Boxer’s Fracture

Every November there is a local mountain bike race that I enjoy competing in called a Ride-n-seek race. The goal is you and a partner have four hours to complete as many checkpoints as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.

Today was the day of the event and I got up super early to head to the race and arrived early enough to get some cool fog photos and a sunrise through the trees.

It’s been raining in my area fir weeks now and I knew it was going to muddy going into the race and indeed it was. On about the mile we hit our first little wooden bridge and I crashed. The mixture of water and leaves made it like black ice. I was on the ground in an instant.

While getting up my wrist and hand was hurting but I didn’t think it was broken until I pulled my glove off and seen a huge bulge. At that point I tried to squeeze my hand. No luck.

Knowing it was bad my team mate and I pushed back to the truck, loaded up my bike, and I headed to the emergency room.

After x-rays they told me my hand was broken and that I had done something called a boxers fracture.

According to Wikipedia A boxer’s fracture is the break of the 5th metacarpal bones of the hand near the knuckle. Occasionally it is used to refer to fractures of the 4th metacarpal as well.

They said it would require surgery and they couldn’t do it today but they did need to set it. I had no idea on the pain that I was about endure.

First they stuck my fingers in a Japanese handcuffs contraption and used gravity to start the process of pulling the bones straight. Next they set it by hand by pulling and pushing my fingers. It hurt.

At this point it was time to head home and get some rest and tomorrow I get to schedule a survey.

All this reminds me that I need to check on disability insurance. I know I’m not in an industry where we are prone to danger but you just never know.