The doctor numbed my hand using needles and soon enough I didn’t feel a thing. I didn’t dare look at what he was doing and though it went quickly I did HEAR him cutting through a bone and I don’t think I will ever forget that sound. He put a different kind of splint on it and said to make sure I don’t get that hand, particularly the finger, wet. 

I left the doctor’s office with the tip/top of the finger cut off and instructions to hold it straight up as high as I could so the blood wouldn’t coagulate at the cut end and cause pain. My immediate thought was to get a sling but that wouldn’t work as it doesn’t hold the hand up but sideways. When I got home I tried belts, ties and strings but though they worked to a certain degree I wasn’t able to keep it ‘tied UP’!

I walked into the hand surgeon’s office on April 8 hoping a ‘miracle’ had taken place but it didn’t. I was still missing a large tip of the 4^th finger on the right hand. I, also, still couldn’t/can’t/won’t look at it while he changed the bandage. Okay at least I am man enough to admit I am a wuss when it comes to things like this.

I did come with a list of questions that I already knew he wouldn’t be able to give definite answers to as everybody heals differently. The best I could get was ‘a few weeks’, which, though I am unhappy with, I can accept.

He changed the bandage, put on a new splint, told me I could finish up the antibiotics and gave me another prescription for painkillers which I hope I will be off soon. I left after making an appointment for next Friday and it looks like that will be the routine for a ‘few weeks’.

Right now as far as I can tell the finger will be as short as the pinkie if not a tiny bit shorter and how it will look is something I can’t tell right now and my imagination doesn’t help.

I realize that this is a little—don’t mind the pun—thing and can only imagine how a person deals with losing a hand let alone an arm but for me it is going to take some mental dealing with and I know I will get through it but in the meanwhile I am working extra hard with being/feeling positive.

I do want to say thanks to all of you for your kind words, interests and concerns during this whole procedure.

Amazing how one finger can affect so many things you do during the day and take for granted from brushing your teeth to eating to typing, writing, paying bills, making notes, tying a bow, opening mail, shaking hands, turning a door knob, etc.

Hey for all you smart people out there—make a comfortable ‘holder’ (major word—‘comfortable’) to keep a hand in the air straight up—patent it and make a fortune!

As I get ready to post this I have just called the doctor's office to make an appointment for, this afternoon. It may be my vivid imagination but it seems the finger has swollen over the weekend and with a quick--very quick--peek under the splint the top of the finger looks very dark to me. It may be nothing but I will feel better if the doctor takes a look and just says something to the effect that it is just a part of the healing process--more thanthat I don't want to hear!

Okay that is enough about the finger for awhile--back to fun things things like going to the theatre "Cabaret" in Miami tomorrow and "Dirty Dancing" in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday and, of course, a lot more about my 20th birthday dinner party!