Meet My Physical Terrorist...I Mean Therapist

So, four weeks ago, I tore ligaments in my left index finger during an Aikido class. It really didn't hurt, and I didn't think I was a problem until my finger swelled up to twice its normal size and my hand developed nasty-looking purple bruises on the back. My MD told me to ice it, put a splint on it (that I had to buy at the local Walgreen's), and get a squeezy ball for when I took the splint off. He made no mention of needing to see him again or of needing any additional physical therapy. I followed his instructions to the letter.

Well, that was until I took the splint off after four weeks and realized that my finger is now perfectly straight (my double-jointed fingers are never perfectly straight) and that I can't bend the dang thing without bursting into sobbing tears. That's bad. I'm left handed and a guitar player. Although a straight finger would make bar chords really easy for me, I just can't go through life with a finger that makes me look like I'm pointing at everyone and everything. It's rude! Somehow I doubt that a squeezy ball is going to fix that problem!

So, today I went to a hand specialist who informed me that my finger should never have been immobilized (fabulous!). So, now I have several weeks of physical therapy to go through in order to get the finger back to its normal, unusually flexible self. You might be giggling and thinking how silly physical therapy for a finger sounds. I did that myself. I especially cracked up when I started thinking about painting a face on my finger, adding some hair to the top, and doing finger puppets with it :-)

Sadly, that's not what happened. By the end of the 15 minutes of therapy with a very nice, if not slightly sadistic, woman, I was near tears and debating whether I could actually leave the finger straight and still function normally. She gave me exercises that I need to do six times a day, 10 times each. These exercises basically force the finger to flex, even when it don't wanna. And it really don't wanna! The movement is searingly painful, and I can feel the ligament move when I'm doing them, which just gives me the willies! I keep picturing the thing snapping right off my finger and through my skin. (OK, I've been watching too much Anime; I admit it.) What evil creature came up with these dastardly exercises anyway?

The good news is that with my new and improved buddy strap, I can keep doing Aikido, which I've been doing all along anyway, and I will be back to normal in a few weeks. It's just going to be a very painful few weeks!