The saga that is my broken thumb

So, here's the deal. Up until last Wednesday, I had every intention of flying to Israel on Sunday 17 April to spend Pesach with my Israeli family and my sister who is studying in Jerusalem for the semester. Then on Wednesday I played 5-a-side football and the ball was kicked into my thumb. It swelled up massively and was significantly bruised so on Thursday morning I went first to my GP and then to the hospital to get it looked at.

Turns out, I had a crack in the proximal phalanx (the bottom of the two thumb bones) and was put in a plaster and told to come back the next day to be looked at by the hand clinic. They said they might need to do a small operation.

Friday morning I go to the hand clinic and am told that I need an operation and the earliest it can be is Monday. I explained to them that I was meant to travel to Israel and they said I could take the risk of not having surgery but with that risk came an increased change of further (and possible) irreparable damage to my thumb. Because I kinda need my right thumb (as Tommy noted, its my trigger finger) I decided that it wasn't worth the risk to not have the surgery and therefore postponed my trip to Israel to Wednesday.

So I go into the hospital this morning for the surgery and my surgeon tells me "Well, looking at your xrays from today and from Thursday, the bone hasn't moved at all and its actually in a really good position. We don't think you need surgery at all and in fact we're just going to put you in a full plaster and have you come back on Thursday for another xray to make sure its still in place and you haven't done any damage. Again, I explained the situation and she told me that, were it her, she would NOT go to Israel and she would stay here to insure I get the proper treatment and don't cause any damage. Were I to go to Israel I would be put into a plaster with a cut down the middle that would allow for swelling that might occur on an airplane. However, this (as well as the fact that when traveling I would need to handle baggage and whatnot) would increase the risk of something happening and the bone slipping. So her opinion would be to not go to Israel.

After much deliberation I realized that, since I had already missed Pesach and wouldn't be there for the holiday to begin with, there was really no reason to go to Israel this week and risk the chances of something happening when I could just as easily change my flights (AGAIN) and go sometime in May when I don't have a freshly broken bone.

So, right now I have a lovely light blue plaster on my hand that will probably be on for 4-6 weeks. Hopefully next month I will make it to Israel. That is my explanation of the shenanigans that occurred with my ridiculous broken thumb. Now if anyone asks I can just refer them to this blog post.