In the afternoon, on Thursday the 27th of 1997, I felt a sharp pain in my right hand. It was focused in the last two fingers (pinky and ring finger), and seemed to move around up and down my hand. I couldn't locate the source of the pain. I made the assumption that the pain was caused by an injury sustained either while playing racquetball or moving my dryer the night before (another story worthy of Tim Taylor). It's not unusual to have some aches and pains after playing racquetball (at least not for me). The next day I woke up and the pain was worse, and there was significant swelling. I decided to seek medical attention, something I rarely do (My wife calls me a GDI- stand for something like "Gosh Darn Independent"). I bounced from perplexed doctor to perplexed doctor (I'm leaving out the details of what perplexed them) and finally ended up at Dr. Douglas A. Gordon's office. After about five weeks of trying to figure out what was wrong without surgery, and without any improvement, we decided he should operate (he thought so, and since I was sick of missing racketball I agreed). During the surgery a tumor was discovered on the ring finger tendon. It was judged to be benign, and was removed. Here are some pictures thanks to Dr. Gordon. They are anatomically correct, but the first few are intentionally blurred for those of you who may be squeamish. I'm not kidding. These are real surgery pictures. It takes three clicks to get to the actual photos. Dr. Gordon is, without question, the most "patient friendly" MD I've ever met, as well as being highly skilled, in my judgment (Hand is working just fine even though he had to avoid two major nerves in the area of the tumor). I was back lecturing two days after the surgery! I was using the chalk board 7 days after the surgery, and I was playing racquetball within a month! You have to see the pictures of the surgery to understand how surprising this was to me. If you ever need your hand fixed up, I highly recommend him. He can be reached at his office at 439-5503. His office is at 5300 Far Hills Avenue, Suite 100, Dayton, OH 45429.