Busted Digit

I broke my thumb last night. To exacerbate the issue, it was my right thumb and, being right-handed, this has proven to be quite problematic.

You see, I play in a basketball league at the YMCA with some friends and our team is in the playoffs. Last night we were playing particularly well, and found ourselves up by about 25 with eight minutes left. I was guarding my man on the left side of the court, when a pass was sailed to an open opponent coming towards the hoop on the right side. I made a hurried effort to get over there to stop him and, upon realizing I had his shot timed, prepared to attempt The Block of the Century.
Instead of merely deflecting the guy's shot, I jumped as high as I could, swinging my hand in massive arc at the ball. At the peak of my jump, I swatted at the ball. I was successful in my endeavor, but in rejecting the shot, my hand was turned sideways and the force of my maximum-effort arm-swing resulted in the slamming of my thumb against the backboard.

As soon as I landed, I knew something was wrong. Looking at my throbbing hand, I noticed that my thumb no longer extended straight out from my palm. Instead, it darted in towards the rest of my hand before jutting back out away from it. Fortunately, the game was well in hand at that point, so I didn't feel terrible about sitting out the rest of the game.

Gratefully, the YMCA is next door to the Up & Up, and since it was Weekly Wednesday, the logical thing to do after the game was go drink with my friends. I kept hoping that maybe the thumb was just dislocated, but it was becoming clear that it was broken. After downing a couple of beers, I went outside and reset my thumb, nearly biting through the bill of my hat in the process. The good news is that my thumb was a bit straighter afterwards. The bad news is that after resetting it, my thumb ballooned into a bulbous, discolored version of its former self.

This morning I woke up to find that my hand still looked bloated but I was pleased to discover that the pain wasn't unbearable, even after the Ibuprofen had worn off.

Today, my awesome roommates Kyle and Ben devised a splint for me made of gauze and a custom-cut pizza box, which lasted nearly the entire day.

This afternoon I went into my job at SPIE to sign my time-card. My co-worker Chris commented, while we discussed the injury, that our thumbs are important. "They're what separates us from the apes," he said. I cocked my head slightly and looked at him quizzically. he quickly added, "well, they're what separates us from the lizards anyways."

Here's hoping the recovery doesn't last long!