theirs.
The Doogie Howser-type doctor seemed annoyed at me also. I guess they take offense to double checking. The Doc looked fresh out of University or just very young. After some coaxing from me, he checked everything out and kept repeating that everything looked alright. I kept playing the 'negative angulation' card up to the point of getting X-Rays at the very end, which were not shown to me... oddly enough. However, the Doc did take off my half-brace which was oddly easy to do without pain. Then I was instructed to make a fist. I was able to make a partial arc, but I think my mind held back further arcing. I figured it was too early to be fully clenching a fist and putting pressure on the fracture. I think the Doc expected much more to blatantly make a point. I sort of wished I tried a bit harder to make a full fist to check the pinky metacarpal knuckle joint alignment, but I also worried that the fracture may become unfused. This was the conundrum of it all. I sort of regret overcoming the fear. It also may have been prudent to listen to my mind and not overly disturb ground zero.
I thought of increasing the padding underneath the knuckle to offset the likelyhood of the cosmetic depression. I may still ponder this, but I should not fool with the fracture if luck has it fusing decently. I am sure this is why some doctors do the 90-90-90 type of brace for the Boxer's break. Something tells me that there is a lesser chance of pinky knuckle depression with that method, along with better pinky angulation alignment. Perhaps I got lucky with the fracture and the way the metacarpal neck snapped, the bone did not rotate that much or a semi-clean break. Well, I am not sure if I am lucky as of yet being this soon. I will have to wait until the 12th to find out with yet another opinion. I really hope my angulation is not even close to the textbook's allowable 30 degrees. I will be happy as can be with my hand being close to perfect as it was. Though, it is highly unlikely that there will not be side-effects asides from aesthetic abnormalities. Today's Doc also reminded me about the sunken pinky knuckle "deformity".
2 comments:
"They made me feel guilty, but I could not care any less. It is my hand and not theirs."
damn straight. are you in the usa? your insurance provider would advise you to go to the er.
https://www.healthforums.com/library/1,1258,article~1577,00.html
>seek emergency help if:
The pain immediately followed an injury.
The pain is severe.
Your hand looks misshapen.
You have sudden paralysis or loss of feeling in your hand.
Your hand shows signs of impaired circulation -- it's pale, blue or gray, and feels cold.
I waited about five good hours in ER. They should just have phone-in appointments. Hahaa. All those tell-tale signs were there, I knew something went bad after the hit. My first broken bone and a crooked pinkie to remind me every odd day, yay me. ;p
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