I am laboriously typing this with one finger on my left hand. Six days ago now, I was washing up and being inattentive (as usual) when I washed a small bucket we use for cleaning around the humpy. The washing up was almost done and I was looking forward to getting into some spinning of avocado dyed fleece I had prepared. I reached into the bucket with my right hand and swirled the water around. When I pulled my hand out, the water was weirdly red. I didn’t feel any pain for several seconds, and then a tsunami of sensations hit my distracted mind; pain, and a searing heat, along with a sense of panic because I could not piece together what had just happened.

It turns out that someone had left the lid of a tin in the bucket and I had managed to run the very sharp edge of that lid over the first knuckle of my little finger on the right hand.

I yelled for help and we were soon on our way to the emergency room (after my partner sorted the car and changed his clothes). The finger was still bleeding when we got to the hospital, despite the efficient dressing job my daughter did on the wound. The emergency room doctor stuck some needles in the finger and poked about a bit, then she announced that she couldn’t see the tendon in there and I would have to go to our regional Base hospital to see an orthopedic surgeon. She sent me home with pain killers until the next day.

Once it was cleaned up, the cut seemed tiny and I couldn’t believe how much it bled. I could not bend my fingertip at the first knuckle, which rattled me quite a bit. I went home and returned to Lismore Base hospital early the next morning. Eventually, the surgeon came and poked about at my finger, which made the whole hand scream. He stated that I needed to have the hand operated on to fix the tendon, which he thought was severed completely. The operation was scheduled for the next day and I decided to stay in Lismore for the night (in a hotel room).

The next morning, I presented my fasted and medicated self to the hospital and waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually I was taken in to the operating theatre, and off I went to unconsciousness. I woke up, some four hours later, was given coffee and a sandwich, told to keep the cast on and handed a sheet of information with more pain killers. I left, not knowing the details of my operation, medical staff are so busy.

So now I am stuck at home, not being able to use my right hand. I am bored and frustrated, as well as worried that my finger may not heal properly and I may be left with a stiff finger. I have decided to catch up on some posts here, to keep my mind busy, if not my body. So look forward to some historical posts, some left field posts and some not-strictly-necessary posts.

I will be stuck in front of a screen for several more weeks.

i