Friday evening while I was preparing supper there was an unpleasant incident involving an onion, a knife, and my finger. The knife just slipped off the onion and sliced my finger instead. I own a kitchen tool designed to hold an onion so this sort of things doesn't happen. Why wasn't I using it? Who knows? A senior moment?
Fortunately, my younger daughter was home and available to help deal with my injury. I rinsed it off while she saturated a cloth with cold water and instructed me to apply pressure with it. She took over preparing dinner while I soaked through at least two cloths and a few gauze pads. It wouldn't stop bleeding. My husband returned from a walk and suggested I apply cayenne pepper, which is supposed to stop bleeding. So we did that, and the blood just kept on dripping.
That's when my daughter decided it was time to call Ms. B. my good friend and neighbor who is also a retired nurse. Grabbing her impressive first aid kit, she was at my house within three minutes. After assessing my dripping pointer finger, she announced that it was borderline for needing a stitch. Had the E.R. been 5 miles away, instead of 25, and had we known it would be a quick trip in and out, not the usual 5 hour wait, she would have urged me to go. She said she could put a stitch in, but it would hurt and I would not like her any more. It finally quit bleeding (maybe the cayenne kicked in, although I had rinsed it off so she could see the wound), so she bandaged it properly and told me I absolutely must keep it dry for at least 24 hours.
Saturday morning I pulled two plastic bread sacks over that hand, held them in place with a rubber band around my wrist, and managed to take a shower and wash my hair with one hand. I needed to be presentable for my older daughter's baby shower. It was a very nice shower, but I was dreadfully tired. My younger daughter, who has worked in a hospital, told me I probably was experiencing delayed shock. I had lost a good bit of blood, even though it was from just one finger, and it had been painful, and generally upsetting. I simply didn't feel well at all on Saturday, and spent most of the afternoon and evening in bed, reading and playing a game on my phone.
I should mention that my sisters suggested I should use Super Glue on the cut, and Ms. B. agreed, so Saturday afternoon my son (the family glue expert) applied the glue, telling me to hold the edges of the wound together while also keeping my fingers out of the glue. I managed to do that, although I thought he was asking a lot. I now feel like a human craft project.
Today I still lack ambition, and have been doing more reading and resting. This post has been a challenge to type without using that finger, which remains bandaged. Fortunately, it is raining this afternoon, so I am not at all tempted to go outside and resume the yardwork I started on Friday.
Rain has the added benefit of keeping the off-roaders at home, so I don't have to listen to them roar up and down the road while I recuperate. It is a violation of our neighborhood CC&Rs to operate them here, but too many people lack integrity as well as common courtesy, so our once-peaceful neighborhood is turning into a playground for 4-wheelers and dirt bikes. There may have to be a lawsuit if the trend is ever going to be stopped. I would rather it didn't come to that, but some folks simply may not catch on unless that happens.
But I digress. The house and the road are quiet, rain is dripping off the eaves, my finger doesn't hurt, and I might even get dressed yet today.