A Sore Finger and Future Plans

The garden’s been pretty lush while I’ve been gone

Aug 31st

I talked to the hand specialist on Tuesday; after he took another set of x-rays, his diagnosis was that I may have some minor avulsive fragments, but nothing that needs further treatment unless I don’t recover mobility in the finger after a month. I need to do stretching exercises to limber up the finger, but that just means gently closing my fist, and pressing the fingertip toward the palm. I find that playing the guitar naturally stretches the finger, and when i’m done I have a better range of motion than I get when I just close my fist and push my finger down. So I think my preferred PT is playing the guitar!!

But there is still a risk of re-injuring the finger if it gets bent backwards, and I cannot guarantee that I won’t fall again if I go back on the trail, so I am going to postpone getting to the rest of the trail. I intend to get back to it, but a thru-hike would have been impossible this year at this point, both because of the amount of time off trail I have taken, and because my hiking fund is getting particularly anemic. So the last 6 days of the Whites in NH, the trail through Maine, and the hike south from Harper’s Ferry will have to wait.

Holt Pond in Noon Hill Reservation; #Walkin’WithErnie

In the meantime, I am working with Debbie to get the house ready to sell, after which I will start looking for employment again. There’s an incredible amount of work to do, and she and I need the time to get ourselves realigned on the common goal of moving. I hope (and expect) that we can get ourselves poised for take off by mid-Autumn.  I’ll probably post a few more times as I process the past 4 months.