A Freelancer's Worst Nightmare

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April 4, 2007


“Yup, that bone right there is cracked, almost in half, and that bone has two chip fractures. We’ll have to tape that finger to the one beside it as a split for the next three weeks, and you’ll need to keep ice on it for a few days to bring down the swelling…”

Doc’s recommendation was a “tapebuddy”, or impromptu splint made by taping the ring finger of my right hand (the one I broke) to the middle finger of the same hand. Makes typing kinda tough when I’m forced to hunt and peck with just my right index finger.

xray of my right hand ring finger showing a break in the distal phalanx xray of my right hand ring finger showing chip fractures where the middle phalanx meets the proximal phalanx

Sorry for the crappy photos … taken with the Treo 700w camera of my xray on the LCD monitor at the hospital. This side profile of the finger shows the crack from the underside of the finger. The top-view xray showed the crack extending left-to-right, right across the bone.

As a freelance developer, who writes code for a living, as well as a guy who was supposed to play piano at church for Easter this coming Sunday, this is no small event. It got me wondering whether I should look into additional insurance to cover lost income for stuff like this…

Almost a decade later, the fingertip is still a little tender if I hit it on anything, and I opted for an aluminum finger brace with lots of tape instead of taping it to my right hand middle finger.