Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Ow.

I was home sick today, but I started feeling better by afternoon and decided to make dinner.

I started by chopping an onion.

Instead I chopped off the tip of my finger.

Well, not really. It wasn't completely off. I grabbed a dishtowel and wrapped it up, thinking direct pressure, direct pressure. Then I remembered bleeding appendage higher than your heart.

So I was walking around the kitchen with my hand over my head and my finger in a death grip when Victor called...to see if I wanted to go out for dinner.

I said "Well, probably, because I'm sure as hell not going to be able to finish cooking." Then I took a look and found it was still bleeding and said "You know, I might need to go to the emergency room."

I called my insurance company, and after about twenty minutes of punching numbers into the automated system an actual person told me to proceed to the closest hospital or emergency care facility. By this time I was actually getting woozy.

I called Victor back, and he was still on the Metro, stuck in a delay. I decided driving myself, one-handed and woozy, was probably not so bright, so I did what I always still do in an emergency despite my age: daaaaaadeeeee.

My dad works not too far from me, and he was quite willing to take me to the emergency clinic. He had to laugh at the fact that I chopped off my finger (or nearly), but he did take me.

The emergency care clinic is pretty nice. It's closer than the hospital, and I was only there for an hour. If I'd gone to the hospital ER I'd still be in the waiting room. I was really impressed by the doctor and nurses, too. I've been really lucky with health care providers the last couple weeks.

Only one problem: the clinic doesn't take my insurance. I should be reembursed, but I anticipate a nightmare there.
And I do want that money back, since it was $352.

It took six stitches to close up the cut. The doctor said it was nice and deep...and clean. I bled so much it cleaned it right out, she said. Once she gave me what looked like about 100 cc of xylocaine my whole hand was numb, and I actually watched her do the sewing. And I don't like needles.

I have a huge thing of gauze around my left middle finger, which would impair my typing except that I only type with my right hand anyway. (Explains some of my typos, eh?) The xylocaine wore off as I was eating dinner (we did go out, and the people at the restaurant cut up my hamburger so I could eat with just one hand) and it's throbbing very painfully now. Washing my hair for the next few days will be tricky.

Cooking may be tricky too. And it's dangerous, so I may just have to give it up completely.

Posted by Nic at September 10, 2003 09:30 PM