Last night I was enjoying the peaceful quiet of the very early morning to work on my next model car project. I was modifying a part with the X-Acto knife when the knife somehow slipped and hit my left middle finger. Instant blood, everywhere. I ran into the bathroom to get a bandage and stop the bleeding, then sat down on the toilet lid to wrap it up. I was weak and wanted to sit in a more comfortable chair for a while so I got up to walk to the living room. On my way I began to faint, I sort of stumbled and fell into a table then onto the floor. I lay there for a few minutes trying to get some strength back, then got up and put on sweats to drive to the emergency room. I made it down the steps but had to lean against the car for a minute to get enough strength to go to the door and sit. Once I was sitting my head cleared a bit and I drove to the ER. By the time I walked inside I was weak again, they took my blood pressure several times and it averaged around 80/55. They made me lie down until my BP was closer to normal and I wasn't so pale lol. It was around 3am by this time. I sat in the ER waiting room and dozed in the chair off and on until 6:30 when they brought me back and started to prep me. The day shift came in at 7am and the day shift Attending was the one who stitched me up. First they gave me a tetanus shot since the last time I had one was in 1976. The nurse was preparing my right shoulder, I requested that she give it to me in my left shoulder since tetanus boosters make my arm really sore for three days and I didn't see the logic in making my right arm sore when the finger injury was on my left hand!
The doctor probed and prodded and determined that I severed the nerve on that side of my finger so I'll never have feeling in the end of that finger any more. It could have been worse though, I didn't sever any tendons. Seven stitches later I was patched up again and on my way home, around 8am. |
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