My Finger Story

On the flight out my finger was bothering me a little, no biggie, maybe I hit it on something. Between Saturday and Sunday it was starting to hurt pretty bad. It was suggested that I go to an Urgent care, but we did WebMD first. We kind of got two answers, one was to wait it out and the other was to see a doctor within a day or so. So, I on Monday we tried a private urgent care that wanted $200 up front before anything and it was still a 2 hr wait. We tried another urgent care inside a hospital, again a 2+ hr wait. So, I was going to tough it out until doctors got back on the 27th. I took some Tylenol and all was fine, still swollen, but I wasn't in pain. Monday night, I was dying and we tried the hospital urgent care, and still 2+ hour wait, so my mom asked and there was a newer hospital and we could try their ER. We got there about 12:30 and saw a nurse, who took the background and got me to see the oncall doctor. She wanted to call the hand doctor to confirm what to do. He came in and checked out my hand, he was going to operate in that room, but then thought better of it and had me admitted and he got his team up. I was put out, they first put me on some good stuff where I felt really weird, but no pain. And then they added something else which put me out. The gown they gave me was like a medium and I'm not a medium, so the wrong shift got a little embarrassing and that sucked. But I woke up at about 5 AM and my mom was there, I have my IV in one arm and my other arm in a hanging sleeve, which made bathroom breaks more interesting (think ski poles). I slept alot and they did have to reopen it to redrain it. But sleep, taco time and tv were the order. The actual surgery was on my right index finger where at the top joint they cut along the outside and made a sideways T. They also cut open between my thumb and forefinger to flush it out. I guess the infection was dancing around the tendon which would have been really bad if it had gotten in there. So, I've got some stitches on my palm and some gauze around my finger. I was supposed to follow up with the hand guy in Madison this week, but he's on vacation, so I'm seeing his attending tomorrow at around noonish, hopefully to take out the stitches and give me good news. The finger feels pretty good, just a bit sore, I think the cut on my palm is more bothersome than the finger.