Don't ever play rugby with a Samoan

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I'm back baby!
Before I start, it wasn't his fault, he felt really bad about it afterwards and I ribbed him for it but it was pure accident and not his fault at all.

Right, with that out of the way, the wife and I sent the kids to my parent's house on Saturday afternoon and made our way out with my brother in law to go meet up with some friends for a 30th birthday bash. We were by the canal, the weather was great, the BBQ was going, the drinks were flowing and all was good. We threw a rugby ball around, we threw a tennis ball around, we kept an eye on the cricket (yay) and the first game of the football season, and generally relaxed and had a laugh.

Then the games started. We played rounders with a mix between men and women. We lost by one run because they cheated. We played boules, I lost on the last bowl of the final :mad: Then someone had an idea that we should play touch rugby. A fine idea.

Until, running down the hill, the giant of a Pacific man tackled me (nothing more than two hand touch on the back) which I proceeded to ignore, put the ball down for a try, and then it all went wrong. The ball wasn't quite pumped up, so it gave a little under my hand. My little finger caught on a seam (I assume) and my back foot slipped from under me on the grass. My bodyweight came down on top of my hand, and I immediately knew there was a problem. I sat up, told my tackler of the problem and he laughed, knowing he had barely touched me. After which point I held up my hand and said 'I've dislocated my finger'. His horror was palpable and he is probably still reeling in shock :D

My wife told me she would just snap it back in, after which an expletive could be heard from miles around. We had a Nurse and various other medically trained people around, none of whom would go near it! Fortunately one of the group had not been drinking and she drove me to Leeds General Infirmary. At this point the pain had begun. Every time the car jarred or she changed lane extreme stabbing pain lanced down my hand into my wrist.

Upon arriving at Hospital I just held up my hand, gave details and they ushered me into the waiting room. After what seemed like no time at all I was taken into the first room, given gas and air and a doctor that made Dougie Howser look like a senior resident showed up. He told me that because the sensation of my right hand was different to the sensation of my left they couldn't wait for an X-ray and they needed to move quickly. He said 'I've done a couple of these before'. I had already discussed the possibility of me slotting a doctor so she had my arm wrapped around her thigh between her legs.

They told me to breathe from a gas and air cylinder. It was my first time, and it is rubbish. The schoolboy playing doctor failed to reset my finger three times, after which my bloodcurdling screams brought the Consultant running. He shifted the Junior Doc out of the way and took over. He got the finger half way right, and told the nurse to run along and get the morphine.

10mg of morphine and 15 minutes later, the pain has come down from a 9 to a 7.5. He told me to look away at this point, and the wife pulled my head around. This gets a little hazy except the sensation of the finger sliding back into place. I am told that the consultant pulled my finger down sharply and put all of his weight onto it in order to manage this.

After finally getting an X-ray we found it wasn't broken, so we went back to the party.

It still hurts now, but dislocating my knee was less pain than having to have my finger reset (as my knee slid back in on it's own).

Pics, bear in mind these were taken with my left hand on my phone whilst walking to the car. They don't show in any way the extent of the double dislocation I had. It went in three directions all the ways it shouldn't go. You can't really tell here, but the second picture does slightly show the very light patch on the inside of my little finger where the bone was pushing on the skin:

finger.jpg
finger1.jpg


It's now strapped up, and twice the size it should be. I don't bruise though, so it's not black but my whole hand will be yellow in a day or so.

It really was lovely beer in the pub after three hours in the Hospital though :) The morphine was just an added bonus ;)
 
this caused you pain? What the actual hell? Man up

If you double dislocate a digit and this does not cause you pain you are defective.

Last time I dislocated a finger I popped it back in myself.

I've seen this done many a time having played sport all my life, but not when it was as badly out of place as mine was.

Your story about rugby players playing on with broken necks isn't a surprise either. A lot of them are too stupid to feel pain ;) Especially Union players.
 
The thread title is a bit misleading - it sounds like your fault for not running fast enough, ignoring the tackle and being a bit clumsy on your feet... :p

Glad to hear that it got sorted out ok though, it looks to have been a really painful process.

Oh yes, it was absolutely my fault and nothing to do with him. It was only when we got back to the pub that I realised how badly he had taken it.
 
It looked worse than the pictures in the OP, but judging from the pain you described (which I did not go through) I'd say you must have dislocated it in a super fancy way... :p

Yeah, the consultant was trying to explain how the bone had been compressed from the end so had slid in alongside the other bone so they had to pull it around the protrusion at the end of the bone closer to my hand, and then twist it into place. That's why it took so many attempts and so much weight.

You great big jessy! Dislocated fingers aren't that bad.

Come back when you've done a knee

You didn't read it all ;) I did a knee last year, I'm still off footy now.
 
Bet you were put under for that though, and they didn't try (and fail) to fix it without painkiller either.
 
Oh I wasn't either. My mum had a very nasty wrist injury after a fall down the stairs. 13 breaks I think it came out at. I would choose the huge pain and struggle to fix it all at once over formal surgery and the period afterwards every time.
 
...and not a bruise was seen!

I don't know why I don't bruise. When I did my knee it came out yellow down my shin but no real bruise.
 
So, it turns out is was broken and the sister that said morphine was a daft idea missed the break on the x ray. Wonderful.

5 attempts at reseating a finger that's twice dislocated and also happens to be broken. Fun!
 
So it turns out it's not healing properly because it's a double fracture. So now it looks as though I will need it pinning.

Joy! :)
 
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