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I broke my right pinky about a year ago, and splinted it up at home with the help of a med school friend. It came in a little crooked, but I saved a few thousand in medical bills! It's not like I need my right pinky to sell software, play guitar, ski, or do anything fun :) .

I've always wondered if it made more sense to go to a veterinarian for broken bones / torn muscles... I went to physical therapy for a rotator cuff issue, and it wasn't cheap!

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I also broke my right pinky and splinted it myself around 6 years ago! I wouldn't consider that surgery, but I felt like I did the exact same thing that they would've done in an emergency room minus getting an actual x-ray. (I guess I can't know if it was actually broken since I didn't get an x-ray, but the right side of my hand was completely black/purple and the pinky finger was swollen to about the size of my thumb.)

I taped my whole hand for the first week for stability and then slowly removed fingers from the tape as I felt like it was healing (swelling going down - color returning to normal). After the bandages and splint were off my finger wouldn't bend inward and it wouldn't fully straighten without applying pressure using my other hand. I started doing my own "physical therapy" on it whenever I had some free time to force it to straighten/bend. It took a few months before I could bend it by itself to touch my palm but now it's about 99% functional as compared to my other pinky.

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