Broken Pinky Saga

     

     This summer, I my running fitness was improving, so I decided it would be a fun challenge to try a sprint triathlon. I researched and bought a new bike. A week later, I crashed my bike, fracturing my pinky finger. It was my first-ever broken bone! The fracture was at the base of my finger so required surgery. Basically, life just got a little more interesting/challenging.

     Well, the summer of 2016 began smoothly enough. I went to Vancouver, WA with my friend Teresa the beginning of July and ran the Twilight 10K. I finished in 1:03:47, about a 10 min/ mile pace. Inspired to get faster and run further, I decided I'd run a half marathon in September. 

Finish line at the Twilight 10K. Why the gave me a medal for finishing a 10K is kinda odd haha

      I thought it'd be a good idea to get back into bike riding. I really enjoyed bike ridding in the past, but my bike was one I found at a garage sale, and it was way to big for me, so I sold it for $100 and bought a new one. I did some research, decided I wanted a road bike and went to a local store where they customized a Trek Lexa for me. I was very excited to finally have a properly fitting bike! I rode the bike to work the day after I got it. I could now commute via bike! My next ride, though would change that. 

My earnings from my bike sale. (More money... more problems)

     That weekend, I thought it'd be a good idea to go for a ride on the trail by our house for fun. My house is on top a steep hill, and at bottom there is a busy road. On the other side of traffic there is a trail that goes 15 miles straight into Idaho. Normally while going down the hill, I would ride on the sidewalk to avoid being in the road. The apartments along the sidewalk had done a lousy job that summer maintaining their landscape, and overgrown bushes made the sidewalk unridable. As such, I road to the bottom of the hill on the road, and as I reached the bottom, I went to get up onto the sidewalk so that I could wait to cross traffic.

Purchasing my new Trek Lexa at the bike shop

     As I turned to get onto the curb, my wheel was too parallel to the pavement and I went flying off the bike. It really wasn't too bad of a fall, one that on first thought meant that I would probably have to turn around to go home. But in the next moment, I realized that my hand felt numb. Looking down,  I saw my finger was completely twisted. I knew something was wrong. A man across the street witnessed the entire crash, and called 911. I felt like I was going to faint, so I laid down alongside the road. Somehow I managed to call my boyfriend, who arrived before the ambulance and he drove me to the emergency room. 

     At the hospital, the doctor first believed my finger was just dislocated. It wasn't swelling, it was just bent at the joint. After X-rays, though, they determined that there was a fracture near the joint. Worse yet, a day later, I got a call from a local Orthopedic Surgeon, saying that he wasn't comfortable fixing this type of break and that I needed to see a hand specialist in another city. 

To be continued...