Man From the South

            The story, “Man from the South,” was very intriguing and kept me on my toes as I was reading it. Had the soldier lost the bet and lost his pinky finger, his world would have been forever changed. He would have lost a great deal of grip strength as a result of his pinky finger being chopped off. While the soldier would still be able to perform pinch tasks by using his thumb, index, and middle fingers to pinch and grab things, he would have a hard time grasping objects with the entirety of his hand. For example, he would have a hard time grasping an ice-cold cylindrical glass of beer and he would have reduced grip strength when it came to grasping the pull-up bar to perform a necessary exercise for the navy fitness test. Also, say the soldier loves to play golf when he is off duty, without the grip strength of both pinky fingers around the grip of the club, he would not be able to swing at full speed with the same amount of accuracy as he could before. The result of not having a left pinky finger would reduce his grip strength, therefore affecting his swing speed and control of the golf club. In order to improve his grip strength to play golf again, he would have to perform muscle strengthening exercises on his finger extensor and flexor muscles. If he still had trouble gripping the golf club, a therapist could work with the client to develop a glove that has a tight Velcro strap on it. This could be for the soldier to wrap tightly around the grip of the club to aid in achieving a tighter grasp around the handle. The loss of even just one single finger can have devastating consequences on peoples’ ability to carry out everyday activities.