thumb splint

At last after about 3 months of thumb therapy, I’ve maxed out the limit that the accident and illness insurance will pay for occupational therapy. This comes at a good time, the semester has begun and I’m busy with school and work, and I’m also getting tired of the three times a week therapy schedule. So today, the occupational therapist made this final splint for me. The splint will pull the thumb downwards at the joint and keep it bent. As the joint become more flexible, it can be pulled down lower. And it hurts! The therapist said that it’ll hurt but I thought I have pretty high pain tolerance and the pain will not be a big deal. But when the thumb is pulled down, it sort of cuts off the blood circulation, it’ll hurt and it’ll go numb. I have to put this on for 10-15 minutes every other hour during the day. I also have another splint that’s about the same but without the pulling thing, I have to use that when I do my thumb exercise. Anyway in terms of thumb rehabilitation, I’m on my own now.

The other day, a friend of mine, Charlayne, asked me whether my injured thumb was back to normal and I sort of answered, “It’ll never get back to normal.” In terms of function, it’s almost back to normal. In terms of looks, it looks normal. In terms of the degree which the right thumb will bend, it only bends at a 38 degree angle where as my left thumb bends at 80 degree. So that’s the only “abnormal” part and it’s still slightly swollen probably due to the aggressive thumb therapy.

But I’ve also spent many hours at the Hand Center and have heard stories and seen injuries much worse than mine. Once I saw this guy who was bitten by his exotic pet snake. His pointer finger was totally black. About a week after that incident, I asked the therapist whether the snake-bitten guy came back for therapy, she said she has not seen him since that day. She predicted, due to the extend of the injury, the guy probably lost that finger. And the stories I’ve heard include people losing hands and feet due to lawn movers, snow-blowers, and wood-chippers injuries. So a not-very-bendable thumb is really not such a big deal.