zombie finger

ummmmmm.....let's just say that after a fabulously fun game of "clap catch" with a football (translation for you americans out there: soccer ball) yesterday with friends my left ring finger blew-up into a swollen, fat mess. now, it's not like my finger just magically had an adverse reaction to such an activity. the ball did bash into it, and it hurt like a mother. however, i didn't think it was too bad.

we hung out at the park afterwards enjoying the last rays of sunshine, and after a couple of hours i started to notice that my finger was HUGE!!!! and i could no longer fully bend it.

my thought, i'll wait until tomorrow to see what happens. maybe it'll go down by then.

right, so my finger had other plans. this is what i woke up to this morning.

(The colours are a lot more teal/purple than they appear here, and the swelling...well...that's actually smaller than what it was the day before.)

i emailed my zombie looking finger to my sister, on the other side of the pond. she informed me that i couldn't avoid the doctor like i was hoping to because it looked "gnarly." so, i rang up the GP and they told me that i would need to go to A&E just in case they needed to take an Xray.

(That is about as far as it bends at the moment....whoops...)

after 2.5hrs of waiting at A&E, and several interesting people to watch i got called in. low and behold, Xrays were called for and numerous comments about the "colouring" of my finger, the size of it, the inability to make a fist, and overall condition of it were given it.

diagnosis: extreme hyper-extension of the left ring finger. no apparent breaks or fractures at the moment; however, if there is no improvement in 2-3 wks times i'm to return as fractures may have appeared(?)

treatment: take anti-inflammatory medicine three times daily, do "exercises" for my finger, and to wear this "sling"

(Yup, it looks ridiculous.)

which makes my hand look like a limp fish hanging out on my right shoulder.

prognosis: i'll live.

in the meantime, my finger looks like it should belong to a zombie. it's pretty awesome.

(Can't wait to see what shade of yellow it turns.)