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Mendocino County Exhibit - Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Surprise! I'm in a hospital! Well, I was at least.
In retrospect, it probably wasn't vital for me to visit the emergency room for my cut thumb, but I wanted to make sure it was OK.
Sorry for the gross pictures if you are squeamish, but these are the horrible real-life photos you must face if you want to see what can happen when you try to build big, crazy displays.
I was minding my own business, cutting blue foam with a giant Xacto knife, when I sliced a flap of skin from the top of my finger. It wasn't deep, but there was a lot of blood, and a significant flap of skin.
I went to the emergency room. I brought my camera, so I took some photos. Hospital photos are rare, only slightly less rare than dentist photos.
The triage nurse looked at my gross flap of thumb skin, turned away and went "Ugggg!" in horror. He poured a little bath of fluid and we let it bleed out clean for a few minutes.
The doctor eventually came by and took a peek. He said I could have stitches, but that there was enough surface area for the flap to reattach without them.
I suggested 2-part epoxy, but he said something called "surgistrips" would do a better job.
He let me go with a warning: Do not get the cut wet for at least 4 days.
A medical assistant of some kind came in and applied several surgistrips to the cut, which looked like super-adhesive Band-Aids.
Next she twisted a strange tube of cotton gauze onto my thumb, twisting it tight back and forth a few times. She left a little extra hanging over the end and cut that hanging bit into two long strands for tying behind my wrist.
If the bandage wasn't large and embarrassing enough, I was made to wear this awesome wrist guard to prevent me from moving my thumb to rigorously.
I also had to have a tetanus shot.
I was finally allowed to go home, and even took the next day off.
The next day I built this 25" tall Point Cabrillo Lighthouse out of foamcore and blue styrofoam. It will be painted, and a sleeve of plastic will be used on the top so a light can be rigged inside.
Later that day I was allowed to change the dressing on my cut. The surgistrips were holding up well.
And a few days after that, I took the surgistrips off. The wound had sealed up pretty well, I used Band-Aids for the next week or two.