Taking the Pins Out

Today was a big day for me, one that I have been looking forward to for quite some time. My visit with the hand doctor! I am just so tired of being laid up.

Nice and straight

Last Friday, one of the pins got pushed a little too far with the plastic part of my brace and started forcing its way beneath the skin of my finger. It was painful, so I tried to move the pin slightly so that it wasn't poking me. I accidentally popped it up about a centimeter! Afraid of messing up my finger, I did the first thing I could think of...I pushed it back in. Bad idea!! I should have had a clue then that pulling out these pins was not going to be the painless procedure Shayne told me it would be.

Fast forward to today.

I arrived at the doctor's office about 5 minutes ahead of my appointment time. I waited in the lobby for almost half an hour before I was finally called back. They did a quick X-ray and then Shayne, the physician's assistant, came in and we looked at it together. He told me everything looked great and it was indeed time to pull out the pins. I confessed to Friday's mishap and showed him the pin. He pulled that one first and honestly, it slipped right out, almost fell out. Unfortunately, that was not the case with the rest of them.

Bleeding finally stopped.

Number two started the bleeding, but it was number three where the pain began in earnest. The first time he attached the pliers and pulled, it didn't budge except for the searing pain that shot through my hand and into my wrist. The second time it moved a little and when I flinched in pain, he stopped. "Shayne," I managed through gritted teeth. "Just pull it out quickly and don't stop!"

He agreed and yanked. It fell like a needle was shoved straight down through the top of my finger as the pain spread through my hand. The tears leaked from my eyes and I almost couldn't let him pull the last one, but after a moment of weighing the options (and the bleeding slowed), I let him yank it out. It was not as bad as the other one.

"I thought you said it wouldn't hurt!" I accused. Shayne shrugged his shoulders sheepishly, "I lied," he admitted. After several minutes of holding a gauze pad in place to stop the bleeding, Shayne found me a new and smaller plastic brace and proceeded to wrap my finger. But it wasn't long before the blood had pooled in the tip and we were unwrapping it again.

The new normal.

So this is it. What do you think of the new look? It's smaller and less likely to get smacked into anything, but I'm not liking the new level of pain. Oh, and I have to wear this brace for 2 more weeks before I can start taking it off for an hour a day. Are you counting? That's six more weeks before I will be even close to normal. And Shayne said a full year before I would have full mobility back.

All that fuss for just one dumb little finger.