Jer's Digit

I was playing basketball at the YMCA over lunch and my left hand ring finger was kicked. At first I thought it was dislocated so I tried using my self-taught "pull on it until it goes back to normal" technique. I thought I corrected the problem until I bent my finger and had to squeeze really hard to get it to bend past 45 degrees. In doing this it actually made a clicking noise on my middle knuckle. I went to get x-rays and the initial diagnosis was my knuckle was broken. I was referred to a hand specialist and learned I had also severed the ligament on the bottom of my finger (this is what enables you to bend your finger). My knuckle was not only broken but dislocated because the tendon on the top of my finger was pulling my knuckle out of socket since the bottom ligament could not provide any counter resistance. I had surgery on July 2, 2008 to have the portion of the crushed bone removed and reshaped along with reattaching the ligament.