1 broken finger and 7 stitches later...

I was on the ambulance yesterday, and we didn't have many calls to start off with. By 3 in the afternoon we were going stir crazy. The battalion chief came by our station to see how things were going, and as he was leaving the radio let loose with three beeps. Three beeps means a fire, and all conversation stopped instantly. They advised who would be first in on it, and it was only about a mile from our station. Everyone scrambled to jump in trucks and bunk out in their gear. We fight fire from the ambulance as well as the engine in my county, so I grabbed my gear from the outside compartment and slammed the door. I tried to run around to the passenger side to get in, but my pinky had gotten caught in the door. There was no pain initially, just a pinch of the tip of my finger. I gave it a good tug and it wouldn't come out of the door. I reached with my other hand and opened the handle, but it wouldn't budge. I gave it a good yank and the door opened. I shut it again, and grabbed my gear while scrambling to jump in. My partner tossed me the map book, telling me the coordinates of the street. I felt some pain in my finger, and looked at it, only to see it bleeding like mad. My fingernail was a bit mangled, and the tip of my finger was blue and flat. Great. I again turned my attention to the map book, but was suddenly hit with a hot flash and nauseating wave of pain. M finger was throbbing, and I got a little dizzy. The ambulance was trying hard to keep up with the engine and follow them to the scene, and I was suddenly having a major hot flash, so I asked "Can you just follow the engine?" as I rolled my window down and hung my head out the window. My finger was screaming at me, and bleeding like mad. The tip was bent at an odd angle, was all smooshed, and turning blue and purple. We were on scene of the fire in 2 minutes, and I had to get it together! I sat in the truck for a second regaining my composure, then got out, and put my gear on. I grabbed an air pack from the truck and went towards the commanding officer. I didn't have my gloves on just yet- this was going to be painful. The officer announced over the radio that the fire was out and other responding units could go back in service. It had been isolated to the stove, microwave, and a couple of surrounding kitchen cabinets. The homeowners had put it out before we got there, but the smoke was slow to clear. The microwave handle had melted and dripped down, making interesting shapes and swirls as the molten plastic hardened and cooled. My officer told me I could take my gear off, and suggested I show the chief my finger. I didn't want to take of my gear. I wanted to go inside and help with clean up. It's hard enough being a female firefighter- the guys I work with have never given me the impression that they think any less of me in this male-dominated profession, but I always feel like I need to work ten times harder than the guys to prove myself equal. The last thing I needed was anyone cracking jokes about "what- you can't fight fire cause you broke a nail?" or anything of that sort. By God, I was dressed and ready to play, bloody or not. Reluctantly I approached the chief and told him about getting my finger caught in the door. He suggested that I go to the emergency room to have it checked out. I protested heavily- I have been doing this almost 8 years, and never had any real on-the-job injured before I landed on my head 6 weeks ago, now this? It's no secret that I have three left feet and am the biggest klutz on the planet, but the finger just needed a band-aid or something. Chief wouldn't hear of it, so up to the hospital I had to go. He explained that it was county policy to cover the department, and I understand, but I hate having anything slow me down, and hate going to the ER for what seemed minor. 1 broken finger and 7 stitches later, I was leaving the ER with my finger all wrapped up. The doc was pretty cool, and had to completely remove my fingernail, sew up the nasty cut, then sew the nail back on in hopes of leaving the nail bed open so that a new nail will grow back. I finished out my shift with a huge throbbing finger, and on our other calls had to oh-so-carefully put on gloves that fit over the gauze, but I stuck it out. I am still pretty angry at myself for the whole thing.

This was in the ER yesterday. Note the interesting little angle- it used to be straight!

Bleeding has slowed, going to need a new manicure!

And today it has taken on an interesting blend of colors!

The piece that broke off the tip- it isn't one solid piece- it's actually several small shards that are floating around, but I can't get a good pic of the other angle off the x-ray film.