Healing Nicely

The patient’s finger is healing nicely. These simple words spoken by his orthopedic PA were music to our ears. They took some X-rays, removed the stitches, and cast. For the first time since he broke the finger, I saw him wince with pain as they removed the bandages. Unfortunately, he still has the pins in for the foreseeable future. We’re hopeful that they’ll be able to remove the pins at his next follow-up appointment two weeks from today. Crossing my fingers that it’s still healing nicely at our next follow-up!

In the meantime, he’s in a smaller bandaged splint. He’s supposed to remove the splint and work the lower joint on the finer several times a day. This will prevent the joint from getting stiff. Additionally, he still has to keep the cast and his claw, I mean pins, dry. Not that he is one to spend a lot of time in the pool or ocean. He also has to be careful not to knock the pins as they extend beyond the tip of his finger.

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

I would love to scuba dive but I’m terrified of the water and can’t swim. It’s hard to reconcile my abject fear of water with the desire to Scuba, but life underwater looks so peaceful and beautiful. I’m not sure there’s anything that could convince me to get into the deep.