I’ve been fairly healthy most of my life, except for the time I was dealing with cancer and a few broken bones here and there. I’ve always been a fast healer. Things can change as you get older.

I had surgery to correct a trigger finger condition on my right hand back in October. Although the incision healed nicely, there’s scar tissue along the tendon that’s giving me trouble. When I saw Dr. Leek a few weeks ago, he wasn’t too concerned. He said I should continue to work my fingers and he thought it would loosen up. He also told me to come back if it didn’t improve.

Well, I haven’t seen much improvement. My hand goes through stages during the day. In the morning, I can’t fully close my hand. My ring finger feels swollen and stiff and so does the middle (long) finger, but to a lesser degree. By the afternoon, it loosens up and I can use my hand normally, but I feel occasional clicking from the tendon catching. By nighttime, my hand begins to stiffen up again and causes pain in the night.

I saw Dr. Leek again yesterday. He thought my hand looked better, but he could feel the scar tissue around the tendon and the tendons were catching. He was concerned about the middle (long) finger. We agreed it was time for a cortisone injection to reduce the inflammation around the tendon.

While I waited for the injections to be prepared, I enjoyed the view from his 7th floor office in Mission Hills. I could see all the way to Mission Bay to the northwest and all of Point Loma and San Diego Bay to the southwest.

Looking northwest to Mission Bay

Looking southwest across San Diego Bay to Point Loma

Dr. Leek injected cortisone into the tendons of both affected fingers. These injections are no fun at all. My fingers swelled up like bratwurst on a grill and were completely numb.

I had driven Shauna’s car to the doctor’s office, where I parked in the underground parking lot. The exit from the underground parking requires a sharp 90-degree turn to the right before you drive up a short ramp to pay the attendant. As I was leaving, two vehicles in front of me were stopped at the 90-degree turning point. I queued up behind them and waited. It was unusual – I never had to wait like this before.

After a couple of minutes, the first vehicle proceeded to make the turn and drive up the ramp. The second vehicle pulled forward and stopped. I figured something was going on around the corner that I couldn’t see. Meanwhile, another car was waiting behind me.

The woman driving the car behind me became impatient and pulled around us on the left. Just as she came alongside the car in front of me, she came head on with a car entering the parking lot. She was in the wrong lane and had to back up. She put her car in reverse and hit the gas – crash! The front end of her car swung out and either caught a support post or the bumper of a parked car, I couldn’t tell what she hit. It ripped the plastic front bumper cover and front grill completely off her car. The entire front body work fell to the ground! By then, another car was sitting behind me. She was trying to maneuver her car back into the right lane while incoming traffic was blocked by the pieces of her car in their lane. What a mess, caused by a moment of impatience and bad decision making.

The car in front of me moved on around the corner and I pulled forward. Now I could see what the holdup was. There’s an upper parking lot for tenants of the building. Apparently many of them were getting off work and exiting the lot. They had to use the same driveway as us and traffic was backing up. The people ahead were being sensible and gave each other room. I was out of there after a few minutes.

We have another storm moving into the area today and tomorrow. They are calling for heavy rain at times and snow advisory in the mountains in east San Diego County. Donna has a lunch appointment in Del Mar. I think I’ll hang out and practice guitar – I have feeling in my fingers again and the swelling has gone down.