Sunday, January 1, 2012

i broke a nail - quick, to the E.R.

I have a million thoughts and stories about Christmas, New Year's, family time, Genghis's growing sense of humor (and mastery of the alphabet), and the utility versus futility of setting resolutions.

Instead I'm going to share my latest medical experience. I'm also tired and it's getting late so my New Year's resolution is to write this post in under 5 minutes.

A few days before Christmas, I pulled on a small piece of cuticle that was hanging from my fingernail (that sounds really gross when I write it out - no time for editing though - 3 minutes to go). A minor annoyance that I thought I could quickly get rid of. Except that it hurt quite a bit when I pulled it off. And it didn't stop hurting.

The next day my finger was red and had a stinging/numbing sensation in it. That night, I tossed and turned for a few hours, unable to sleep because of the incredible pain coming from that little part of my nail. At 2am, I gave up on sleep and googled my medical condition. Infected finger (I'd give you the technical name but that would require look-up time which I don't have). I could try to home treat it by soaking it in water an Epsom salts several times, or I could go to the doctor.

Recall it was 2am and I wasn't getting any sleep anyway. So five minutes later I was pulling up to the E.R. I'm sure I went red in the face when I walked into triage announcing that I needed to see the doctor because my finger hurt. And what was I supposed to say, really, when they asked me to chart my pain level on the 1 to 10 scale? I think I said 5, which is just one notch lower than when I was in the last hour of labor when delivering Genghis. Perhaps the scale is exponential.

Anyway.

Two hours of waiting and 3 minutes of operating later, they had lacerated and cleansed the infected area. I was driving home. And my finger felt much better.

All week I have been grateful to live in the days of modern medicine. I keep picturing my 1840s self on the homestead, taking my last, labored breaths after suffering an infection that spread through my whole body, while my husband and 6 children look helplessly on. In sepia tones.

Happy New Year!

4 comments:

Sherry said...

That was the best written-in-under-five-minutes post I've ever read. Unless it wasn't actually written in under five minutes, and if not, 2012 is already a failure for you. Too bad.

Erin Gong said...

I think I clocked in at 8-10 minutes. This means I don't have to meet any other goals because the year's already shot, right?

candice said...

"...in sepia tones." love it. Glad you are feeling better :)

Dawn said...

Very glad you are all better! And yes I think that scale is exponential!