Clumsy Katya: Part Four

Well, life is much better in the finger world!!!! I even went to a knife skills class--that I had signed up for BEFORE the incident, mind you. It was GREAT! And my stomach only fluttered a couple of times when the instructor kind of flung the knife in my direction as he was demonstrating. :-) (I'll post about the class later.)

I imagine it will be several weeks before I can type two-handed, but Wendy says I'm very fast one-handed. I always realized that we use computers a lot at work, but goodness! I feel very behind. That's because I am very behind, don't you see...

I went to the plastic surgeon again two days ago. I knew he would make a sarcastic remark if I STILL hadn't looked at the wound, so before he came in the examining room, I did it! In stages... I started to take off the bandage, but it was stuck. It felt like I was peeling skin off, and I was afraid maybe I was peeling off the new skin that was still fragile. But Xon took a good look before I did any more, and said it was just the dead skin that was peeling off. A good thing. The wound had been from the tip of the finger down to the first knuckle line, but once the dead skin was peeled off, he could see that the knuckle area was completely healed!!!! Except for a faint purple scar line that I'm sure will go away sometime soon.

I still wasn't ready to look at it directly. It's just not natural! But I had been describing to Xon what the wound felt like every day, and he had been describing what it looked like every day, and until that day, he had told me I didn't want to see it yet. I HAD looked at the top of my finger, though. Just covered over in crusty blood, and part of the nail was gone.

But today was the day to see it all! Xon took a picture with the cell phone, which is kind of blurry, so that was a good start. Then I looked at it in the reflection of a stainless steel paper towel dispenser. Then in the reflection of a mirror. And finally at the wound itself. Still covered with crusty blood and oozing a yellowish liquid. Beauteous. But since the knuckle part had healed, it looked (and felt) much better.

The doc came in and was much nicer this time, asking how I was. "Much better than the first time I was here," I joked. He said the wound was "teeming with bacteria" even though I soak it in peroxide every day, so I soaked it again, and he took some tweezers and scraped across the wound to get everything off. Oh dear.

"I don't want this to be a torture test," he said, "so just let me know if it hurts too much, and I'll numb your hand." "As long as you don't do much more than what you're doing now, I'll be fine," I said.

He also cleaned off the crusty parts, and when I looked at it again, it looked MUCH better! Like a "healthy" wound, Xon and I said, instead of a dead finger. What a difference a few weeks can make! My poor sister will be so upset because she wanted to see the nasty part, I think. Should have kept the tip for her...

Doc was done, so I made another for appointment for two weeks from then, and went back home to take care of all the kiddies looking for candy.

Hopefully a layer of skin will cover the oozy part over the next two weeks and then it will just be sensitive while the nerves are healing. And then, all better!!! --It is already so much better. For the past couple of weeks, my left hand has been ridiculously dry. I guess because I was soaking the one finger in peroxide, it drew all the moisture out of the rest of my hand. And even when I wasn't hungry for a meal, I HAD to eat, or I would get really shaky. Normally, if I skip breakfast, I don't like it, but I can handle it. Not lately, though! --Xon and I figured that was because my body was so focused on healing my hand that it had to have nourishment. Or something like that.

It has been fascinating to watch the healing process! Sorry if you are bored with the details, but I think Datya likes to hear them since she can't see it in person. And from what I've heard, every one of you will probably have the same accident at some point in your life. So....Use a VERY sharp knife, don't cut down to the bone, and try not to cut any more of the nail than I did. And you should be A-OK! :-)