Thursday, July 24, 2008

Clarification.

I don't have any grandiose tale of injury to share for my post, but I -can- offer a small explanation in care you're confused on the light switch cover.

The plate isn't flush with the wall. That's why there was a sharp edge and if Autumn had chose to flick the switch with her nose instead of her hand? She might have lost an eye.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Left-handed bandit

I expected my first post to be one filled with greetings and details about what you should expect from these posts, but instead I've decided to tell an exciting story about my first trip to the hospital!

So this isn't even really as exciting as most E.R. stories are, but I'll try my best to liven it up a bit.
Okay so before I even really start, I have to explain a few things. We just recently moved into our cottage, making it our permanent home, and theres a few thinks we haven't fixed up yet.
The light switch plates in our house aren't normal. A normal light switch plate, sticks into the wall, making it completely safe!
example of normal light switch plate:
So here is what a normal light switch looks like! Now the ones in our cottage, unlike the one to the left, stick out about an inch from the wall.








Example of not so normal light plate:
Okay...so this isn't actually a very good example, but its the best I could find online while still being lazy and not taking my own picture. Just picture that frame metal and more out of the wall..

Alright, now onto the story. So its Saturday night, and my parents are out, who knows where, and I'm in my room. I hear the phone ring, which is way down the hall, through the family room and into the lake room. Now theres not many windows in this house, so it gets pretty scary dark at night, and I'm a very paranoid person. So I get up and I run through the hall, and theres a light switch at the end of the hall, so I figured I'd turn it on, as I'm running to the phone. I swing my arm up to turn it on and miss and smash it into the edge of the frame. Now at the time, I'm thinking 'ow, whatever, gotta get the phone.' So then I wander through the dark lake room, trying to find the phone (we had just gotten a land line, so I wasn't used to it). I finally find it and I answer it, and at first, I picked it upside down, hah. My dad was calling, asking if I wanted anything from dairy queen. Suddenly, for some reason, I look down at my hand, I think maybe because it felt cold, or wet, and I see blood just pouring from it. I instantly go into panic mode (having never actually injured myself so severely before) and I tell my dad I have to go and I hang up on him. I then run to the bathroom, whilst blood is dripping all over my parents carpet and new wood floor.

Something else I have to quickly explain is that my mother is very crazy (And I mean that in the nicest way possible) about her cleaning supplies/ household items. Things that most people would think are supposed to be used and get dirty, my mom buys for looks, and not to be touched.

So I'm in the bathroom, running water over my hand, just trying to figure out where the heck its all coming from, and then I finally see the cut. If you were to make a U with your thumb and pointer finger, its in that crevice (later on the doctor marked it as 3.5 cm long). And I went to grab one of my moms precious hand towels, and I stopped myself. Normally a person would forget about the fact that the towels aren't supposed to be dirty and be worried about their hand. But I'm really anything but normal, so I quickly grab some Kleenex and wrap it around my hand (yes I know this wasn't the smartest thing to do haha), and make my way to the kitchen to get some paper towels. So I get paper towels and wrap them around my hand, applying pressure, and the things still bleeding like crazy, so I figure I better call my parents and tell them to come home. I call my dad up and try to explain what happened as quick as I can, as I'm gradually starting to panic more and feel pain. He says he'll come home and hangs up. So I go back to the bathroom, and then realize that my moms going to maybe freak out about the blood being all over so I decide to start cleaning it up, with my hand still bleeding. I think I was actually making the mess worse, when my parents got home and followed the trail of blood to me. My dad looked at it, and we realized I had cut through some tissue, and he said I had to go to the hospital.

Now, I have never been to the hospital for myself, and I didn't want to start now. But I was being forced to go. At the time I was wearing boy boxers, and I refused to go in my pajamas, and my mom wanted to change too. So, ignoring the fact that my hands bleeding and in sever pain, I start trying to put jeans on, which is extremely hard to do one handed. I finally manage to do it and then I quickly hop over to my computer, where I had left my friend in the middle of a conversation when I had gone to answer the phone. I wanted to type her a quick message, telling her I had to go to the hospital because I sliced my hand open. Well, pecking with my left hand, mixed with my bad wireless keyboard connection, all she got was

Me: br ijust completelyslicedmy hand pen
Her:
so either you just sliced your hand with a pen or sliced your pen with your hand?
Me:
have o go o the hospital i sliced it pen

But then I had to leave, so I just left her with that. This was about 10 at night. So, I got to the hospital, where we sat and waited 40 minutes in the waiting room, watching Jurassic Park, before I finally got to talk to someone. Then I was led to a room where I had to wait even longer. But to make a long story, just a little bit shorter. I got out of there about 1:30 with 4 stitches and a lot of motrinIB in me. And I got Arby's on the way home ^_^

All in all, I would say my first trip to the hospital wasn't completely miserable, just a little shocking. What I've been telling people though, is that I don't think this was just an accident.. I think as I was running down the hall to answer that phone, my left hand saw an opportunity and decided to strike by shoving my right hand into that light switch plate!!!

It is now 11 days after this all happened ( Its July 23rd despite what the date above says..thats just when I started writing this ahhaa I'm so lazy), and I can now type with both my hands and use my right hand almost fully. It took almost 4 days just for me to be able to move my fingers, and a week before I could lift anything with it. Typing with my left hand really sucked, considering I spend a good portion of my day in front of the computer screen.

Good night :D