The good news is that I had my smelly, inconvenient, oh-so-fashionable cast removed today. Interesting side note: with the advent of fiberglass casts instead of plaster, they can’t use those vibrating safe cast cutters any more. They used this wicked looking reciprocating saw and had to put a plastic shield under the cast to make sure I didn’t lose anything except the cast. I realize that I was in zero danger and the saws are perfectly safe, I had just never thought about the fact that those hard rubber vibrating things that they used to use wouldn’t work on fiberglass.

The bad news is that my thumb isn’t any better. After some xrays and more poking and prodding, the revised diagnosis is that I have some joint damage and early arthritis in the ball of my thumb. It’s likely caused by all of the stress I’ve put on it in my life, from playing bass in the band for so long (I’m a pretty aggressive player and I plant my thumb solidly on the middle pickup) to using a thumb trackball at work.

So now instead of weeks for the ligament to heal (the initial diagnosis) it’s looking like months of waiting and babying in order to heal some damage, but it will likely never be 100%.

And no guitar or bass for that multiple-month period.

Arg.

It’s apparently not bad enough that Britney’s 16 year old sister’s pregnancy is pretty much all that’s on the news right now.

The serious question of our age, a parenting dilemma that I’m sure you have been wrestling with these past agonizing days, a story worthy of CNN’s front page, has been announced:

How do you talk to kids about Britney’s sister?

Parents are struggling with what to tell their children after finding out that Britney Spears’ younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, is pregnant.

*Headdesk*

There’s been a strong pain in the base of my thumb recently. I purchased a small brace after I discovered that limiting movement helped, and I thought I’d give it some time to heal before I went to see someone about it (I’m a guy, what can I say?). Six weeks passed with little improvement, so yesterday I decided to do some more detailed research to determine if I should see the doctor or wait some more.

My research turned up an ailment called “Skier’s Thumb”, an injury to the Ulnar Collateral Ligament. And, as a bonus, every description of the condition that I read had a paragraph similar to this:

This is a very treatable condition if seen to promptly. Complications and long term pain are only found in the case of IDIOTS who self-diagnose and self-treat. Those MORONS actually harm things by not getting this condition treated when it has best chance of getting better. They are BONEHEADS.

Well, most of the sites were a bit politer than that, but you get the point.

So, I went to the sports clinic today and was quickly diagnosed with Skier’s Thumb and given this little piece of red fiberglass holiday cheer:

Festive, isn’t it?

With my thumb in a cast I’ll be unable to play guitar in church next week (Sorry Ash…) and everything else just gets that much more inconvenient. I even had to go shopping for a new mouse this afternoon after I discovered I can’t work the thumb button on my Logitech Trackman trackball.

And, as an added bonus, it’s just the perfect size to not fit down the sleeve of my new winter coat.

Last Christmas I was on crutches after knee surgery, this Christmas I’m down to one hand. You think someone’s trying to tell me to slow down or something?