Treatment plan...

Wait!

No, really, that's the plan.

I met with the Kaiser hand surgeon this morning.  I really liked him, and his nurse.  He looked at it, hmmm'd and hawww'd.  What to do?  What to do?  If you're not grossed out by blood and stuff, here's what he was looking at. (scroll way down if you don't want to see...)

Finally, he said there wasn't enough skin to stitch anything together, so he had 2 choices:  1) he could do a skin graft, but that would be really ugly, or 2) he could just let it be and let it heal.  The downside to that is that it might heal "too much" and start pulling the nail bed down, then he'd have to fix that.  Ultimately, he chose option 2.  He's hoping that it just heals.  And, if he does have to fix it, it will be ugly, too, but maybe not as ugly as the graft!

So, there you have it.  I'm waiting for scabs to form!  It should take about 2 weeks and then I'll see the Dr. again.  I'm not supposed to move the finger (do you now how hard it is to type without using my left index finger???   VERY DIFFICULT!)  In the meantime, I'm off work for up to 2 weeks (if I need it; probably more like 3 days!).  It's got a bandage on it - that's all.  No neosporine, nothing.  Just the bandaide.  Here's what this treatment looks like:

wrapped

Tip

Tony, my exchange student was really nice when I told him what had happened.  He said he would have driven me to the hospital (I didn't know how the blood would effect him so I just told him I had to run an errand!).  And, he's going to do the dishes until my finger is healed - he insisted.  Sweet, huh?  Somebody raised him right.

That's it.  Think I'll take myself off to bed  - without any detours to the garage!