Thumbs....

It's been 5 days since I put a drill through my thumb.

For those of you who didn't hear the details.....

I was working with the mission team at about 9:30 AM Saturday, making Christmas ornaments out of wood to sell as a fundraiser.  As I was drilling through one piece, the 3 mm drill bit snapped.  I had quite a bit of downward pressure on the drill, so when it bucked sideways, it went into my left thumb.  Since there wasn't much left of the bit, I avoided impaling myself to the table, but you can see; looking at the side opposite the entry wound, just how close I came to having an EXIT wound.

There was a 3 mm entry wound and a good bit of bleeding.  My tetanus shot was up-to-date, so I had a teammate bandage it up, mopped up the bloody floor and continued working.  It was just my left hand, after all.  I changed the bandage about 5 times over the course of the day as the wound continued to bleed (a good thing for a deep puncture - you want it to wash itself out, really).  At our 11 PM bedtime, I took the bandage off for a final cleaning and fresh dressing and realized it was throbbing a bit.  And....there were some red streaks headed up past my wrist into the forearm.

Well.  That's not good.

So I did what any sensible person would do. I went online and checked out the ER wait time.  It was a little over 2 hours.

I did the math.  Two hour wait, 4 hour treatment time.  Added up that equalled no sleep, and I'm on call tomorrow.  Yeah, nope.

I took three Advil and went to bed.

When I got up in the morning it didn't look any worse (nor any better, truth be told) so I checked the ER times again. Twenty minutes?  Hallelujah!  I preregistered and was assigned and arrival time in 45 minutes, time enough to eat breakfast (NEVER go to a hospital on an empty stomach, never ever ever) and pack my gear.  I arrived ahead of schedule.

X-rays showed that there were no drill fragments in the thumb, BUT!  I had managed to knock some bone fragments off the edge of the joint with the drill bit.  I done broke it.  It really didn't feel that bad, honest!

The ER doc had an out-loud mental discussion about what antibiotic to use given my list of allergies and recent bout of C. diff, and opted to give me a dose of IV Godzillamycin while I was there to jump-start the treatment.  He also scolded me for waiting.  I'm not thinking that what amounted to a 5 hour delay in starting that antibiotic really mattered a lot, but time will tell I suppose.

I was back at church before the service was over.  Early Sunday morning IS the time to be in the ER.

So.  It really doesn't hurt much.

But you can't button your jeans with only one thumb.

You can't hold a dog food can and fork out the food with only one thumb.

You can't cut meat like an adult with only one thumb.

You can't open ziplock bags with only one thumb.

And for absolutely sure you CANNOT remove a 4-hook bra at the end of a long day with only one thumb.

DeeDee