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April 07, 2008
Finger Status
So I made it 8 months of learning how to cook without an emergency room visit. I'd say that's pretty good for a klutz, no?
A month ago I was slicing carrots with a mandoline for a quinoa pilaf and took off a chunk of my right index finger.
The ER experience was a nightmare. We first went to Urgent Care and they said it would be a 2.5 hour wait. So we went to the hospital ER and after waiting in the waiting room for about 90 minutes a nurse came out and told us all that unless we were dying, we might as well go home cause they were overfull and had more critical coming in via ambulances. We returned to Urgent Care and the kind people there stayed past closing to see me.
The piece couldn't be reattached (besides, it was 4+ hours since the incident anyway), and nothing could be stitched together, so they cauterized the blood vessels to stop the bleeding.
Fast forward 12 hours later and we started to change the dressing, but the injury was still spurting, so we returned to Urgent Care and they said there was nothing more they could do. Another 90ish minute wait at ER and I and a few other cases were taken into triage. After much more waiting, they basically redressed the wound, gave me a painkiller and said, "it will stop bleeding eventually."
I've gotten most of the shape back but keeping the wound dressed in antibiotic cream 24/7 has slowed the healing process considerably. I'm probably back to about 90% feeling in the finger and I need to start rehabilitating the joint from lack of movement.
So I've learned a few things with this experience:
- Stick to knives; they're easier to control.
- I mouse left-handed at work and right-handed at home to combat carpal tunnel injury. That has helped me become left-handed easier.
- Don't get injured on a Friday night unless you like bleeding while you wait.
- Sherrie Ann is a trooper. She was really calm and collected and watched the cauterization with keen interest. I'm a wimp on the other hand. I couldn't watch the cauterizing nor the shots. I got used to the gore after a week or two, but have no desire to revisit that.
- I'm fairly dexterous with my left hand (from decades of gaming, no doubt), but my left hand doesn't have inner strength. I can control chopsticks left-handed but can't grip strongly.
- Touch-typing with one less finger sucks.
Oh, and the mandoline got thrown out. ;)
Posted at April 7, 2008 09:49 AM | Life and Work
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