Well, what started as a good day off yesterday ended in disaster. I was gathering up some things to go upstairs for some soup, when I decided I should turn back and get my tea mug too so I could make a cup of tea at the same time, when the can of soup slipped, causing the bowl to slip against the tea mug. I then of course, stumbled and lost my bowl, which fell against the mug, snapping off the handle. The bowl shattered against the table on the way down, and a piece of it sliced my foot, right across the big toe, starting on the inside (so there was a small cut on my other toe too). Now, it took me about an hour to realize how this actually happened. I was barefoot, and I remember looking at my foot thinking "ooh, that's bleeding". My roommate, of course, runs over to me and starts putting paper towel on my foot (which immediately soaked through with blood). I meanwhile am watching my kitten, Phoenix, who is shamelessly trying to chew on a piece of ceramic from the bowl. So now I'm holding my foot, which is bleeding on the carpet, and trying to stop my cat from eating something which could potentially send HIM to the emergency room instead! By the time my roommate's dad comes down and says I'll need stitches, I've gone into shock a little bit, and start shaking, and my biggest concern is my cat, and the slowly growing stain on the carpet.
They got me to the emergency room, my foot wrapped in an old pillowcase, and the attending nurse wrapped it up nicely in some guaze. Then we waited for almost three hours before the Dr would see me. I was doing my best to be cheerful - I mean, it was about 11:00 by that time and I'd hate to work at that hour, so I was trying to be a good patient. The guy was pretty funny, though. While he was freezing my foot (which hurt enough that apparently my pupils got very, very small for a split second) he was carrying on conversation with me, talking about where I worked, I was telling him about my comparisons between human medicine and pet medicine. He thought it was funny that one of my coworkers asked why I didn't come into the clinic where I work, and I joked back, "then I'd have to pay the after hours fee!". Anyway, after the whole sewing process, he cleaned off my foot and waited for another rn to come and bandage me up. The one the came was a very kind British man, who kept calling me "darlin". I got some homecare instructions (just like my work, haha) to keep it dry for four days, change the dressing after a day, and after a second day, take the dressing off but keep a bandaid on it. After the four days I don't have to wear a plastic bag over it in the shower anymore, but I should be keeping a bandaid on it and make sure to watch for infection.
I was impressed with the care that I got there. Besides the wait (which I could understand anyway, since there was a little boy who kept having nosebleeds who obviously took presedence over my clumsy mishap), the people were nice and the dr was cheerful. It was a pretty good experience, besides the fact that I now have 5 stitches in my foot, which I will need to get taken out in a week. I shudder at the thought of that.
Anyway, last night sure was interesting. I have spent the entire day so far sitting on the futon with my foot up on a pillow. It's all wrapped up and tucked into a loose-fitting sock too. The hardest thing is going to the bathroom; since I can barely put any weight on my foot - the cut is right across my toe, so when I step it really, really hurts - it's hard to walk, so right now I'm crawling, so I don't have to hop. Then I'm faced with the issue of standing up again. Yeesh. I'm such an unbelievable clutz.
I would post a picture, but I don't have to change the dressing till tonight so I'll snap a quick one then and post it tomorrow. Bet that's gonna be fun.
I will share this though. I edited this picture from the original I posted yesterday - I ended up going with this one for my profile on Facebook. By the way, I got a ton of attention by posting a status about waiting for stiches last night. Yay, it's nice to know so many people care about me. Even if it's facebook care. XD
