What should I do about my swollen pinky?
I’ve had a similar experience (hosed up pinky), with symptoms similar to what you describe, and it was a fracture in the finger joint. A really tiny one, but it doesn’t take much. The longer you wait to have it X-rayed and confirmed as either broken or just whammied on, the less likely that it will heal with 100% function if it’s actually fractured. I ended up being referred to a finger specialist, and did physical therapy stuff to my finger to increase range of motion and such. It took about 4 months to heal up (although it still gets sore sometimes even now) to about 90% strength and range of motion. Finger doc also said that fingers are difficult to repair surgically, and that sort of thing is usually a 50/50 shot, and that the correct treatment (immobilization vs. stretching to increase range of motion, for example) depends upon what’s wrong with it. The worst case for a fracture is that they have to fuse it, which basically means that your finger never bends again (it’s locked in
I broke my finger in a similar way when I was a kid. My dad was sure I was exaggerating, because I didn’t seem to be in that much pain. My mom took one look and brought me into the hospital. It turns out the finger was not only broken, but needed to be reset for me to be able to close my hand properly. As a student, you probably have a health center on campus. If not, there are urgent care centers which shouldn’t be too expensive. I strongly recommend having a doctor look at / XRay your hand. A broken finger may not hurt much now, but if it sets badly can take a lot more work to fix.
That roughly matches my symptoms when I broke my finger while I was out of the country. I had it looked at a couple months later after I got back to the US and I had to wear a splint for over two months because I had waited so long. I had even tried to splint it myself after it happened. But because of the way it was broken, every time I let it bend when took it out of the splint to change it I was negating the effects of my splinting. I would see a doctor and get it x-rayed to determine the proper course of action. I went to student health, which was free, but I had to pay about $200 total for two x-rays.
I’ve broken a toe, with very similar symptoms. I never saw a doctor for it, I figure it must have been broken because it hurt a little for about 6 weeks. I just taped the toe with cloth first aid tape and went about my usual activities. I had some continuing occasional pain in the toe with a slightly limited range of upward motion for about a year. This was about 4 years ago now, and at this point I can’t remember which toe it was. I figure I probably had some sort of hairline fracture, but I really have no idea. If you don’t have any insurance, I would keep an eye out for signs of infection and head to the emergency room or doc-in-a-box if that occurs. If you have insurance, just go to the doc already.
I’m wondering… whether it’ll disappear on its own, given more time. Yes, it will go away in time, but said time may be months. I sprained my index finger and even with iceing and immobilizing it took a couple months to go away. I’m sure that if I’d seen a doctor at the time I could have halved that healing time and not have residual sensitivity today. Ice. Immobilize. See a doctor if even remotely possible.
