Jeff's hand surgery

Jeff's new low-profile brace.

The pin as it was for 5 weeks (below, but it was always covered with a cast) and it being removed (above).

The scar on Jeff's thumb. This was right after the cast came off so it is a lot of dried blood, dead skin, and some drawing done by the surgeon. It cleaned up quite nicely.

A fuller version of Jeff's hand injury and surgery: On Valentines Day Jeff went to play basketball with Spencer, Rickey, and some neighborhood friends. The teams were Jeff and three freshmen in high school: Rickey, K.C. Miller, and Alex Berge. The opposing team was made up of three juniors at Timpview and one 8th grader: Eli Robison, T.J. Salmon, and Q. Robison. After Jeff and the freshmen had won a couple of games and were in the proeces of winning the third, Jeff rebounded a ball and collided with T.J, a 6'7'' inch, 240 pound giant. With Jeff gripping the ball with his might, the ball collided with T.J.'s abdomen, which forced the ball, and Jeff's thumb, in the opposite direction. A loud pop and a groan from Jeff announced some kind of injury. T.J. was not sure what had happened because it really was not any kind of bump of note. Regarding Jeff's groan, a few minutes later Rickey asked Jeff why he had groaned so loud. Jeff came home and Kathy immediatly knew something was wrong because Jeff's face was very white and he was getting the chills.

To make a long story short, an x-ray revealed a bone chip inside of the left base of the left thumb, which led the doctor to diagnose a stener lesion--where the ligament tears away from the bone, taking a chip of the bone with it (that made Rickey understand, at least a little bit, why Jeff groaned). An MRI confirmed that diagnosis and the doctor highly recommended surgery, if Jeff ever wanted to be able to grip anything tightly again. So on Monday, March 2nd, Jeff had surgery on his thumb. The doctor put a titanium screw with a little eye on the end of it, into the thumb. He used the eye to sew the ligament right up to the bone. He then inserted a pin into the joint to prevent the joint from moving--the ligament needed time to heal back onto the bone. Jeff wore a soft cast for two weeks, then had the stitches out and got a hard cast for four more weeks. The pin stayed in. The new cast was so wide when measured from the outside of the hand to the end of the extended thumb, that Jeff could not wear any coats except his trench coat because he couldn't get his hand through the sleeve.

Today, the cast came off and the pin came out. It was not as gross or painful as Jeff thought it would be, although he did not look while they pulled the pin out with vice grips. He now has a much smaller brace that he can take on and off. He will wear that for a few more weeks, taking it off a few times a day to stretch the ligament. He wont' be able grip anything very hard for many more weeks while the ligament grows in strength.