Monday, December 7, 2009

A gash, a dash, and a moral

Warning: If you are squeamish you may not want to read this post, there is a pretty gross picture in the text! (Note: I have decided, in the interest of letting friends keep their lunch down, to remove that photo!)

This morning I was minding my own business, cleaning the house, when the unexpected happened. The kind of nonsensical thing that can change lives. I opened the door to the entertainment center to put something away and the huge sheet of glass that sits behind the door came off it's hinges and sliced my forearm wide open, the likes of which you have never seen. Home alone and seeing this gaping hole, my first thought was, "Oh my God, what if I hit an artery!" I called Aunt Karen, the family Nurse Nell, who luckily lives around the corner. She took me to a local walk-in clinic where the nurse practitioner took one look at it and was like, "uhhhh, no". (Almost everyone who saw it today got a sick look on their face!) She said it was too close to tendons for her to mess with and directed me to the emergency room. So then Jim sweetly fetched me from there and took me to the nearest ER. The ER doctor looked at it and said "you have severed your tendon, I need to send you to a hand surgeon at Vanderbilt" Oh nooooo, don't you people know that I have a fear of anesthesia?? Hand surgery-really???? So we treked over there and ... a saving grace. A good natured resident explained to me that the the tendon I likely severed is one that is pretty much useless and 30% of people don't even have it to begin with! Once I proved to him that I had full feeling in that hand he agreed to stitch me up and send me home (rather than hand surgery to repair the tendon and six weeks in a cast)Thank goodness!!!
The one glimmer of relief I got during all this was ... hmm, I can blog about this! I proceeded to use Jim's cellphone to take a picture of the gaping wound. Here it is guys ...
(There it WAS, I am sparing anyone just now checking it out, but as you can see from comments, it was pretty grusome!)

(use imagination to envision what it might have looked like)
Purty, huh?

But, the stitches and


are making me feel


I am so, so thankful that that sheet of glass didn't get my main artery and even more thankful that it didn't fall on my little boy!!!! (He has been showing a lot of concern for mommy's "sick arm".) And thanks to Karen and Jim for running me around and talking me down!

I do think that there is one clear moral to this story ... housework is bad for you! ;)

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Housework can KILL you. I've said it over, and over again. Nobody listens !!! LOL

All kidding aside, I am SO glad you are okay!! OMG, girl. That is horrible. It must be so painful as well. My stomach did a flip at the picture. I am beyond hysterical when it comes to anesthetic as well... so glad you didn't have to go through that, and surgery, cast, and physio on top of it.

Wow, you're lucky!! And you're right, thank god it wasn't your little angel. Don't even wanna think about what could have happened.

Take care ... hope you are feeling better soon.
NO MORE HOUSEWORK!!! EVER !!
((hugs)) to you ♥

Brilliant Sulk said...

HORRIBLE! So glad you're okay.

Oh, and thanks for making me feel like throwing up...

yonca said...

Glad you're okay! Take care!

BlondeMomBlog (Jamie) said...

OMG girl I am glad you are OK. What an injury! At least you got good drugs, right? (and it could have happened Christmas Eve.)

Take care!

Nancy@ifevolutionworks.com said...

Precisely why I keep away from that darned housework! Thank you for confirming that this is a good choice for me :)

Hope you are okay :)

Lisa said...

What a rotten time of year for such an injury. I'm glad you're okay ... and glad, after reading the comments, that I viewed this post AFTER the removal of the photo. :-) I'm kind of a wimp when it comes to yucky stuff. You're one brave mama! Take care!

Margaret aka: Fact Woman said...

I'm so mad you took down the photo. I love wounds. Worked in a DR's office and all. I'm so sorry you were hurt but thank God that it didn't do any major damage and that you don;t need surgery. Heal on up now!!!

HeartsMakeFamilies said...

So glad that you are okay. So glad I didn't see the original photo. LOL but to think of posting during it. You are an amazing and brave mama.

mudmama said...

Margaret, send me your email and I will send it to you! It is baaad! ;)

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