Doug's Progress

Doug had another follow-up Ortho doc visit on Monday.  He had another X-ray to check how his middle finger is healing.  That was the first I got to see the break.  The bone in the finger tip is broken in two places and the middle bone is broken in one.  He'll probably lose his fingernail, but they are hoping a new nail will grow in.


He also had twenty-some stitches removed from three fingers.  I've never had stitches, at least none that needed removed, so I was intrigued by the whole thing.  I watched the guy as he gently and carefully removed stitch after stitch.  Doug thinks he counted 23.  But he had his eyes closed quite a bit because it hurt to have them pulled.  Especially in his index finger.  That finger is still quite tender.


Then his middle finger was re-wrapped, a pin cap applied, and a brace fitted.  Mainly because of the pin.  His doctor doesn't want him bumping the pin because that would really hurt and would mess things up.


And he got permission to return to work.  But he's not allowed to do anything with his left hand.  And he's not allowed to get his broken finger wet.  I thought he would wait a day or so before returning, but he returned to work on Tuesday - daylight shift.  Twelve hours.  Nothing like jumping back in with both feet.


He felt bad because they were already short-handed before he got hurt.  So the two guys have been working 12-hour shifts every day since September 12 when Doug took his vacation.  Vacation coverage doesn't seem to be such a big deal because at least you know there is an end to the long days.  When someone is off due to sickness or injury, you just don't know when your next day off is going to be.  Not fun.


He got switched to afternoon shift starting today and will be switching to 12-hour midnight shifts next week.  7 pm to 7 am.  Oh joy!  His next day off?  October 16.  In the meantime he needs to go in to have the stitches removed in his middle finger next week and the pin will be removed the following week.  He's hoping they can remove the pin on the 15th since he finishes up midnight shift that morning and will have a long weekend to recover.


The Physician's Assistant was telling him that it is no big deal to pull the pin out.  That the skin will start to pull away from it as his finger heals.  We're both hoping she's correct.


He'll have to keep the brace on his finger for a few weeks after removing the pin.  We don't know if there will be any formal physical therapy to regain the movement in his fingers or if he'll be on his own for that.  He was told to start bending the ones that aren't broken a little at a time.  That's hard to do when your middle finger still can't move.  Go ahead ... try moving your index, ring, and pinky fingers without moving your middle finger.  Tough, huh?  He said if he looks at them and concentrates really hard, he can move them a little.  That reminded me of the movie Bolt.  :)


Speaking of dogs, Honey was funny yesterday.  While Doug was at work all day, she kept coming over and nudging me to play with her.  Or she'd come over and bite at my feet.  Or she would walk up to me and bark at me to get my attention.  She must have really missed Doug.  Not that she never does that.  She just did it a lot yesterday.  Doug got a kick out of that when I told him.  If only I had missed him that much.  :)

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