In a turn of events, my broken pinky finger ended-up requiring 2 surgeries to fix! My hand was in either a cast or brace from August-November. I pushed through this struggle, and finished off the year with a half marathon.
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| Eating thai food after my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon |
The last thing I wrote about was breaking my finger by falling off my bike. I got a call mid-week from the local surgeon's office saying that I needed to be seen by a hand specialist out of town. This kind of freaked me out. How bad-off was my hand? At the appointment with the specialist I was told I needed surgery which was to take place the following afternoon.
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| Craig at Gonzaga! |
We had plenty of time to kill in town between my appointment and surgery the next day, so we went out to lunch, and I gave Craig a tour of my alma mater Gonzaga University. That night, the friends we stayed with treated us to a dinner and a movie, which was a great distraction.
I woke up the next morning, and could not eat or drink water until that afternoon, which was dreadful because I had a terrible sore throat.
Overall though, the surgery went well. They basically stuck a metal pin in my hand to help the finger heal straight.
The entire week after surgery, I was super sick. This was a major bummer because we went on vacation to see my boyfriend's family. I basically spent the entire trip in bed, with a sore throat, migraine headache and of course hand-surgery-related-pain.
After two weeks, the surgeon took out the pin, and I no longer had to wear a giant arm cast. They put me in a smaller pink hand cast.
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| Modeling my super stylish hand brace at the office where they mold casts |
I was able to take the smaller cast off whenever I was at home; I was supposed to be trying to gain motion in my hand. During this time, I began to notice that I couldn't move my finger at all! It was so odd. I would think about moving my finger, commanding it with all my willpower to move, and nothing would happen. After a couple of weeks had passed, I called the surgeon, who told me to see a hand therapist. I worked with the therapist for about a month, with zero results. After meeting with the surgeon again, it was decided my hand needed a second surgery.
Because I was young and healthy (their words, not mine), my hand healed too quickly, so that scar tissue built up in-between ligaments during the first few weeks, basically locking my hand from movement. This was type of occurrence was supposedly super rare.
The surgeon was booked until late November, but I asked if we could have the surgery sooner rather than later. I couldn't imagine going much longer with an unmovable pinky! He said he could squeeze us in the next day, October 30, so day before Halloween I went under the knife a second time. The surgeon removed the scar tissue, and sewed my hand back up. I called my finger "Franken-pinky" for awhile as the zig-zag scar healed.
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| Me at a local race- wearing my pink hand cast |
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| Enjoying my run, despite my broken finger |
Somehow, through all of this, I kept running. I wasn't able to run the first week after surgery, but after they took my arm cast off, I went straight back to it. I started off slowly; at first I was in terrible shape.
At the end of September, I ran a half marathon. I am being liberal with the term "run" however, as I ran it at about the slowest pace imaginable (12:00 min/ mile). I was proud, though, to finish.
I finished with hand therapy at the end of November, with full hand function, thoroughly surprising my hand therapist. It was a huge relief to be able to use my hand again. Who knew how necessary a pinky finger was for tasks such as dishes and laundry, not to mention lab work (aka my current profession).
I finished off 2016 with another half marathon. This time I was able to push myself and not feel pain. It was a very enjoyable run, and now I am excited to continue more running adventures.
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| I finished my final half marathon of the year feeling much stronger! |
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