My adult son caught his 3rd finger in a winch rope last Mon. Surgery by hand surgeon on Tues.am and a pin was put in. No pain. Went home Wed. afternoon after I.V. antibiotics. Thurs a.m. did some yard mowing and has been in terrible pain since. Dr. out of town until next week. P.A. sent pain pills & said to come in Tues. & he will X-ray it. Son will not call again as he doesn t think Dr. s are on call anymore. He says he can t do more now but lay on the couch as he is dizzy from the pain pill and has to take it every 4 hrs. or in terrible pain. He has a high pain tolerance as finger didn t hurt him even when he had the accident and sat in the emergency room for hours and didn t have surgery until Tues. Is this proper procedure?
His a surgeon I would expect the pain to get better by the day especially after a fracture fixation or relocation of a finger joint stabilized with a pin. If a doctor is out of town he should make arrangement for a colleague to see his post-operative patients should there be problems. I don't think it is proper procedure, I would advise your son to have his finger looked at even by an emergency physician just to make sure that the finger is still viable(alive) and not infected. Pin must stay in place until a surgeon reviews it.