My Bitter Experience with Mallet Finger

The effect of 5 hours sleep almost led me to deformity. It was November 18th, 2017 morning when I felt worn out due to the lack of sleep the night before, yet still managed to go for breakfast with my family like other typical Saturdays. Even worse, I agreed to play volleyball with my friends afterwards instead of resting at home to gain back energy. While playing on the second set, I accidentally hit the ball solely with my ring finger, making constant pain in that finger. The pain, however, was gradually alleviated after a while. I thought the hit was nothing server, so I kept playing on and on until during the 5th set that I realized I could not actually straighten my ring finger to its normal shape. It was curve as a vault, and red like a rose thought I literally felt very little pain. I did not tell anyone about this even my wife as I believed that minor injury would be naturally healed shortly.

After a few days, the pain was gone, yet the problem was I still could not straighten my ring finger no matter how hard I tried. With doubts and worries, I started to check the internet for such symptom, and finally figured out that I had suffered from what is called mallet finger, “a deformity of the finger caused when the tendon that straightens the finger (the extensor tendon) is damaged”. It usually happens when a ball or other object strikes the tip of the finger or thumb and forcibly bends it, the force tears the tendon, making it impossible to make it straight again.
I was very anxious and eventually told my wife everything about it. Without any hesitation, we went to Khema clinic to have my finger checked. As expected, I truly suffered from mallet finger, which urgently needed immediate treatment. I was given a brief consultation from a specialist doctors and finally handed with a splint to wear to heal the torn tendons which straight my finger. The doctor said it was good that I went to hospital on time or I won’t be able to straighten my finger for life. Operation can be done, said the doctor, yet it was costly and didn’t guarantee if my finger could be healed completely.

I wore the splint, even having shower or sleep, for 8 weeks without applying or taking any medicines. Also, I needed to make the appointment with doctor everyone once per 2 weeks to check if I got better. Actually, wearing that splint slowed down my work and everything. For example, I couldn’t type the computer as fast as I did before. It was quite a bitter experience I would say. It took me 8 weeks to finally remove the splint and got back to my ordinary life with all of my fingers. However, still I could not get back to play the ball immediately after the removal. As I remember, it took me another month to fully recover.

To reflect, it was one of my unforgettable lessons in my sporting life. Since then, I learnt to resist my temptation, putting my health in the top priority list and will never play again if I don’t have enough sleep. Plus, never underestimate small problems. Like in my case, that small injury can actually lead to life deformity. I strongly recommend that all sports people should not take injury for granted. Doctors are always the best consultants when it comes to such issues. Never trust your instinct or experiences when dealing with medical stuff or you will end up with nothing but regret.