I badly cut my left hand the other day
About ten days ago I cut a couple of fingers on my left hand.
I was holding a heavy glass vase of flowers at the time --
about to change some of the water within, when the thick glass
base of it sheared off. To stop the rest of the vase and
contents falling to the floor, I caught the sharp edge of it
with my hand. So I managed to slice off a deep layer of skin
off the middle of my ring finger, and made a deeper cut almost
to the bone on my little finger -- partially cutting through
the tendon to my finger tip. Ouch, shit, bugger, fuck!
Blood poured out all over the place, but I managed to stem
the flow, and Mrs C tightly bandaged up both fingers for me.
I spent the next few hours in the A&E Department at Queens,
where I moved from one queue to the next, and eventually had
the larger cut sewn up (there was a large U-shaped flap of
skin flapping about, before the doctor did so).
So since then I've been doing a lot of things one-handed, up
until the last few days -- I'm now back to normal typing
speed using both hands, but I've left the stitches in, as the
cut on the little finger is still gaping slightly between
each of the stitches.
I mention all this as I was surprised how disabling a fairly
trivial injury like this really is. Imagine for a moment
washing your hair at the bathroom sink, with just one hand
holding a jug of warm water -- your other hand out of action
completely -- you can't get into a shower cubicle, as your
poorly hand has got some large bandages on it.
Even just putting on the kettle to make a pot of tea, was
cumbersome, and everything took twice as long to do. I felt
so frustrated - made me feel like "pulling my hair out" -
what's left of it.
Ah well, I'm almost back to normal, thank God.
I was holding a heavy glass vase of flowers at the time --
about to change some of the water within, when the thick glass
base of it sheared off. To stop the rest of the vase and
contents falling to the floor, I caught the sharp edge of it
with my hand. So I managed to slice off a deep layer of skin
off the middle of my ring finger, and made a deeper cut almost
to the bone on my little finger -- partially cutting through
the tendon to my finger tip. Ouch, shit, bugger, fuck!
Blood poured out all over the place, but I managed to stem
the flow, and Mrs C tightly bandaged up both fingers for me.
I spent the next few hours in the A&E Department at Queens,
where I moved from one queue to the next, and eventually had
the larger cut sewn up (there was a large U-shaped flap of
skin flapping about, before the doctor did so).
So since then I've been doing a lot of things one-handed, up
until the last few days -- I'm now back to normal typing
speed using both hands, but I've left the stitches in, as the
cut on the little finger is still gaping slightly between
each of the stitches.
I mention all this as I was surprised how disabling a fairly
trivial injury like this really is. Imagine for a moment
washing your hair at the bathroom sink, with just one hand
holding a jug of warm water -- your other hand out of action
completely -- you can't get into a shower cubicle, as your
poorly hand has got some large bandages on it.
Even just putting on the kettle to make a pot of tea, was
cumbersome, and everything took twice as long to do. I felt
so frustrated - made me feel like "pulling my hair out" -
what's left of it.
Ah well, I'm almost back to normal, thank God.
posted by justin at 11:40 pm
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3 Comments:
I had an almost identical injury about 20 years ago, except the offending instrument was a wine glass I'd dropped and managed to catch after it had shattered. My u-shaped flap of skin was on my ring finger, too, and it took 10 stitches to sew me up. I still have a nasty little scar. I, too, rmember how even the little things were a chore so I totally sympathise, Justin.
Glad you're on the mend, old chap.
Thanks for your sympathetic comments, Andrea and Max. Fortunately I haven't got any nerve damage -- the sensation in my finger tips is perfect. If God was our creator, then he/she was very sensible to run the sensory nerves down the sides of each of our fingers.
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