The finger fiasco

So it’s Thanksgiving and I’m in the ER with a hipster mustache.

The end of Movember can’t come quick enough. The handlebar mustache makes me look super sketchy and the ER nurse is glaring at me because I look crazy.

I’m in the ER because our early morning trip to the dog park went horribly wrong. I’m at the dog park watching Gertrude play with a puppy when I hear screaming behind me. There’s a pileup of dogs and Harley is in the middle of it. A woman screams.

I jump in with the other dog owners and reach into Harley’s mouth to pull him off of a mutt. That was a mistake and my finger gets torn up. I’m told that the other dogs are fine and that my hand is the only casualty of the dog fight.

No more dog parks for Harley. Ever.

Dragging my dogs to the car with a bloody hand is super awkward. The dumb mustache didn’t help.

Four hours and seven stitches later, I am off to Walgreens for antibiotics. Juggling the hospital paperwork with my banged up hand and facial hair makes me look super sketchy. The pharmacist glares until she realizes that I’m not looking for drugs, just clueless.

My index finger bone is also fractured. Apparently my finger nail is completely gone and the bone was hanging out. Ugh. I’ll see if I can get into the orthopediatrician’s tomorrow.

Gory pictures after the jump.

So what’s bulging out in the first picture isn’t fingernail, but rather the skin from where my fingernail used to be and bone.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the movie The Royal Tenenbaums because one of the characters has a missing finger. I also thought of that episode of Law & Order SVU where the girl dies of flesh eating bacteria before I decided that I was being ridiculous.

I suppose I’m more embarrassed by the whole fiasco more than anything. I’m grateful that the other dog is fine and that no dog owners were hurt. I’ll bring Gertrude back to the dog park someday but Harley’s butt is staying at home. Finger hurt. Lessons learned.