The Finger

 I haven't given more specifics about my finger because I don't know what happened. Here's what I THINK! Either Monday or Tuesday of last week, I would in the back yard. I do try to wear gloves in the garden but sometimes, I stop and make a quick "adjustment" and don't have gloves on. That day I was walking by and saw a weed. I reached down and pulled the weed out but it kinda disrupted one of my small plants so I was poking dirt around it with my finger and I hit something sharp. It was very minor - almost like pricking my finger with a needle. It bled a bit, mostly because I was squeezing it. I went inside, washed it with warm soapy water, dabbed it with alcohol, put some antibiotic ointment on it and put a band-aid on it. Later that same day, I was playing fetch with Cooper. He brought the little boomerang back to me and I reached to get it, he saw the band-aid and apparently both of them think band-aids are scary and should be ripped off. He grabbed for the band-aid before I realized what was happening and he snagged my finger. I couldn't tell if it was bleeding from the initial wound or from his tooth scraping my finger. Back inside - same cleaning routine but it really didn't need a band-aid and, obviously band-aids are dangerous to wear in this house.

Then on Tuesday night I was in the kitchen and I don't even remember what happened but I said "Ouch! That hurt!" I usually don't even say anything when I get hurt so I know it must have hurt a lot. Vince said "What happened?" and I said "I hurt my finger." He asked if it was the finger Cooper had grabbed and I said yes. I finished whatever I was doing but, my ear was hurting and I've been having several ear infections a year so earlier I had called the doctor to see if he could look at it Wednesday. Yes, at 8 a.m.

When I got up Wednesday morning, my finger was swollen, very red and I couldn't bend it so when I got to the doctor, the nurse was going to do the oxygen check gizmo and I said "No, not that finger!" She kinda jumped back and wanted to know what happened.  There was no visible injury. You had to search to see where Cooper had scratched it. Couldn't see at all where I injured it in the garden. I wasn't even thinking about whatever happened in the kitchen Tuesday night - I thought the injury in the garden or my medical assistant's removing the band-aid had caused it to be infected. The doctor also thought the finger was infected, gave me antibiotics and ear drops. Thursday it was more red and swollen. Same Friday so I sent a picture to the doctor and got this back from him:

That's when we went to the ER. The doctor there didn't think it needed to be x-rayed. He again drained it - nothing really to drain, and gave me another antibiotic to take along with the first one.

Then Saturday morning, some of the red and swelling had gone down and it was very purple. I told Vince . . I'm kinda feeling like my finger may be broken. He looked at it and said "Why didn't you tell the doctor you hurt it?" I wasn't thinking about that - I was thinking it was infected from dirt in the garden. Vince said he thought when I hurt it in the kitchen that I had slammed it in the drawer. Maybe. It was late, I was hurrying to finish the kitchen and go to bed.

Today (Monday) I can somewhat bend it. I can touch it on top and bottom but if I push on it from the front (like pushing towards the back) or push in the code on a door lock, or if I use it to scratch something off the counter . . that hurts.

Here's what it looks like today - which is so, so much better than how it looked late last week.

If you see the two little dots at and near the base of my nail, that's from the needle where they drained it.

I guess I'm going to just finish the antibiotics (one Wednesday and one on Friday) and hope for the best.