DIY 911

As some of you may know, I am the proud mother of a pug named Mushu. He’s nine years old and pretty much the light of my life.

This is him. Isn’t he handsome?

Mushu is a pretty docile little guy. Like most pugs, his two favorite things are eating and sleeping and if he could figure out how to do both at the same time, that would be just swell. There are a few things that get him riled up, though. One of them is the Chicago Cubs. He loves the Cubs! He will run up to the tv when they are on and bark at any play that he disagrees with. He also loves Talking Dead. He doesn’t seem to be too interested in The Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead, but he loves Chris Hardwick. Go figure.

However, the are a few things that make him angry, too. Skateboarders. Mushu hates skateboarders. He hates the sound their skateboards make and will leap at any one that is unfortunate enough to cross his path. He’s never actually caught one, but I’m not sure it would end well if he did.

Watch your back, Simpson.

Why am I talking about all of this on a crafting blog, you may be wondering. Well, dear reader, I am so glad that you asked. For, you see, it is Mushu’s hatred of skateboarders that inspired this particular DIY project.

Picture it: Friday night in Los Angeles. I am walking Mushu down the street for his evening stroll. I’m holding his leash and my keys in my left hand and scrolling through Instagram with my right. I noticed an a skateboarder approaching on the sidewalk. Knowing how much Mushu hates skateboarders, I decided to step aside and let him pass. I didn’t tighten my grip on the leash or switch my keys to my right hand.

This, my friends, was a terrible mistake.

The skateboarder whizzed by. I continued to look at Instagram. And Mushu? Mushu went HAM. He flew at that skateboarder like that man was trying to kill his family and/or take his dinner. He flew at that skateboarder and he took my left (dominant) hand with him.

It ended poorly.

Oh, Mushu is fine. The skateboarder is fine. But my pinky finger got caught between a pug, a leash, and a giant set of keys. It didn’t like it one little bit. In fact, I’m fairly certain it’s broken. Or, at the very least, very badly sprained.

Are fingers supposed to be purple?

It hurts. A lot. I had no idea how much I used my pinky finger until I couldn’t anymore. I also didn’t realise  how many things I bang my hand on every day. Or just how creative my swearing could be.

So, okay, you’re saying. You went to the hospital, got treated. Still not following why we’re even talking about this.

Well, no. Not exactly. I didn’t go to the doctor. I had plans all weekend! I had tickets to see IT (so good, btw) and plans with my friends. I didn’t have time to sit in Urgent Care.

Luckily (?) my husband has broken his fair share of bones, including fingers. He supported my decision not to seek medical care.

“They’ll just splint them and tape them together anyway,” he told me. “We can do that.”

Except for the fact that we didn’t have a spare splint laying around. Enter the DIY project.

]Supplies
*Plastic sword

*Gauze

*Medical tape

We didn’t have any popsicle sticks in the house, but we did have a bunch of plastic swords. One of my husband’s clients sent him an edible arrangement as a thank you present and I saved the little plastic holders that kept the fruit in place. I thought they might come in handy for a future project.

Such a multipurpose gift.

We started out by bending the little sword in half so it could act as the actual splint.

This gave more support to the finger in question. Then, I put some gauze between the makeshift splint and my finger. Plastic can be extremely pokey and I didn’t need any further injury.

Then came the fun part: taping it all to my hand. It took three hands (well four, technically, if you count the injured one) but we managed to make it work. And you know what? It really helped. It felt a lot better than just tapeing my fingers together and it seemed to offer more protection, too.

I was actually able to spend a nice evening with my friends without too much pain. Is this a craft I would recommend? Uh, not really. It’s probably best to see a doctor or, better, yet, just don’t let your over enthusiastic pug break your finger. However, if you do find yourself in a situation like mine, never underestimate the power of creativity and desperation.

And now, dear friends, I’m signing off. It’s really hard to type without using your pinky.