| I just typed this in response to Jared's latest post, and I thought I would share it...OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!
Trust me bro....I know about pain and glass.......except I have a good sized piece inside my finger.....slowly working its way out.....SLOWLY....and with much PAIN....
See, the story goes like this......
On one bright, (haha...as I start to type this the glass starts throbbing, causing more pain) sunshinney afternoon, my friend (Roxanne) and I stop by her apartment to pick up her cigarettes, and on the way out the door she informs me that her cousin (Charles Shaw) is a wine maker, and she has all of these bottles of wine, and askes me if I want red or white. I inform her that I would like red, and she hands me the bottle and I walk out the door. Now, as I step off of her porch, my right ankle twists and gives out completely, and I collapse..... The patio is, of all things, made up of concrete....and my left hand happens to have within its grasp a bottle of wine..... which shatters as both the bottle and my hand make contact with the hard, unforgiving concrete..... and on impact the blood begans to gush and spurt with great force and from the numerous cuts that the glass from the wine bottle has so graciously bestowed upon my fingers, one of which was on the middle finger, near the flexor tendon. My poor frind rushes to get a kitchen towel to staunch the bleeding (STAUNCH THE BLEEDING, STAUNCH THE BLEEDING!!!! .... hahaha ...memories from days of old, playing skipbo with my brothers....I think john coined the term...goodtimes.....anyways..) at this point I am in extremely severe pain. I can't decide what hurts worse at this point (but it's a close race!) the torn muscle in my foot, or the deep gash (plus multiple other cuts all over my hand) in my finger. Roxy is begging me to come to the sink and wash out the cut (always listen to your friends) but I remained hunched over on the patio, as the the wound to my finger (even though I was now applying pressure) continued to gush blood, soaking her white towel...now a deep, crimson red. Roxy implored me to go to the emergency room......and I refused. So at this point, with her assistance, I applied a clumsy bandage, and hobbled to my car. (our plans for the evening had just been canceled) I went home, exhausted (from being up since 5:30 am for work) and almost delirous from the pain, took 6 advil, put a bag of frozen corn on my foot and went to sleep. I arose at 5:30 am the following morning and went to work......at this point I still did not have the nerve (no pun intended...haha) to take the bandage off and look at my finger.....being afraid to see the severity of the damage.....I could feel nothing from the bend of my 2nd knuckle and upward, and I could not straighten my finger of my own accord. I was also hobbling like a little crippled old woman when attemping to walk.......very sad. Anyway, around 11 am that morning I finally worked up the courage to remove the makeshift bandage..(partly prompted by the sheer horror of the the fact that my coworker informed me that if I didn't clean the wound, I could lose the finger due to infection) So with much trepidation and pain I removed the bandage.....
My finger was swollen twice its normal size and discolored from the internal and external bleeding, and bent in an abnormal position...truly a horrendous site. At this point I should have sought medical help (actually a lot sooner) but instead I sprayed it with disinfectant (never truly cleaning it) and rebandaged it. This process continued for about ten days, until I became concerned with the fact that I could not bend my finger. I was also starting to have a truly terrible suspision......my finger might have healed up with a chunk of glass inside! A good friend's (brad) dad - a veterinary surgeon - very kindly exrayed the hand for me (free of charge) and informed me that the flexor tendon had not been cut, that I would regain full use as well as feeling in the tip.... (*sigh of relief*) He also informed me that the wound had healed without infection (*another sigh of relief*) but, that when the glass started to work its way out of the body (like a splinter does) that the finger would have to be cut open , the glass removed, and then restiched up again.
Now.....to the present day........ (that was 6 weeks ago) There is a large reddish bulge on the side of my left middle finger, right at the 2nd knuckle. The glass is very slowly, very painfully trying to work its way out of my body. I still haven't sought medical help, and may not.....the sensible part of my brain instructs me to make an appt. with my doctor and go have it cut out. The curous side (now that I have gotten used to the atrocious fact that I have a large chunk of glass inside of me) wants to see how long I can go before the pain and disfigurment gets unbearable.
Ok....so the moral of the story? Seek medical help....or if you have the guts - like jared - to properly take care of the problem yourself then do....to ignore an issue (or be in denial) solves nothing. This little bit of wisdom applies to life as well........ =-)
The end. =-) |
