So a little over a week ago I went to throw some food in the sink and snagged my left thumb on the open lid of a can. Sliced me wide open. I saw bone. Blood started to lazily ooze down into my palm. Calmly (possibly in shock) I told my wife that I thought I needed stitches. We called our GP and she was able to fit me in 15mins later, so we jumped in the car and drove off to get me stitched up.
The doctor brought me into her little room and asked to have a look so she could decide if I neede stitches or not. To my silent horror when I removed the paper towel that I had pressed on the wound it stuck on one edge and yawned open so I had another clear view of the bone/knuckle. Ugh. The doctor quickly passed me some gauze to press on the wound and said I would, in fact, need stitches. Surprise.
Slicing the hand open hadn't hurt any more than a sharp stinging feeling, followed by numbness. Getting the three needles worth of local anisthetic, in sharp contrast, was intensely painful. The needles reminded me of when I sliced my finger open in Social Studies class in grade 7. That time round I saw bone too when I went to rinse out the cut so it would stop bleeding. The needles that time round were bloody awful too. Anyway, she dosed my thumb up then added six sttiches, cleaned it all up and bandaged everything.
Yesterday I got the stitches out and have healed nicely, but am still not able to wash or strain the thumb for another few days. This whole experience has highlighted how awesome it is to have both hands functioning 100%. I can't imagine the annoyance that I'd feel if I was missing a limb completely and not just slightly damaged for 10 days.
Despite having a whine on Facebook about doctors sticking to their appointment times this whole episode has reminded me once again how lucky I am to a) live in a first world country and b) have all my limbs and etc. Funny how much we take for granted until a little bit of it is taken away for a while...
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