Buddied fingers

 

My day started painfully. My right ring finger wouldn’t stay straight. It was bent inwards… like a wilting flower..

I experienced excruciating pain around my first joint.

I never knew this finger was so important. When I tried to make my morning cuppa, I could not hold the saucepan. 

That was when I realised I had not been giving enough attention to my other hand.

My left hand proved to be such a good friend. My right hand, dominant one, had always looked down at the left with derision - like a bossy mean senior in school would look at a hero worshiping junior. If only I had trained my left hand better when all was well.

Anyway, I started doing what any normal tech-savvy human would do - I started Googling my symptoms… in-spite of knowing Google’s ability to kill someone with just a minor cold. As expected, the prognosis was bleak.

During breakfast, I told Harish I had to meet a doctor. He was amused and said only I could get such strange afflictions.🙄

But I did not know which ‘specialist’ to meet when I went to the hospital! The receptionist chose the RMO.

Ok. The resident doctor it is.

The doctor immediately told me it is not my bone, but the soft tissue around it which was damaged.

But he was too young. So, I suggested an X-ray. (What Audacity!!)

He looked straight in my eye and said that he would then recommend MRI!

Phew!! That was way off my mark.

No. Thanks.

He said the fingers must be “buddied”.

(What is that?)

And an injection for my pain.

I have to tell you something about myself. I am a little Pentecostal in my approach to medicine. Prayers and nature are the best remedies to all physical & mental problems is my mantra.

Thus, I have a derision to medication - until push becomes a shove.

The casualty nurse (f) and attendant (m) found first a ice-cream stick & later a broader thin stick to hold 2 fingers together in place and decided my little finger was ‘weak’ & trussed up my middle finger with my injured ring finger together. It was painful. This is buddying.

They tried to lighten my pain by telling me that I cannot use my right hand and so it was ample excuse for me to not do any housework! 🥳 Things are not so bleak, after all!

I returned to meet the RMO, who asked me questions like - Are you afraid of disease? Are you stressed / anxious?

First one I can accept as karma.

Second - Having a teenager living faraway is stressful!😅

He asked what I did?

Ans:Housewife & artist.

You look healthy, he said.

A:Well, I keep myself busy.

Q:Did you do bang your hand anywhere? Did anything bite you?

A:No. But I did clean out some cupboards.

Q:Periods?

A: Fine. Love to cry and misbehave once a month.

He suggested I eat chocolates during those times. And I said, I have a very health conscious husband who runs, does not like deep-fried stuff & is trying to wean me away from sugar.

He looked in awe and said, “Life must be tough!”🤣

Q: And pain tolerance?

A: 12 hours of labour then c-section. 2 kids delivered.

He was looking confused. What could be causing this pain? I teased him saying he had to now remember all that they taught him in medical college!

And I turned the conversation to him.

He was from Thrissur and did his medical degree from Ernakulam. He talked a bit about his large family tree (1000 branches) and started checking my lymph nodes. All fine.

He sat back and said he was not aggressive into giving medication and asking for tests.

I liked him. My sort of doctor.

So, we both decided against the injection until it was absolutely necessary.

By now, Harish had decided that my injury must have been slightly more than funny and decided to pick me up.

Once I reached home, Harish was at my disposal. He even made me Rasam rice to eat with spoon!

By 3 pm, my pain increased and I decided that I must get that injection. But Dr.Vipin, the RMO suggested that the strapping might be too tight and preventing the draining of fluid. 

“Maybe, we could try re-strapping?” 

Ok. Thank you, doc.

The female nurse at Casualty was the sweetest. She saw my pain and my effort at being humorous at the face of it and just cut off the bands. She put new truss loosely around my fingers.

Harish had accompanied me to the hospital, this time. He told the doctor that I had engaged in some aggressive cleaning at home and for sure had sprained my ring finger. He mentioned how I had brought down heavy suitcases and attempted to hoist heavier boxes into the higher cupboards.

A bulb sort of went on on the doctor’s face. He stared at me with an accusatory look.

“I thought it looked like the basketball injury I used to get in college”, he murmured.

Well, it is the ‘heavy duty cleaning’, I had mentioned to the doc. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Then Harish said something in his ear and they shared a laugh.

All the men filed out of the casualty and I wondered why. Was the injection to be administered on my bum? Yikes!!

I lay on my right side with my pants down.

And the nurse pushed in the needle filled with the thickest solution. And I think she just couldn’t inject it fast… She told me..”relax, take deep breaths” , each sentence smothered with “മോനെ”.

മോനെ is Son (affection term) in Malayalam.

She is not that old. I was surely elder to her.

I somehow resisted the urge to cry. And after rubbing the injected point and sitting straight, I told her - “No one has called me മോനെ in years. It is either aunty or ചേച്ചി (elder sister).Everyone wants to feel younger. And here you are. Surely not more than 35. Calling me this.”

She smiled and said in a very easy manner, “I call everyone മോനെ.. whatever the age.”

I think it is probably a psychological strategy.. a beautiful one.. to make her patients feel like they are with a loved elder.

Thank you, Laila nurse. 😘❤️🙏🏻

It was a chore to walk back & sit down in the car with a sore bum. In the apartment lift, I asked Harish about the joke he shared with the doc.

He said, “I told him you heal fast, but pain tolerance is low.”

That hurt more than both my fingers and bum put together. 😒

He was laughing when he said,” BTW, you are the only person who can get a basketball injury, without playing the sport. സമ്മധിച്ചു.”

🙄

Anyway, with the help of the doctor, nurse, finger buddy, medicines, my own left hand and Ernakulathappan .., I am healing and ….training to be ambidextrous.