Jimmy Fallon was back hosting "The Tonight Show" Monday night, and he brought with him his trademark sense of humor — plus a bandaged finger and a harrowing story of a simple accident that could have ended in amputation.
As Fallon took the stage, it was clear he was not fully healed: His left hand was wrapped in a bandage that extended up his still-swollen and bruised ring finger. As he explained, on June 26 he "tripped and fell" on a braided rug and his ring (on his finger) caught on a countertop as he fell. When he got up his finger was "sideways."
"It completely looks fake," he said. "Like a cheap horror movie where you see a broken finger. It looks like that."
He quickly ended up in a New York City emergency room, then in surgery where a micro-surgeon (wearing a bow tie and cowboy boots, as he reported) treated his hand for what was called "ring avulsion." (Fallon recommended that you not Google it.)
"Apparently, the odds aren't great ... and usually they just cut your finger off," he said. The procedure lasted six hours and required doctors to take a vein from his foot and connect it with tissue in his finger.
"I was in the ICU for 10 days," he said and noted, "I won't get feeling back for eight weeks."
Difficult for the best of us, but particularly challenging for someone who frequently plays music, like Fallon.
He gave thanks to the medical team and of course had a joke: "The fall was funny," he grinned. "I'm a comedian, so I have to fall funny."
At least he can laugh about it now.