The finger story

Warning: Extremely long post. Might contain slightly disturbing images for highly sensitive people (the worst is X-rays, no flesh and blood)

The 20th of March was when it all started. My finger was caught while shutting a sliding door. Not just caught, but caught hard. It was oh-so-painful at the time (and now I know why); for the first time I put ice on an injury.

But well, that was it. Besides bruising and swelling at the joint, after a few hours the pain had subsided somewhat, and I could move my finger without any problems.

That was a Saturday...and on Monday I decided that, to be on the safe side, I would go and consult the INSA nurses. So I went and asked them whether it could be serious. The nurse who was there looked at it, asked me when it had happened, whether I had put ice on it (yes) and whether it was especially painful (no). So she said it was fine (even told me she could get me excused from sports if I was doing something like volleyball).

So three weeks passed...after some time, when the swelling had gone down I discovered that I couldn't straighten my finger completely ("mallet finger" for those in the know). I mean, I could push it straight but if I released the fingertip, it would fall back to a slightly angled position. But being the optimist that I am (ha ha, right) I put it down to a "it will get better" problem. It still hurt a bit if I pressed down on the joint...but I put it down to the same thing.

Then on the 9th of April (I looked back to check the date :P ) I went to see the doctor to ask for a prescription for my pollen allergies. (It started last year, I have no idea why) And I asked whether it was normal to have my finger still hurting (albeit slightly, only when I pressed on it) after three weeks. I showed her the finger...and she noticed that the finger couldn't straighten. She said that the tendon extenseur (extenseur as in to extend/straighten the finger, don't ask me to translate medical terms) could be torn, so it was best that I go for an ultrasound to check it out. And she prescribed me an X-ray as well...because the pain I felt might be due to a bone injury.

She told me that if the tendon was torn, normally surgery wouldn't be necessary...placing the finger in a splint to keep it in straightened position could allow the tendon to mend itself normally.

And thereby began my "week of doctors".

Monday: I called the X-ray and ultrasound place for an appointment. Initially there were no more places that week, I got an appointment for 2 weeks later (since I had to go to Clermont-Ferrand the next week for my internship, for a week) But I asked them to let me know if there was a chance I could go that week (like if someone cancelled). I got lucky (for once, eh?), for later the same day they called me to let me know that I could go on Tuesday.

Tuesday: I got my X-ray and ultrasound done. And there came the bad news: the tendon was fine, but the bone it was attached to was fractured.



I got the X-rays done first, but I didn't get to see them before going into the ultrasound room. During the ultrasound, I could look at the images on the screen together with the doctor (not exactly doctor...what do you call an ultrasound guy?), while he decided which one to print out. As he said, there is not much need for explanation...comparing the left finger to the right (they are on the right and on the left respectively, don't ask me why he put it that way), we can see immediately that something's wrong :(



So that was why I couldn't straighten my finger...

I had to go back to show my doctor the X-ray and ultrasound results, since the imaging people didn't do any more than that. Since my doctor's place was within walking distance, I went there right after getting my results. (the X-ray place is at Condorcet, and my doctor's place between Condorcet and Tonkin) But there were too many people there so I got myself an appointment for the next morning.

Wednesday: I went to the doctor's, and she wrote me a prescription to see the surgeon. I went directly to the surgeon's office, which was in fact just two floors above the radiology place. The doctor had marked down that my case was urgent, so I managed to get myself an appointment for the next day.

Thursday: The surgeon took one look at my X-ray and told me that he would need to put two rods into my finger and leave them in for six weeks, the time for the bone to heal. Since my injury was four weeks ago (though at that moment I still said three weeks, I was still stuck in time), he booked me into surgery for the very next day.

The doctor's secretary was the one who made me sign all the consent documents and told me everything I needed to do for the hospitalisation the next day (yeah, it's considered being hospitalised, even if it's only for an afternoon) I was supposed to bathe with Betadine (some antiseptic scrub) the night before and the morning of the operation.

Oh, and when she was preparing all that stuff, the surgeon asked her to ask the hospital to prepare the rods (he gave a number which I suppose was for the size, I can't remember how much it was) And he asked for a machine. :s

(I guess it's better than a hammer)

I was also told to fast all morning before the operation...and only take a light breakfast before 7am (the secretary said "un petit thé" (a little cup of tea))

Friday: 16th April. The big day.

The anaesthetist came to my room after I checked in, and asked me lots of questions about whether I was taking any medication, whether I was allergic to anything, etc.

I stayed a while in the room. I had to take everything off and put on the hospital gown (a dark blue one...eh, that's not what we see on TV :P ). I was like "What? Everything? You're only operating on my hand!" They gave me a pill to take, something to help me relax, the nurse said ("tranquilizer", as Jaime told me later). She also added, "You'll sleep well afterwards" but I didn't sleep...even though I felt super-drowsy (and probably dozed a bit, on and off).

They wheeled me (the whole bed) to the operating area, where they gave me local anaesthetic to numb my whole arm. After they had injected the nerves in my (inner) upper arm, it took quite a while before I lost the feeling in my fingers. The anaesthetist kept pressing my fingers and asking me whether I felt what she was doing, or asking me to try moving my fingers. Even when I was wheeled into the operating room itself, I could still move my last two fingers...but since the operation was on the middle one, it wasn't a problem. (and I think those two fingers couldn't feel pain any more, either)

Only in the operating room was I transferred to another bed (The beds were placed side by side...and I tell you, it's hard to move when one arm is useless!) They put Betadine all over my arm (again, they had already done that for the anaesthetic) During the operation they put up some sort of makeshift curtain to hide my arm from my view (I sorta think that the "curtain" material was the same as the one they used for my sling lol). However, on my other side I had the digital clock in view...and I followed the time as they worked on my arm. The whole thing lasted about 15 minutes...from 3pm to 3:15pm.

And towards the end, the surgeon said "merde" ("shit" in French) I tell you, that scared me. Imagine people cutting open your finger without you seeing what they're doing, and hearing "merde". That should be on the list of things a doctor should not say in an operating room.

But after the operation, he told me that everything went very well. Okay. Whew.

My arm was put in a sling, and I was transferred back to my bed and wheeled to the recovery room (or something like that...I heard a nurse telling someone that he was in the "salle de réveil", literally "awakening room") I guess it's especially necessary for those who were really, completely put to sleep.

Then after they took me back to my room, I was given something to eat (I can't tell you how welcome that was, since I hadn't eaten since the night before, only took a hot chocolate that morning before 7am). They gave me the choice between "bread and butter" (and jam, since they don't eat bread and butter only) or "bread with ham". I chose the former...and when the tray arrived I was rather amused...because it reminded me of the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Formule 1 or Etap hotels.

my empty tray

You can have (the first was my choice)
hot chocolate / tea / coffee
bread and butter and jam / bread and ham
yoghurt
apple compote

And the hot chocolate was a cup of milk, with a packet of chocolate powder which looked exactly like those we find in those hotels. :P

Oh yeah, the nurse opened everything for me, buttered (and jammed? lol) my toast as well...since I couldn't do it with one arm dead to the world. (it was "toast" as in the biscottes, commercially packed toast)

They wouldn't release me without someone to accompany me...Jiamin came over after work to check me out of hospital. I guess it was because anaesthetic can leave people feeling lightheaded...but I was rather fine because mine was only on the arm. But it was really a lot better to have someone accompany me...'cos I had absolutely no feeling whatsoever in my arm. Walking around alone would be kinda dangerous...at least there I had someone to help me make sure that nothing befell my arm (without looking, I wouldn't know even if I hit it against something...which is what I did in the pharmacy when we went to get my medication. Twice, no less. -_- )

The "medication" were some pills supposedly to prevent infection that I had to take for about a week (before the wound closes, I guess), painkillers that were prescribed for a month (I asked the nurse before leaving the hospital whether I had to take it all the time or only when I felt pain, and she said "just take it" -_- (see below for the reason for the -_- ) ), and 5 different boxes of bandages, compresses and antiseptic solutions to change the bandage on my finger.

Actually the doctor prescribed a nurse to come to change the bandage for me at home (à domicile) every two days. At first I thought it would be easy, calling one nurse and having her come over every two days. But it wasn't as easy as that...the nursing place (cabinet infirmier) I called had a few nurses and it wouldn't always be the same one...and they only do house visits at certain times of the day (or something like that) Anyway, it was complicated...and I was stupid enough not to realise at first that I could simply go to the INSA nurses to change my bandage. So later I went to INSA for that...though that led to other problems 'cos it was practically always a different nurse changing it for me...etc etc... Suffice to say that in the end I changed the bandage by myself at home but went to the nurses' office about once a week so that I could be sure nothing was going wrong...

Okay, a few photos of the hospital room I was in:

My bed's on the window side, I was over here because I was at the locker.

opposite my bed

after the operation, fingers extremely numb

the next morning, after the anaesthetic wore off

same

after the nurse came and changed my bandage

And you know why the timing of this operation sucks? Because the MASAF Games were on the 17th and 18th of April...which made me miss it. Darn! The only MASAF Games I even considered going to, since it was in Besançon, not that far away from Lyon. And I hadn't ever been to Besançon, either...it would have been killing two birds with one stone!

But hey, the Games were starting on Saturday, and I wasn't going to go to Besançon with my arm in a sling, not even knowing whether I'd be okay the next day...so I played it safe and stayed home. Even then I couldn't stay home for long...because I had to be in Clermont-Ferrand on Monday for my week at Michelin.

Which was why I had already spent some time (before knowing about the operation, I mean) wondering whether I wanted to go to Besançon, rush back on Sunday and go straight to Clermont...I kinda wish I had decided NOT to do that, that it would have been too much hassle to go to Besançon. But instead I decided to go ahead (do everything you want to do, rest later). Who knew that in the end I'd be forced not to go to Besançon anyway. -_-

The week at Clermont was a dizzy week...literally. It turned out that the painkillers the doctor prescribed were some really effective ones...but that also meant "effective" side effects! Friday night when the anaesthetic wore off, it was pretty painful so I took the painkillers and swore to take them religiously, every six hours, as prescribed. But every morning I felt light-headed...though by late afternoon I was totally fine again. That's why I didn't think for a moment that the culprit could be the painkillers... (Ixprim, if you want to know which painkiller it was...beware if you have to take it!) 'cos I was taking it all day! But on Monday when I went to the nurse at Michelin to change my bandage, I told her about the dizziness and she told me to stop taking those painkillers. (she said that I might be weaker in the morning, which was why I felt its effects more at that particular time of the day) She told me to simply take paracetamol instead...

Though I stopped taking Ixprim on Monday, the effects of dizziness and what-not didn't completely disappear till Wednesday or Thursday...there goes my week, huh?

I had that bandage on my whole finger for the week I was in Clermont...and I didn't like it much because I couldn't move my second finger joint either (the one that wasn't broken and shouldn't be held in place) And that whole week I hardly used my left hand...which was what led to my accidental experiment.

That weekend when I got back to Lyon, I asked the nurse (who came to my place to change the bandage) whether she could put the bandage so as to leave that joint to move freely, but she tried and didn't manage it (and managed to block the joint even worse than before, because instead of putting the compress (the clothlike thing) on it like earlier, she tried to not cover it with the compress and then stuck the sticky bandage on it instead -_- )

On Monday (26th April) I had an appointment with the surgeon (a week after the operation, it was supposed to be with the one who operated on me, but he was on holiday so he asked me to make an appointment with another surgeon there) so I asked him whether it was impossible to leave that second joint mobile. He said "Sure it's possible! I'll show you."

So, ta-dah!

super-tiny bandage

My only gripe with that bandage was that the part of the rod sticking out of the finger wasn't covered before putting on the gauze (tubegauz is the brand name, I believe) So later on I asked the nurses to out a small piece of compress on it before putting on the gauze.

But, the nurses are all super lousy as in
1) They make messy bandages
2) They don't know how much gauze they need and sometimes refuse to let me tell them
3) They like to potter around looking for things while my finger with the rod is in open air, and then they say the bandages should be sterile (and the open air is sterile, huh?)

There are more, I'm sure...but I should stop griping :P

Actually one thing that I really don't understand is why they don't seem to care about leaving my second finger joint free. I mean, nurses should know that! Their job isn't to block a joint (that is perfectly fine) in place for six weeks! But no, they don't seem to know that. Instead, each time I have to ask them to leave it free.

And they say that my finger is small, like a child's. Fine. Next time I'll go to a pediatrician's. (No. There's not gonna be a next time)

But the surgeon (my surgeon, not the other one I went to when he was on holiday) had said that I could change the bandage myself, which was why I did it sometimes. And one of them is this:


So that's it. My bandage most of the time.

And inside the bandage? I had to go for an X-ray before going for the appointment a week after the operation (probably to make sure that nothing had moved right after the operation?)

You can even see a shadow of the bandage on my hand...

One rod was sticking out of the top of my finger...and the other one was under the skin, but I could see a black dot at the tip of my finger... By the way, some of the nurses who changed my bandage said that it was a weird thing to do. Maybe he chose that method because I had small fingers? But he was so quick in deciding what to do, I got the impression that he did that all the time...

Oh, and by the way, the bruise from the anaesthetic lasted 3 weeks -_- A big purple bruise on my inner arm...at least it was covered by the sleeve of my t-shirt.

Five weeks after the operation (21st May) I had an appointment with the surgeon again, to fix the second operation. It was fixed for the 2nd of June...same as the first, hospitalised for an afternoon.

This time I had to make an appointment with the anaesthetist (there's a group of anaesthetists at the hospital I went to). They were fully booked (goodness, a lot of sick people out there) and the only time I could get an appointment was the Friday morning before the operation (28th May). They don't take appointments in the afternoon...now that I think of it, maybe it's because the afternoons are reserved for operations (applying anaesthetic?) Both times I had to check into the hospital at noon...

I also had to call the insurance company (complémentaire santé for those who know what it is, AXA for me) to ask them to fax the prise en charge (a document saying how much expenses they will cover for you, so that you won't even have to pay if your bill doesn't exceed the amount) to the hospital. The first time the surgeon's secretary did it all (calling the anaesthetist (so that he would go and see me after I checked in) and also my insurance company) for me, since it was practically an "emergency" (being so long after the accident).

2nd June: The second big day.

This time, for some reason they asked me to shower with the Betadine again before changing into the hospital gown. (I had already done that the night before and that morning, like the first time)

The anaesthetic was applied differently this time...they still numbed my whole arm, but they didn't inject my nerves...they didn't explain it so well to me this time round (probably because I didn't ask, I thought it would be the same) but I think it was a kind of electric shock thingy. Anyway, it seemed to work more quickly this time, and I was wheeled into the operating room not long after they applied it.

This operation was quicker, since it was just to take out the rods; it took 7 minutes, maybe less...about 1:25 to 1:32pm. (See? It was so early...I hardly had any waiting to do in the hospital room before I was bundled off to the operating area)

They put my arm in a sling like the first time...but for some reason they didn't support my finger as well as before (no bandage around the hand) Maybe because it wasn't that important to keep the finger "safe" now...but I would have preferred the earlier bandage 'cos that swath around my finger was pretty heavy...in the sling it kept weighing down on my two other fingers, and the next day on the way to the INSA nurses' office to change it, I had to sort of hold it with my other hand...it was like a weight was hanging from my finger! (which was the case, actually...)


I had to start moving my finger joint right away...without any help (pushing) from the other hand at first, and then I had another appointment with the surgeon two weeks later. After a week and a half I could already bend my finger almost 90º...maybe 80 or 85º. But after that it seemed to be stuck... :/

Then on the 18th June when I went for what is supposed to be my final surgeon's appointment, and now I'm supposed to try to move my finger more by using the other hand to "help" it, and also massage the joint. It's been several days, but it doesn't seem to be helping a whole lot...

So there you have it. I hope that the only knowledge you ever have of this kind of thing will be from this post.

Note: Sorry for any typos or incoherence, I wrote some parts separately (as I thought of some things I wanted to write about) and also moved backwards to add stuff I had forgotten while writing chronologically. And it's so long I don't feel like rereading the whole thing (I already reread it by parts to make sure it "sticks" together, but I might have missed something) Maybe some other time...you can also let me know if there are some glaring omissions :P