Hiking ORIF pinky phalanx - thought it was dislocated - xray blew my mind
It was supposed to be a brain-off, easy walk. Just cruising along a totally flat ridge (from one peak to another) at a decent pace, holding my trekking poles, enjoying the views. No steep cliffs, no technical climbing, nothing sketchy.
Then sth clipped my foot, and I went flying at around 10km/h or 6mph.
I instinctively squeezed the crap out of my left trekking pole as I hit the dirt. Instead of catching myself with an open palm, the bottom of the pole grip slammed directly into the ground with my pinky trapped right under it (I at least assume). My entire body weight basically used my little finger as a shock absorber against the ground.
My right knee and elbow took the remaining brunt of the slide. endless scraping and a knee wound took 3 weeks to close up. But my left pinky took the real hit.
I stood up; and didn’t even immediately realized I just broke my finger. It didn’t even really hurt, it just felt numb. I started the walk of shame back down the mountain and made my way to the hospital. Turns out I completely shattered the joint. And the MOST painful thing was the doc pulling my finger back into place without any anesthesia. That was insanely painful. 5 days post accident: had to get open surgery (ORIF) to screw a titanium plate in there to rebuild the damn thing.
NOW: I am working with buddy loops now (since day 16 post surgery and now 20 days post surgery). I was wondering if anyone else had a similar surgery and how the movement was after taking off the cast. I am a little nervous about having started too late to mobilize my finger…