No more cacti for you, young lady.
Been awhile since I made an entry for the sole purpose of getting pity, so why not?
Yesterday, I was scrubbing the scum out of the plastic trays that my African Violets live in. I decided to do this on top of the large thigh-level raised planter in my backyard so that I wouldn't have to bend over. Well, on this planter to one side sits a cactus plant. I forgot it was there. So, at one point, I flicked my right hand off to one side (can't remember why... I think I was trying to flick a bug off.) And it went straight into the cactus. At first it hurt a bit, but I brushed it off because I wasn't bleeding anywhere. But when I went inside and washed my hands, I noticed my knuckles were covered with little red bumps. They looked something like flea bites with dots of pepper in the center. Dots of "pepper" that are actually imbedded cactus spines. 14 of them, to be exact. Sometimes having a high pain tolerance is a bad thing... Maybe I would have noticed sooner otherwise. But hey, high pain tolerance got me through the next step... I got a tweezers, needle and razor blade, and by SLICING INTO MY OWN SKIN, I managed to get 4 out before my fingers got too swollen and the alcohol disinfectant burned too much. So today, I'm typing with my left hand, and the index finger and thumb of my right hand, which managed to escape. Fortunately most of the pain is gone unless I touch the spots, and the swelling is down... So I was able to do all my typing at work today, albeit a bit more slowly. Looks pretty nasty though. Hooray for all-concealing Band-Aids
Fuck. That cactus has only been there for ohhhh, 6 years? I'm a moron. But due to some Internet research, I found out that cactus spines harbor very few bacteria. So it looks like I just get to wait until the rest of the spines fester enough to work their way out. Huzzah?
Yesterday, I was scrubbing the scum out of the plastic trays that my African Violets live in. I decided to do this on top of the large thigh-level raised planter in my backyard so that I wouldn't have to bend over. Well, on this planter to one side sits a cactus plant. I forgot it was there. So, at one point, I flicked my right hand off to one side (can't remember why... I think I was trying to flick a bug off.) And it went straight into the cactus. At first it hurt a bit, but I brushed it off because I wasn't bleeding anywhere. But when I went inside and washed my hands, I noticed my knuckles were covered with little red bumps. They looked something like flea bites with dots of pepper in the center. Dots of "pepper" that are actually imbedded cactus spines. 14 of them, to be exact. Sometimes having a high pain tolerance is a bad thing... Maybe I would have noticed sooner otherwise. But hey, high pain tolerance got me through the next step... I got a tweezers, needle and razor blade, and by SLICING INTO MY OWN SKIN, I managed to get 4 out before my fingers got too swollen and the alcohol disinfectant burned too much. So today, I'm typing with my left hand, and the index finger and thumb of my right hand, which managed to escape. Fortunately most of the pain is gone unless I touch the spots, and the swelling is down... So I was able to do all my typing at work today, albeit a bit more slowly. Looks pretty nasty though. Hooray for all-concealing Band-Aids
Fuck. That cactus has only been there for ohhhh, 6 years? I'm a moron. But due to some Internet research, I found out that cactus spines harbor very few bacteria. So it looks like I just get to wait until the rest of the spines fester enough to work their way out. Huzzah?