Heal the World

A pic of the wounded phalanx after exactly a week:

And a pic after getting the stitches removed, a full 9 days later:

Sorry for such poor quality in both photos.  It couldn't be helped.

It definitely hurt to remove the one closest to the palm of my hand- the inner-most one (inner-most being the one closest to the bottom side, not the one on the inside of my finger).  I have no idea if this is actually possible, but it felt like that stitch was going through a nerve, and if not that, it was definitely wrapped around it or something.  Totally that white light kind of pain as that one was removed, but luckily it was just for the moment the stitch was coming out. 

Two days after the stitch removal, it's all healing nicely.  I never realized how dry your hands get until you don't use them for several days, and WOW- talk about ashy!  But I'm back to frequent moisturizing now that I'm sans gauze wrapping.  There's definitely some nerve damage- I have a stripe of numbness down my fingerprint- but the doctor told me that should heal over time.  Hopefully by this time next year, a good portion of nerves will have regenerated and I'll have at least half of my feeling back, if much more.  Until then, it's just taking some time to get used to not having the normal touch sensations in it and getting the mobility back.  I still can't make a fist with it, but it's getting better every day, so that's good.  There are certain things I still can't do and ways that are incredibly uncomfortable to move my hand (it creates a similar feeling to when you hit your funny bone, except more of a searing pain, all around the wound and in parts of the tip of my finger), but luckily I can say that those moments happen less and less every day.  Woo hoo!  After all this, I can say for sure that I'm a huge fan of stitches (seriously, if I'd just used Band Aids, I don't think it would look nearly  this good) and I'm pretty sure I will NEVER AGAIN cut anything I'm holding in my hand.