Ok ... it IS broken. So what?!

I had a blast during the 2 hour workout that is Spirit Training at BBMAC on November 5th. It was amazing, I got to play with my friends, cheer others on who were testing for part 2 of their black belt and the energy was so intensely positive that I was riding on a cloud for days afterwards.
One little glitch though. Within the first 20 minutes of the workout, I make a mistake holding a pad and turned out to be on a receiving end of rather powerful front kick delivered by a fabulous guy. My mistake, it was painful but as I said, it was too early in the game and I wouldn't let myself end on that note. I taped it and finished the most awesome workout of my life, iced it and went home. Of course, I followed the RICE procedure for 24 hours afterwards and it looked like this the next day:

I didn't think anything of it and went on a date with Pete at The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring Friends School which we had planned the week before. Off to climb trees and obstacles we went. It wasn't bad, I wrapped my thumb up well and tried to not use my opposable much. We had a blast. I even landed a zip-line funny and heard a "pop' in my thumb (ouch) and thought it must have been dislocated that whole time because I regained a bit of motion and had a little less pain as well. SCORE!

And here is a video of a failed zip-line ride ... how my glove got caught in the roller and stopped me halfway on the black course, I will never know but I made the best of it (even with a non working thumb) though the last few yards were uphill and rather tough ...

Back to the thumb ...
Throughout the week, I went about my business, wrapping my thumb every AM, went to kickboxing, went to Master Naturalist class, took care of the boys etc ... The pain was dull by day 2 but the joint was getting really stiff and of course, I was bruised ... any forced movement on the joint in question was excruciating. Blamed it on swelling but figured that if it stayed that way for over a week, I would go see a qualified person (i.e. an orthopedist)

This is as much as I could bend it 2 days later and it got worse as the days went on ... not better. Off to the orthopedist I went on day 9 ... yeah, I did wait that long. I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO GET BETTER!!!
Either way, I explained the deal to Dr Solomon, my puzzled look and wonderment about the lack of improvement made him laugh ...
He said: "Hmmm ... well yeah, that's what happens when you BREAK your thumb!" ...
Me: "WHAT?!?! You mean like Skiers Thumb?" ...
Him: "Well, no, the break is on the radius side, so it's called Kickboxer's Thumb ..."

Cue the laughter!! It was a joke, a funny one actually. I laughed. What else was I gonna do!?

He showed me the X-ray, the little piece of bone floating in space and he then described it as a "thumb MCP fracture with a partial radial collateral ligament tear". Phew! That was a mouthful! I made him promise that I wouldn't need a cast, or surgery or that I wouldn't have to stop kickboxing. He was agreeable to all of those requests! Not bad for a hand surgeon :)

Instead I get this "butterfly brace" for 4 weeks and possibly PT if things don't heal well.

To end on a few fun notes:

We had a blast at our great friends' Heidi, Goldy, Wyatt and Logan on Saturday. Owen learned to whittle sticks with a pocket knife (adding that item to his Xmas list), we had a fire in the back yard, both boys learn to start said fire (supervised of course), roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner after a fabulous day spent together playing. The mommies played board games and the boys played so well together, as they always do. They all get along despite the age difference (W and L are 8 and they are awesome little guys to hang out with).

group minus Owen and Heidi (who was taking the pic)

What? 

cooking 

boys cooking

YUM!

MORE cooking

Owen whittling for the first time 

doing good :)

Also ...
The Maryland Master Naturalist class is over! I passed, I loved it, I am glad it's over (Pete even more than me LOL). Now I have to do 40 hours of volunteering for ANS before next year. That will be easy to accomplish. YAY!!!