In Transition.

Waiting.

The Digit Injury

A few weeks ago (September 23, to be exact), I smashed my finger in a door. It was a very heavy metal door with a tendency to slam shut. The injury occurred as I was exiting the powder room at my former place of employment. A man was passing in the hallway, thus I stepped back to let him go by without entering my personal bubble. Unfortunately, my finger happened to insert itself into the door jamb as the Very-Heavy-Metal-Door was closing. My abused digit caught on the portion of the hinge that stood out, thus forcibly smushing a crevasse into the skin.

The injury itself was rather fascinating. The door did not break the skin, rather it compressed the tip of my finger all the way down to the bone. The profile evidenced a sharp delineation between smushed and non-smushed portions. My mother has lamented the fact that I did not take profile pictures at the time; my mistake, the next time I am injured, I shall dutifully take a 360 degree visual record. For this event, however, I do have a one dimensional photographic record detailing the healing process. Let me share:

Immediately Following Injury

• No swelling
• Complete numbness
• Unable to bend
  

Two Weeks

• Swelling has begun (though finger remains largely compressed)
  
• Tingling
• I peeled off the dead skin that had been pushed to the left side
  

One Month

• The crevasse is beginning to heal
• Remains swollen around the crevasse (I had to peel off the scab every few days so the skin would grow together)
  
• Blood has begun to slowly exit the area via the nail bed
  

A Month and a half

• Turns out the nail was fractured (where it had begun growing underneath the crevasse)... thus when the nail grew out past the cuticle, there were two layers.
  
• I peeled off the top layer as it kept catching on things; 'twas painful
• A slight dent remains where once there was a crevasse

Two months

• A faint scar remains in place of the crevasse
• The nail continues to grow out, though the extra top layer towards the end is inconvenient
  

Three months

• The scar remains slightly red
  
• I trimmed off the extra top layer at the end of my finger as it kept catching things and tugging slightly; now it is an extraordinarily short and ragged nail, but otherwise normal.
  

The experience has been most interesting and slightly gruesome in an awesome way. This marks my most serious injury (though not the bloodiest) I've ever had. Too bad I didn't file for workman's comp.