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1500 posts :D thought I'd make a blog about this.
Let's go back to yesterday morning. So I'm looking at the road in front of me. I'm biking, minding my own business, when I start to get a bit more adventurous.
Now where I live there's quite a bit of road construction going on. There always is, and usually within two months it would get done. But not this time. This time it's four months before elections. So our genious mayor takes every single road worker in our town and puts them all on a single road. That road is going to become a highway, and he's trying to make walkways over the road or something.
I forget the specifics. Nor are they relevant. What is relevant is that there is a metric fuckton of concrete pillars around it, five hundred men dressed in safety orange walking around them, and a full size construction site, completely abandoned, within a stone's throw of my house.
And I'm biking right through that. It actually feels pretty good with the potholes and half the road missing. Apparently they have to peel the road off before putting it back on again. Gives a nice vibration, and after you've been straddling a bike seat for about an hour, no matter how padded it is, it's a nice wake-up call for that area of the body.
Suddenly a car.
Going through the construction site, there's an intersection up ahead. I'm going towards it, and the car is approaching from the right. We do not see each other.
He stops, I see him and decide like the wise man I am to go completely ballistic right then and there. I push the handlebar to the left as far as it can physically go and end up coming down. Hard. Now I was going pretty fast before this, so I've got to lose all that speed. And my brake in this case would be my left forearm and the edge of my hand.
This all goes by in about three seconds, and then I remember just being stuck there for maybe twice as long. It's that moment where the pain is just starting, but you're paralyzed and reeeeeeally don't want to move for whatever reason. Finally I get up and assess the damage.
Two long gashes on my forearm from a particularly sharp rock on the road. They don't look too deep, that'll heal up by Monday.
A scratch on my wrist and pinky. It's off-red and wider than what is on my forearm, but I don't give that too much attention either. Just some scrapes that will go away.
Apologize to driver. Driver goes by. Coast seems clear, time to go back home.
At that point I realize I'm having some trouble gripping the handlebar with my left hand. Also my grip feels smaller than usual.
By the time I get home and open up my garage I realize that my left pinky is completely numb. I can barely move it and I can't feel it at all.
Now I think my left pinky is one of my most important fingers.
My left pinky hits the control and shift keys for StarCraft. And I absolutely love to spam control groups. I played a few games with my dud pinky and my APM has dropped. I'm still decent compared to my regular level, but I'm having trouble with harassment and reinforcing my army now.
My left pinky (well my right one too I guess) is meant to counterbalance for holding tools and water bottles and stuff. Pinky is where the strength comes into play there. Since my right hand is on my mouse, I'm generally feeding myself with my left.
My left pinky is always being pushed to and beyond its limits when I play piano. With composers whose music I play a lot (mostly Chopin and Rachmaninoff) they seem to love the left hand. It has to be everywhere. When I'm writing, these days I'm using my pinky as a bass drum - creating that loud beat that keeps the song nice and even, as well as driving it forward. I've walked away from multiple sessions where my finger has been dark red or even bleeding since most of my arm's weight is going down on that finger.
And what's funny is that up until this point I haven't even thought about it.
I haven't thought about what my pinky does in StarCraft. Control and Shift are important keys but I don't care about that - I just want my control groups to be accessible.
I haven't thought about how exactly I lift things, or that it's actually the pinky pulling most of the weight with the other three fingers being for manipulation. The pinky always seems like such a weak finger... when has anyone lifted huge weights with their pinky?
I haven't thought about the reasons behind my keyboard of infinite bloodstains. After my finger starts bleeding I don't think "Why is it that my pinky always bleeds but none of my other fingers?" I just say to myself "Dammit I'm bleeding again, that's enough playing for today. Where the hell is the hand sanitizer?"
Well, for better or worse, I'm going to turn this into a learning experience. I remember my toes going numb in a similar fashion (from wearing ancient tight-fitting leather boots for eight days nonstop) and it took about a month to get feeling back, so I'm guessing I have about that much to live with nine fingers.
Maybe sometime in the near future I'll try to make a DIY brace out of metal strips or crayons or something. Use my wrist weight to control my pinky for StarCraft. As far as piano goes I'll just change my playstyle.
But really, as with any misfortune, I'll just deal with it as best I can, learn from my mistakes, and leave my fate to the wind.
EDIT: I went to the doctor, and here are the results.
 
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I'm getting a checkup on the 20th, so I'll just ask my doctor about it then.
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Dude, go NOW. Immediately.
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On July 16 2012 02:54 spinesheath wrote:
Dude, go NOW. Immediately.
This. This. This.
Don't postpone that. NOW. GO. MOVE.
I hate creating horror scenarios, but you might need one: Now that we know how much you love your pinky (great writeup btw), imagine it staying this way. Sounds good? If not, go to a doctor immediately.
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Oh man, when I read the story I got this strange feeling. I thought it would turn out your finger got severed during the accident. Phew, dodged a bullet there. But yeah, go to the doctor.
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^^Then again, it always pays to be safe. I'm a cheapass who doesn't like doctors, but I see your point.
Aaaaaand I still need 40 minutes, doctor's office won't open up for that long so right now I'm waiting it out. At this point if it's irrepairably damaged (which I doubt) then it's already gone. When everything starts running again, I'll come back and tell the results.
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The fuck one of your fingers stops working and you don't immediately think that you need to go to the doctor?
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On July 16 2012 03:33 Antimatterz wrote:
The fuck one of your fingers stops working and you don't immediately think that you need to go to the doctor?
Happened before with my toes and all was well afterwards.
Anyways, I'm off now.
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Does it hurt yet? i hurt my wrist only a few days ago and after a few hours of "ouch i hurt my hand a little" it started hurting worse than anything i ever felt before (doesn't say too much i guess, i never hurt myself really bad before)
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On July 16 2012 02:51 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:
I'm getting a checkup on the 20th, so I'll just ask my doctor about it then.
This is not good, by then if you have some fracture or shit like that it will have started healing and if the doctor doesnt put everything in place before then your finger might be fucked up...
my uncle did that when he was young: got slashed on the wrist by a hockey stick and one of the 20 something bones of the wrist was broken.
few days later when he finally thought : shit my wrist aint moving anymore, something must be wrong... he went back to the hospital and tests revealed broken bone wasnt healing in the right place so they broke it again to straighten it up.
Morale of the story; whenever you screw up one of your extremities, get it x-rayed cause it sux to be crippled lol. ( god bless Canada, our outrageous tax rate and our free hospitals.)
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Good luck, i hope you make a full recovery.
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You really should take this more seriously. My cousin had an injury from playing basketball. His ringfinger was somehow hit, he couldn't really move it but wasn't that concerned with it and only after a few days decided to get checked by the doctor. If he had went to see the doctor directly after the injury they could have healed the finger completely, but as he went that late he can't bent his ringfinger anymore.
Hopefully your injury turns out to be harmless. Good luck!
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Went to the doctor!
So apparently the ulnar nerve (goes from your armpit to your pinky) got shot up by the impact. My doctor says she's seen this happen before, so I just get my finger wrapped up nice and tight so it doesn't do something it shouldn't.
So right now I should be gaining mobility again, but I won't actually feel it for about a week. The nerve is relatively fine and healing, but there's going to be a huge callus on that part of the finger so I'll feel absolutely zero on the impact side of the finger.
I'm getting by the next 24 hours w/o my pinky at all (i.e. as if it doesn't exist), but after that if I can move the finger around normally she says I can start using it gradually again. StarCraft okay, weightlifting and ramming it senseless into a piano is out.
No permanent damage! :D at the very least I feel better knowing that, and that I'll recover four times as fast as I thought I would.
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On July 16 2012 04:40 [UoN]Sentinel wrote:
Went to the doctor!
So apparently the ulnar nerve (goes from your armpit to your pinky) got shot up by the impact. My doctor says she's seen this happen before, so I just get my finger wrapped up nice and tight so it doesn't do something it shouldn't.
So right now I should be gaining mobility again, but I won't actually feel it for about a week. The nerve is relatively fine and healing, but there's going to be a huge callus on that part of the finger so I'll feel absolutely zero on the impact side of the finger.
I'm getting by the next 24 hours w/o my pinky at all (i.e. as if it doesn't exist), but after that if I can move the finger around normally she says I can start using it gradually again. StarCraft okay, weightlifting and ramming it senseless into a piano is out.
No permanent damage! :D at the very least I feel better knowing that, and that I'll recover four times as fast as I thought I would.
Glad to hear that there is no permanent damage. Hope you make a really fast recovery!
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Glad that you won't be losing it. Good luck with recovery.
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Lol someone gave me a 1 and didn't even say why. Asshole.
Anyways, thanks guys  finger feels a little bit better too
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Russian Federation748 Posts
As a pianist I can understand.The pinkies are paramount fingers.
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Don't worry about ratings...so many people just go around giving things 1-star.
Nice blog, and yeah, the pinkies are so important. Good thing you went out and fucking got your finger checked up ASAP. Could have saved yourself from some major damage there yo. Hope your recovery is swift and you're able to use your pinky again soon! I was so scared you actually got dismembered as well ;__;
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Phew, no permanent damage  . dodgine bullets and marine micro on this blog lol.
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EPT
