I can breathe...

Today was our trip to the doctor. Hillary was in a good mood which is always a plus. We had to have another x-ray. When we went in the room I noticed a doctor who was young and in passing it was our doctor. Hillary noticed, too. He came in and the first thing he said was he wanted us to know that he was a basketball player in high school, too. He showed us what was wrong. Basically a bone is just floating in her finger. He said that since it happened so long ago he would have to do surgery this week in order to fix it. But he asked Hillary where her heart was. Hillary said she just wanted to play. She worked hard for this chance and she didn't want to lose it now because of her finger. He told us if we did nothing then she would always have that bump there and her nail would always be discolored. He said when she was our age she would probably experience arthritis in it. He asked if she could live with that and she said she would. He said okay. He wanted her back every 3 weeks until he could see it healing. She asked about softball. He said there is no reason why she couldn't play. She was afraid that she would have to give it up and run track. He said that he could tell she was very dedicated to her sports and she would make any coach very proud of her. He asked how she was doing and we told him she was averaging about 10 pts a game. And he said great. He had a special split made for her. She was wearing your normal metal split that covered her whole finger. Now she has a plastic one that was molded to her finger and just the top joint. She is to wear it all times and even can wear it to play. If she can't though she is to tape her 2 fingers together like she has been doing. I really wish I had pictures. I will take some and post them tomorrow. When we got out of there she just smiled and said I CAN BREATHE...she said she felt like she has been holding her breath for DAYS! When she returned to school a friend of hers saw her finger and said HEY I have one of those, too. He said the exact thing happened to him at football this season and he refused surgery also. He showed her his finger and the nail was weird and he had a slight bump. He told her it looked exactly like hers and has gone down a lot. So that made her feel better. This morning a friend of hers also told her that her dad knew someone who broke the top joint of his finger when he was a teenager and 20 years later it became dead and had to be amputated. We told the doctor this and he said that will never happen. He said don't listen to stories like that. Everyone wants to top it with something very dramatic!! So we all can just breath now! Thank goodness!! It was such a stressful week...all over one little finger!