You were having a great time playing basketball. Your team was winning by three baskets, and you were shooting lay-ups better than you ever shot them in high school. Then, the unthinkable happened. You jammed your finger on the ball. What a way to end the game! Don’t worry. Your injury might hurt now, your jammed finger might be twice the size it was at the beginning of the game, but you can easily heal from this injury and be back out on the court in a few weeks with no problem. All you need are some good medical supplies, like medical tape and gauze.

Once you get off the court, it’s important to check out your finger. After all, you know what it’s supposed to look like. If the bone is sticking out of the skin, you probably have a compound fracture, which requires immediate medical attention. If your finger is bleeding, stop the blood. Make sure you take off any hand jewelry, such as rings and bracelets.

Since there weren’t any bones sticking out of your finger and it wasn’t bleeding, you should be able to put a splint on it. Wait, what are you going to use as a splint? It needs to be something that is very rigid. Lucky for you, the center on your team is an avid popsicle eater and had a few sticks lying around in his car. Do not bend your finger in any way before you splint it; keep it exactly as it is.

Trim the popsicle sticks down a little bit so that they’re still longer than your finger but not too long. If they’re too short, they won’t be stable enough. Put one stick on each side of your finger. You want the hard splint to cover the area above and below the injured part of your finger. Using medical tape, tape the splint to your finger, above and below the injury. Do not cover the actual injury with medical tape as this could further injure your finger. Additionally, make sure you don’t get the medical tape too tight.

Now, it’s time to go to the hospital. If your normal family doctor is open, you can go there, but if it’s later on in the day, you’ll have to go to the emergency room. On the way to the hospital, keep an eye out for changes in your finger.