landing on my feet

[maradydd]

Tuesday night: sat down in a chair on a somewhat slippery patio without looking back to confirm that the chair was actually there. Chair was not there after all. Lost balance, fell into brick windowsill, scraped hell out of right shoulderblade. (Happily, did not rip shirt.) Back muscles now all knotted and achy.

Wednesday night: was carving a piece of Mexican kingwood with my brand-new set of chisels, wood rotated unexpectedly in my hand, chisel slipped. Carved inch-long gash into the base of my left thumb. Did not sever anything important, and bleeding stopped after less than five minutes of direct pressure. Was able to see the underside of my own skin, which is pretty neat-looking; did not, alas, take photos. About then, the burgers came off the grill, so I ate dinner with my left hand on top of my head and then went to the emergency clinic about ten minutes before it closed. Three stitches. Left hand now sore and a bit itchy.

Today: slept a lot.

I'll be in Houston through Saturday afternoon if anyone still wants to get together or anything. Dallas, alas, is probably not happening. Sorry guys. :(

Comments

[geekosaur]

I had a leek slip on me while I was chopping it into rings on a mandoline in early June. Another friend sliced his index finger open on a can of tomato paste in late July. I forget who got himself a couple days after jss1113, but the "3 stitches somewhere on the hand" has been pretty consistent.

[mutiny.livejournal.com]

3 stitches is the lightest injury you could sustain that would actually require stitches.

[maradydd.livejournal.com]

Huh. The doc at the clinic thought about doing just two on mine, but added a third just to be careful. It would have healed without stitches, but it would have left a nasty scar that would have probably made moving my thumb much more difficult.

[enochsmiles.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I agree with mutiny on this -- if you need stitches, three is the least you can get away with. The reason I had been betting two on yours was that, while it would have scarred pretty badly, and would have needed to be treated well to avoid infection, stitches weren't essential and one could have closed it up with two.

(The "third for good measure" was possibly because the doctor isn't used to doing less than three without problems, and really, an extra stitch doesn't hurt anything.)

You had a fairly unusual injury, though. It was deep, but not hat much skin was torn -- almost like a puncture.

[mutiny.livejournal.com]

They open up so easily without stitches too ow.