My finger in the light of the camp, you can see it swelling around the ring.
About three weeks after the January challenge started, I was working on assisted pushups, and while trying to get into the band, it slipped, caught my hand, and hyperextended my fingers. The pain was incredible. I made my way to the front of the gym, got dizzy, and ended up laying down on the benches for a while until it passed. I’d never felt a pain like that before and worried about whether or not something had broken. My finger started swelling, and my ring was getting tighter and tighter. I knew I couldn’t drive myself to the ER until the dizziness passed, and my husband was up in Roseville dropping the kids off at my Moms house. I called him and mentioned that he would probably have to pick me up and bring me to the ER to get it checked out. After waiting for a while, and getting more and more concerned about the ring tightening around my finger, I got past the dizzy spells, and met my husband at the ER.
After they cut the ring off.
We were in and out of the ER pretty quickly where the ring John made me about 15 years ago had to be cut off, and we learned that I had most certainly broken my ring finger. They put a splint on my finger and told me to follow up with an Orthopedic Doctor.
A simple splint
And thus, my challenge was over. Part of me was glad, it hadn’t been going as well as my first challenge. I was barely losing weight despite following the instructions. My body was holding onto the weight and didn’t want to let go. I was out for the rest of the current and likely the next challenge as the doctor said it would take about 8 weeks for my finger to heal.
The custom splint they made for me once I was able to start moving my finger.
It’s been about 9 weeks now since I broke my finger, and while I won’t be doing pullups for a while, I can finally get back to the challenge. Hopefully this one will go a little better. I’m seeing the Orthopedic Surgeon for a final x-ray to make sure I don’t need surgery. During this process, we found out that I have an enchondroma on my finger, which was weakening my bone, and ultimately caused the break. One surgeon wanted to remove it, and the other wanted to wait to see if my injury would spur the bone growth necessary to re-grow the bone naturally. We’ll find out on Tuesday whether or not that is the case. Even if I do end up needing surgery, I’ll delay it until after this challenge. I don’t want to push it off any further, and will be glad to get back to the routine and friendships I’ve made at the camp.
So, the moral of the story is, DON’T BREAK A BONE DURING A CHALLENGE!!!