Elder Morrell's Mishap

I've been waiting to find out about Elder Morrell's mishap and finally had a few minutes to get the whole story. On 12/13/14 he, Elder White and the Office Elders were playing basketball in New Orleans with an interfaith group--sanctioned by President Hansen. On the way down to NOLA Elder White received a speeding ticket:( Boo. Not a good way to begin the day.

After arriving at the old church where the game was to be played, they stretched out, warmed up and began to play. Elder M had made one basket when he went up for a rebound. The ball came directly down on his pinkie, and he felt something move. He could feel that the bone was out but thought it was just dislocated. So he tried to pull it back into place. No luck. Elder White told Elder M that he needed to go into urgent care, but he was reluctant to leave, because the game had just begun. Good thing he listened to Elder W, because x-rays showed that the bone was broken and displaced. The doctor splinted it and told Elder M that he'd need surgery for it to heal correctly.

When the 4 elders came out of the urgent care there was a parking ticket on the windshield of their car! The ticket was for parking less than 20 feet from an intersection. What makes this so annoying is that there wasn't a sign or any markings on the street or curb. On most New Orleans street corners where parking isn't allowed there's a big painted triangle indicating where you can't park. Not here. Marc and I even passed the exact location recently and are still baffled as to why they were cited. Heaven knows that all that money NOLA is taking in for parking tickets isn't going to street repairs! What a lousy day this turned out to be for 4 of our favorite elders.

Urgent Care X-rays

The misplaced pinkie

Six days later--before surgery

Lucky thing Elder Morrell is not a southpaw! Funny thing. His finger looks just like my arthritic pinkie, but his will straighten out. Mine won't. At least not in this life:)

Post-surgery pics

The pinned pinkie

Amazing what a few pins can do

He says it doesn't hurt!

I thought I should put a face on Elder Morrell's hand puppet. This reminded me of Shari Lewis and Lambchop! If you're much younger than me you won't even know what I'm talking about.

The hand puppet came off after about 2 weeks, but his finger is still immobile. Since removal of the puppet, Elder Morrell has been doing a lot of therapy on his fingers and wrist. It's amazing how quickly the body "forgets" how to move after such a short period of time. With any luck, the final bandage will come off tomorrow. (January 15)