Channeling Frankenstein
This Halloween week I decided to channel Frankenstein* by getting eight stitches in my thumb. Okay, so maybe the whole thing was unintentional, but it’s festive nonetheless.
Saturday, the day I sliced my thumb, I handled sharp chicken wire, hammer and chisel, wire cutters, and a pipe cutter without incident. Dinner time is when it got dangerous. I was opening a gigantic can of hominy to add to our posole that had been simmering away all day. Our can opener seems to be designed for standard size cans and was having a problem with the large curves. It didn’t make a clean cut and the lid was still secured by a few slivers of metal. I ignored the thought in my brain that told me it was dangerous and pried the lid up with a butter knife. The lid did indeed come up, but my thumb and the lid engaged in a nice little dance that didn’t end so well for me. (Note: ALWAYS listen to that little voice in your head. Whether it’s the spirit or common sense you’ll be glad you did.) After the bleeding didn’t stop after 15 minutes of pressure we called a friend who just so happened to be at a restaurant about a mile from our house and she kindly agreed to come and watch the kids so Noel could take me to our HMO’s after hours care. Did I mention that at this point in time our plumbing project wasn’t actually finished and all the water was still off in the house? Oh, well it was. Noel scrambled to put a temporary cap on the line so our disaster of a house would at least have running water while we were gone. **
I had hoped this was something they could just glue, but ended up needing eight stitches. I had to psych myself up a little bit for the procedure, but thanks to a local anesthetic the whole thing wasn’t too bad. Life since then has been like one of those quirky party games as I try to do things without too much use of my thumb. Thankfully this wasn’t my dominant hand because amusing would have turned into debilitating really quick. I’d never thought about it much before, but we use our thumbs a lot. If you ever need a little entertainment in your life just try getting dressed using only one thumb.
*Since I was the one being stitched I suppose that would technically make me Frankenstein’s monster in this scenario.
**We did eventually get the plumbing fixed for real, in case you were wondering. That’s a whole other story that you probably don’t want to hear.
3 thoughts on “Channeling Frankenstein”
Wow, that is quite the slice! It looks like it goes almost around your whole thumb! Are you going to flash that at kids as you hand out trick or treat goodies? 🙂 Best wishes for a quick recovery and full use of your hand again!
I think I rolled my finger along the edge, but there are two separate cuts. I should flash it at the kids, but probably won’t. Although, I think kids have reacted better to the stitches than adults!
Can lids are dangerous! I once sliced my thumb on a pop top soup can and had to get four stitches. The doctor told me, “those are supposed to be fool proof.” I’m glad it was on your right left hand. Mine was on my right hand and I couldn’t write with a pencil for weeks. That was over 10 years ago and I still don’t have all the feeling back in my thumb. It’s still a little gimpy too.