My Holiday Medical Trauma/Drama

So ...after two lovely weeks of decorating, visiting, baking and christmas shopping...on the 22nd of December - I was finally getting off my duff to use the leftover ham in the fridge for split pea soup.  The recipe called for 2 tbsp of dried thyme. I thought hey what luck I actually have fresh thyme leftover from the same meal that needed to be used up.  SOOooo I start chopping up the thyme with my beautiful santoku knife on my nice pampered chef "vegetable" cutting mat.  About halfway through chopping the stem starts getting thick and tuff to cut.  I take a moment to stir the broth and think to myself maybe I should just pull the leaves from the remaining stems instead of chopping it.  This marvelously smart idea was pushed aside with the simple thought...nah, chopping will be quicker.  So right back to chopping I go, adding a little extra effort to cut through the thick stem.  Then what to my surprise do I see before my lovely brownish/green eyes: the mat slips on the counter and all of a sudden I'm looking at a sight that my brain completely denies as true...the knifes blade embedded in my finger tip.  It didn't hurt at all until my brain finally woke up and said HOLY SHIT well if I'm truthful it was more WTF!  Then the knife is quickly removed and the blood starts flowing!

My loving eagle scout of a husband hears my cursing and actually leaves the xbox long enough to check on me to say "wow, thats actually pretty bad"...honestly as if I'd make that much of a fuss if it wasn't!  So I was holding it under running water and please if you get icked out just skip this part....I had to hold the cut part of the finger in place because it was flapping from the water pressure, yes I cut it that badly.  My Pete, wraps it up securely and we both agree that I'll go see the Doc in the morning because I'll probably need stitches and (in my brain) it will be cheaper than running out to urgent care at 7pm.

Morning arrives and I place the call to my Drs. office - "A medical center" - when the receptionist asks why I'm making an appointment I explain about my finger probably needing stitches, when she promptly tells me they don't "do" stitches at the office. REALLY!  Then informs me to go to urgent care. Ugh!! I could have done that the night before and been finished with it already. 

A quick call to the in-laws next....phone rings...calls gets answered...

Dale: Hey Mandi, what's going on.

Me: Well....ummm...I was wondering if it might be possible for one of you to watch the kids while the

other goes to urgent care with me?

Dale: Ohhh...what happened now?

Me: Well.. I kinda chopped part of my finger tip almost all the way off last night and it probably needs stitches.

Needless to say Dale watched the kiddos while Susan drove me to urgent care...when I was finally called to see the Dr. she asked me if I wanted her to go with me...me being the "I really hate this but I have to do it kind" of person...looked back at her and said, "Yes, come please, I might need to be a really big baby."

SO I get examined and my wound gets cleaned, Susan reminds me to breathe when I pretty much hold my breath in dreaded anticipation to what the nurse is saying about the Dr. maybe wanting to remove my entire fingernail...please god no!!

The Dr. looks at it and its decided...since the wound had melded back together pretty well already from Pete's bandage the previous night, she wasn't going to reopen the wound.  Since the cuticle on my finger was not damaged at all she wasn't going to remove my fingernail.  However since the amount of actual skin holding the chopped part onto the entirety wasn't really all that much she wasn't going to stitch it either.  She said there would be no point, when in all likely hood it was going to die and fall of anyway.  Not enough blood vessels seemed to be still attached to promote the amount of healing it would need.  It's supposed to slowly die (turn Black) and fall off on its own, so it's just an infection watch from here until that happens.  Good news is, SHE says that both my fingernail and the portion of my finger should sssslllloooowwwllllyy (slowly) regenerate and grow back over time.  AND since the last time I had a tetanus shot was over 10yrs ago they were going to give me one just to be safe....OKAY! 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8 DAYS LATER-----------------------------

Large ever expanding, itching, burning red HIVE

Delayed Allergic type Reaction to Tetanus Shot

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

But no, in all actuallity New Years Eve was fun, hanging out and talking with friends and laughing at myself about my own misfortunes...after all if you can't laugh at yourself and your own life...what can you laugh at!

I hope everyone's new year is filled with joy, happiness and in my current predicament HEALTH!

Love you....everyone of you, be you family, friend or impudent foe. You make my life interesting and way more fun than it could be!

"MUAH" - New Years kiss to you!

AND by the way - - SOOoo going back to my heavy wooden cutting boards!