Almost...Cut my hand...
Like the line in that David Crosby song, I'm not feeling up to par. Last night whilst cleaning some dishes, I had a mug handle break in my hand. It nicely sliced open my thumb with what looked like a very deep laceration*.
After screaming like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, I washed the cut (more screaming, I am not a fan of pain) and Pam and I tried to stop the bleeding with a paper towel. I washed it again, and saw several layers down into my thumb's epidermis.
We called my sister in law to watch the kids, and prepped for a "quick" visit to the emergency room. My sis-in-law is a nurse, and she used butterfly bandages to seal the wound before letting us go over there. Well, there's a bit of a doctor's strike in NJ, so we went to a NY hospital, and waited. And waited.
Long story short, by the time they saw me the butterflys had helped the wound seal up. They basically soaked my finger in Betadine and sealed it with Dermabond.
Dermabond is pretty wild stuff - its like crazy glue instead of stiches. Their site says:
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Recovery |
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No need to have stitches removed |
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Forms a strong, flexible bond and protective barrier for your incision that seals out most common infection-causing bacteria, including certain staph, pseudomonas and e.coli |
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Shower or bathe (but don't soak) — the wound doesn't need to be kept dry |
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Disappears naturally as the incision heals |
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Bandages and dressings are usually not needed, so you and your doctor can easily keep an eye on your incisions as they heal |
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Eliminates the need for bandages |
Meanwhile, I can't really grasp much with my left thumb. As noted here, opposable thumbs are important for such things as opening child proof tops, water bottles, zippers, etc. Luckily, I don't use my left thumb too much for typing. This will suck for several days.
Alternative titles for this piece:
Other cleaver titles for this piece could have been
- One-handed typing
- Thumbthing's wrong
- 1,2,3,4 -- I lost a thumb war
- A stich in time isn't worth 9pm-11pm in the emergency room
- Dermabond, it's not just for breakskin anymore
By the way, I'm pissed about the mug too. We got them on graduation day, making mine almost 15 years old. Where am I gonna find another one of those? There aren't any class of '88 mugs on Ebay. Damn.
*I love the word laceration. When I was about 4 my uncle, the Harvard Law School student (at the time) taught me to use 'laceration' instead of 'boo-boo' for a cut on my body. It still amuses me to do so. I will have to remember to teach the kids...
10:58:02 AM 
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