So this week has been an interesting one! On Monday afternoon I did a re-test on Angie at Crossfit...if you recall it's 100 pull ups, push ups, sit ups and air squats. During the pull ups, I managed to rip three very large, painful areas on my hands. Left middle finger, left palm and right palm just under the ring finger. This was VERY painful, a little messy (gross) and SUPER frustrating. There may have been some tears involved. Needless to say, Monday night and pretty much all day Tuesday my hands were useless. Showering was almost comical on Tuesday morning...I couldn't get my hands soapy without my hands burning in pain. Washing my hair was done really with my finger tips. My co-workers were lucky I even attempted to "fix" my hair (blow drying and/or putting product in your hair when you have large open wounds on the palms is practically impossible) and get dressed when coming in to work that day. It was kind of ridiculous.
Then Wendesday, I was doing better...I could wash my hands without yelping in pain and I was able to grip things firmly (steering wheel, door knob, etc.). I was feeling pretty good about things! I go home and start making dinner on Wednesday night...it's about 6:00 and we're having burgers for dinner. I decide I wanted to grate some onion to throw in with the hamburger meat when I make the patties. I grabbed the white onion out of the fridge and chop it in half. Then I think, "I'll use the grater function on the food processor so I don't end up grating my knuckles! I'm so smart!" You know when you grate food and then end up scraping your knuckles against the grater? Yeah, it freakin' hurts. So I thought I'd be brilliant and avoid that pain. So I get out the food processor, put the grater disk on it and set it all up. Then I think, "Hmm, in order to fit the onion down the little chute thing, I'd better cut it oooone or two more times." So I put the onion flat on the cutting board and start cutting (with our newly sharpened big chef's knife) horizontally. As I'm cutting sideways, with my thumb on one end for stability, I'm thinking "Shoot, I need to be really careful about this...it's kind of dangerous and I could cut myself! Focus, Jenni, focus." Then two seconds later I slice a large gash in my left thumb. Greatness.
I really think the knife went all the way through the onion, through my thumb and bounced off the bone. I dropped the knife and grabbed my thumb really quickly. There was no blood on the knife, no blood running through my fingers, and I was jumping up and down and trying to psych myself up to look at it. I knew I needed to get a paper towel or something to hold against my sliced thumb, so I walked over to the paper towel holder, let go of my thumb and looked at it as I ripped off the paper towel. Yep, I had a cut that looked to be at least an inch long and both sides of the cut seemed to move about pretty freely, meaning it was probably pretty deep. Blood started to seep to the surface pretty quickly after I let go, so I grabbed the thumb once again, holding pressure on it with the paper towel. I then called Dude, since he was not home yet. I asked where he was, and if he'd left work yet. He had, but he was still about 20 minutes away, so I calmly told him that I was going to CareNow (which is a minor emergency room approximately 5 minutes away, thank goodness!) because I had cut my thumb "pretty bad." I proceeded to drive myself to CareNow (while holding pressure on my left thumb with the rest of my left hand...I'm pretty impressed with myself, not gonna lie).
When I got to CareNow, I calmly told the receptionist that no, I had not done a "web check-in", but I had just cut my thumb and I was probably bleeding profusely. She was super nice and had me sign a couple of things and take the little condition sheet back into the triage area with me. By the time I got into the actual triage area and the nurse came in, Dude had gotten there and was sitting with me. The nurse reiterated the fact that, yes, I had infact sliced through my thumb and I would need stitches. She used some gauze and tied a knot around my thumb (mini-tourniquet) then let me sit with my thumb in some soapy water for about 30 minutes until the P.A. showed up to give me the stitches. The soapy water only stung for like, ten seconds, so I couldn't really complain. I told Dude, "Oh wow, look at that! The blood is just sinking to the bottom of this bowl of water! Ewwwwww...". To which he replied, "Yeah...because blood is thicker than water...". So THAT'S where that saying comes from! :) Good to know!
The P.A. finally came in and looked at the cut and confirmed once again that I'd need stitches. I had never had stitches before so it was kind of exciting in a weird, masochistic way. Then I find out that they have to give you a shot of lidocaine IN YOUR FREAKING WOUND!!!!! WHAAAAT?! Yes, it turns out that when you get stitches, they numb the area (hooray!) but the way they have to do that is by giving you a shot of numbing stuff (which does sting like the dickens regardless of where its shot) and the needle goes INSIDE your cut! Hoe. Lee. Crap. Yes, there was a small, high pitched yelp/scream/whine when I got that first shot. I'm sure the people in the rooms around me either got a kick out of it or were terrified for their own fate. It hurt and I hope to not ever have to deal with that again!
Once my thumb was all numb and funny feeling, I got four stitches and then the nurse came back in, cleaned me up and wrapped it in a crap-ton of gauze. They gave me a perscription for pain meds (tramadol) and I went on my merry way, unable to feel my thumb and pretty happy that whole thing was over. They told me to come back the next day so they could make sure it wasn't getting infected. I figured I'd just do it over lunch, it's close enough to work and easy to get in. So I fill my perscription, come home, and then the pain starts up. I take one of the pain pills @ 9:15ish and try to go to bed @ 10:00. I am tired but I couldn't really fall asleep b/c my thumb was still kinda throbbing (but you're only supposed to take one pill every 4-6 hours). I ended up in that stage between sleep & awake...and I stayed that way ALL NIGHT LONG! I got up to pee in the middle of the night and checked the clock thinking, "Surely it must be 2 or 3 in the morning by now." No, it was only midnight. :( At 3:40 I got up and took another pain pill. I went back to a restless "sleep" until 6:45, and then dragged myself out of bed. I felt like ABSOLUTE crap. The more I got up and around the worse I felt. I was nauseous and kind of dizzy, but I was adamant about going to work. "I'll be fine when I get there..." was what I was telling myself. I got there (yeah, I probably shouldn't have been driving at that point) and tried to get some work done, but I still felt like I was going to faint, puke and die, all at the same time. I talked to my senior and she told me to do what I needed to do and just keep her informed (I really do love my job!).
I decided at about 9:45 that I was not really getting anything accomplished, so I went ahead and did the web check-in for CareNow to make my follow up "appointment." I figured they'd call me at around 11:00, then I'd just go home after that. Luckily for me, they called me right away and told me to come on in b/c they weren't really busy. So I told people that I was leaving for the day, went to CareNow, and tried to sleep on their little exam room table. I really did feel terrible, and I think I looked it as well (my co-worker told me that I "looked like crap and should go home", so I figure no one questioned my sick feeling). The doctor looked @ my thumb and said everything looked like it was healing nicely. She also told me if I didn't think I could drive I could stay for a while...but since I live 5 minutes from the facility, all I wanted to do was go home, change, and lay on my couch. Which I did. No more pain meds for me! That stuff was WAY too strong for my stomach. At one point when I was laying on my couch after I got home, I really did think, "Oh wow, is this how I'm going to die?" Yeah. It was that bad.
Luckily I didn't die, and at about 1:30 I finally felt good enough to get up and get on the computer and log in to work from home. I managed to do a few things, and I actually ate a 1/2 cup of white minute rice at around 3:30. I needed to go to the store to get stuff for dinner (fish was on the menu that night) and so I ran to the local Tom Thumb. After that trip I felt exhausted and a little woozy again, so I came home and sat for a little while. Things started looking up after that though, and I was able to get some sleep that night (pretty sure I was ready for bed by 8:30) and was able to let my thumb air out for a bit. I went to work today (Friday) and have been feeling good all day! From now on, if I hurt, Advil will be the strongest thing I'll be taking!
Although my thumb is on the road to recovery, I've decided it's really hard to do certain things without the full use of a thumb! Opening bottles? Hard to do with your left thumb out of commission! Certain pulling motions kind of hurt! Holding multiple items? Again, difficult without the use of one of your opposable thumbs! Showering is hard, but not as hard as it was when I had the open wounds on both of the palms. The "alt+tab" function kind of hurts when I use my thumb...so I have to use my forefinger and pinky now. I'm pretty sure any barbell workouts will be off limits for a while, and pull ups will be difficult. Also, eating chicken wings is REALLY hard without full use of both hands. Sigh. :( Life's difficulties. Pity me (Yes I am being sarcastic. Kind of.).
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