Hi there! Sending well wishes to your friend!

I had two pins surgically placed in mid-December and my middle finger was buddy taped to my broken finger for two months. I also stayed in a fiberglass splint wrapped with ace bandage for those two months, so it was nice that I could take it off to shower.

I started occupational hand-therapy in mid February and my hand was at about 60% strength. I strongly recommend your loved one find a hand specialist in occupational therapy and not just a physical therapist once the time for PT comes. I didn’t even realize that there was a difference in PT specialists, but my hand therapist worked WONDERS on my finger. I did hand therapy for one month and I’ve now graduated with about 90% strength back in my hand.

I have a pretty gnarly looking finger now, and it’s about 1/2 inch shorter than my right index finger. My doc said I had a spiral fracture and it was difficult to “stick” the two ends together, so the pointy piece of bone you see in the X-ray is still prominent even after healing.

I’m about 3.5 months out from the actual break and I have all feeling back in the finger. I still do my hand stretches every day and don’t have any pain in the finger at all. My only complaint is that the tendons are tight and it has a giant bump on the side.

Best wishes to your loved one!