The story of the broken finger.

One thing I know for certain, is that Mama Lizard's do not like holding little lizards while bones are being set. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love holding little lizards when all is well, or even when all is not well and they simply need a hug or snuggle. However, holding little ones so bones can be bent, tweaked, squashed and prodded, is definitely not my cup of tea.

This afternoon, I took Little Miss in to see the orthopedic surgeon while The Lizard kept the boys at home. I expected that it would take some time to get things taken care of, but I did not expect the trip to take 4 hours. We got checked in and taken back to a room to meet our surgeon. She was so very nice, and really understood that Little Miss needed to know what was happening, every step of the way. She looked at the x-ray and noted that there was considerable displacement which needed to be fixed. So off we went to a cast room, equipped with a live x-ray machine and everything needed to cast her little arm. So far, so good. Now for the rough part.

In order to manipulate her finger as much as they needed to, she needed local anesthesia. In a nutshell, Little Miss hates shots. With a passion. Fortunately, they had some handy dandy make-your-hand-cold spray to help numb up the area before the finger block was placed. That served to freak her right the heck out, but we got through the shots without an unreasonable amount of tears. Then we waited.

The finger block was placed in the knuckle at the base of the finger. It swelled a bit, and went numb. But the rest of the finger did not. Begin round two of the shots. No further numbing. Begin round three of shots. Numbing in her middle finger. Begin round 4 of shots. Numbing down to the second knuckle, but not where they need to manipulate. Begin round 5, 6, and 7+ of shots. We now have 6 different kinds of pain killers/anesthesia in her finger, including shots directly to the area of the fracture. And unfortunately, we have no further numbing. She still has feeling in the second knuckle. She has inherited my resistance to local anesthesia. I'm crushed.

At this point, another surgeon was brought in to survey the situation. Little Miss was in considerable pain, begging for no more shots. Her choices were to try one last set of shots, or simply grit her teeth and get through the manipulation. She chose to have manipulation done with incomplete pain relief. They pulled her hand under the live x-ray scope and began the process of straightening her finger. Oh, lord. I know God gave me the grace and strength I needed, but I sure hope I never have to go through that again. Ever.

Now comes the tricky part. They can manipulate her bone into position, and can get her fingernails even (so her finger isn't twisting in a funny direction), but as soon as they let go, it slips right back out of position. Through more manipulation, they find that by bending the finger into a loose fist, the bones align in a favorable position. Slap a cast on it, bend the aluminum, tape the fingers and call it good. We followed this up with a set of regular x-rays and a second run through the live x-ray machine. One tiny tweak of the metal and we're finished.

But here's the catch. There are three pieces of bone that need to fuse into one. That may not happen. We will monitor her progress with weekly x-rays, then decide if surgery and pins are needed in three weeks. Please pray that her bones heal properly and we avoid surgery. Basically, we're trying the long shot of casting before surgery to see if we get lucky. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. But if it works, it was worth the effort to avoid surgery.

In case, you're interested, here are some snapshots of the x-rays. A warning: don't peek if you don't like broken bones. (Descriptions are after the pictures)

You can see here how it is broken right at the growth plate of the second knuckle, displaced to the side, with an extra chip off to the side.

Again, you can see the displacement is also down, with total separation from the growth plate and extra chip to the top.

I took the splint off so she could have a shower (per doctor's orders to shower before the final cast went on)...finger is huge and green/purple all around.

Here you can see how crooked it is.

Here is her black eye. This picture doesn't do the purple color justice. It is swollen all the way around the eye, including the eyelid. Plus the scrape where her glasses cut in both at the corner of the eye and at her temple.

And of course, Little Dude got in on the action with his scrapes as well...three on his head, one massive one on his knee.

And without further ado, here is the new cast:

For the record, Little Miss is not a girly-girl. She likes her fire truck jammies. :o)