Another Accident
Hi everyone, I know I haven't been on here for awhile, but as usual I had a little accident. I was breaking down some boxes that my parents just threw down the basement stairs to land in front of my armoire, which sits outside of my room/apartment in my parents’ basement. They had been piling up boxes in front of my stuff for months while I was staying in the spare room upstairs to recover from knee surgery. So, earlier this summer I was preparing to move back downstairs to my own room and found all of those boxes blocking the doors to my armoire. I was breaking the boxes down when I received a nasty puncture wound in the base of my thumb from a large metal box staple. I cleaned the wound normally and used a standard antiseptic. Unfortunately two days later it became obvious that the wound was infected. I went to the doctor's office that day and received a Tetanus shot and some oral antibiotics. But 4 days later my whole hand swelled up to about 3X its normal size and a red line, which proved I had blood poisoning, running up my arm. I was admitted to the Hospital and spent some time there. The hospital had to perform an emergency operation on me, to clean out all of the infection. After the operation I had stitches closing up most of the incision, only leaving a small (approx. 1/4 inch) hole between my thumb and forefinger. This hole led to a cavity inside my hand where they dug out the infection. The doctor said they had to let that slowly heal from the inside out and close up on it’s own. The doctor even left a drainage device in the hole and some gauze packing. The nurses had to change both the packing and drain daily. They also had to clean out the wound daily, while I was in the hospital. The nurses also kept me hooked up to an I.V. bag of antibiotics almost 24 hours a day. I spent quite a while in the hospital until the doctor was sure I was out of danger. The Emergency Room of Carroll Hospital Center (formerly Carroll County General Hospital) in Carroll County, Maryland, may not be the best around this area, but the staff on the unit was very friendly and professional. They made my stay as pleasant as it possibly could be under the circumstances. When I came home I still had to use the guest room upstairs because I couldn't use that hand at all. Nurses even had to come tend my wound daily at first, then less frequently as time passed. I still can hardly use that hand, even though the nurses recently said that the wound no longer needs draining and packing, and stopped coming. I still can not use that hand much because of pain when I do. Thankfully it should be healed up in a few weeks the Doctor said. That is why I am just posting this now. It takes me forever to type something up 1 handed, between cleanings and medicine induced naps. I hope all of my friends are well.