Yardwork Can Be Hazardous

[Chillylulu]

Last Saturday I was shoveling amended top soil off my truck into a flower bed next to our driveway.  I had a bandage on several of my fingers, including the midfle finger of my right hand. It was getting dark and  I was trying to finish up. 

I didn't realize that the bandage had tore up and dirt was pushing into a small cut I had there.  When we went into the light I saw the dirty wound. So we cleaned up with antibacterial soap, put stuff on it, and re-bandaged the finger.

Wednesday my fingertip started to swell, Thursday it looked worse, so I called my Dr. I went in thursday at 4:00,  They gave me a shot off pennicillin, some oral pennicillan medicine, and a tetanus shot.  I went back in at 7am Friday and got another shot. Dr. ordered a MRI for that day.

Bottom line is I have been in the hospital, admitted for the first time in my life. At least one 1 more day.

Major bummer, might lose a finger tip.


Chilly

[amecks]

Wow, that's awful.  All that happened in just a week's time.  We'll be prayin' for the best for you Larry.

[jimwrench]

 Praying you will be 100% well soon. Those little bugs can be dangerous.

[international3414]

last year i had 2 finger tips pinched off,didnt touch the nails...i had the option for skin graft or no...i chose no...it took a while but it all grew back.missing a fingerprint though. good luck with yours....stupid me ,never missed a day of work.

[bonneyman]

Wow! Sorry to hear about your ailment.

[JoeCB]

I guess that you never know what bugs lurk out there, I had heard of life threating infections from something as small as a rose bush prick. makes you wonder how anyone survived before antibiotics.
chilly, get well soon...

Joe B

[john k]

Dang, Chilly,   hate to see someone laid up over a nice summer.   Hope it gets better and soon.   Young guys at work are always pooh-poohing me when I wear gloves for some work, their turn is coming. 

[Chillylulu]

They operated today.  They were going to put me out, but once I told them I didnt have sensory nerves in that finger the finally just went with a local.

No bone lost yet, but I may yet lose the tip piece. 

These new resistant bacteria strains are hard to deal with.  I am on two intravenous antibiotics and one oral one. The antibiotics make me tired, other than that I feel fine.  Everything else feels the same.

Its funny, the nurses, doctors, assistants, specialists et al. all ask me how my finger feels.  From my standpoint it is like asking Ray Charles how many fingers you are holding up. That finger has no sensory nerves. Period.

Thanks for all the kind words, hope to get a mess of pictures up soon.

Larry

[oldtools]

Hope everything works out for you, good thing they caught it in time, could have moved up the hand & more... they can be nasty buggers...

[Aunt Phil]

Sounds like you're dealing with MRSA.

It's a damn nasty bug, and can be difficult to whip.  I know of a man who lost a finger to it fast because his own dog bit him while they were playing.
You'll get to learn a whole new bunch of words like antibiogram and a few others.

Odd as it seems, the sooner you can get out of the hospital the better off you'll be.  Hospitals are full of nasty little bug critters.

Just remember the ball busting you'll get back at the sprinkler shop will make the hospital look like a vacation.

[Plyerman]

Dang, that sucks. I'm forever getting cuts and slices on my hands, and then working in the dirt. No bandages, no creams, no nothing. Sounds like maybe I ought to start being a little more careful.

[Chillylulu]

Sounds like you're dealing with MRSA.

It's a damn nasty bug, and can be difficult to whip.  I know of a man who lost a finger to it fast because his own dog bit him while they were playing.
You'll get to learn a whole new bunch of words like antibiogram and a few others.

Odd as it seems, the sooner you can get out of the hospital the better off you'll be.  Hospitals are full of nasty little bug critters.

Just remember the ball busting you'll get back at the sprinkler shop will make the hospital look like a vacation.

Luckily, at the shop they treat me really nice. They know what I've done and how I weasle things to keep them working.  We have a lot of branches, ours was the only one that didnt have to lay off.  We took hits in other ways to make sure nobody lost a job.  I brought in a lot of work during the slow times.  I know those guys would do anything to keep the committments I made, and they knew I'd find a way to get the work.  Its a great place to work.

This typing with my pinky is new, though.

The funniest thing they said last week when it began to swell is that I'd lose my ability to communicate as freely (its my middle finger.)  The weird thing about that is that I rarely cuss, I guess it was too easy a set-up. 

If I ever do use an expletive, the whole room goes quiet.

Chilly

[Aunt Phil]

Just dam Chili; You sustained a grievous injury to a craftsman's major communication system.  That just might qualify you for SSDI, or at the very least qualify you as a Disabled Worker bringing the shop more SSDI points for Government work getting.

Maybe the real mechanics in the shop can hold a comparison session to see who has the finger matching yours closest.  Good mechanic ought to be able to grease that finger up well and make a plaster cast.  Then find a painter and borrow a tube of RTV silicone sealant from him and make up some prosthetic pointers for you to use.

Good thing you don't make a living giving digital rectal exams or massages.  You'd be up S**t Creek.

I wouldn't get overly concerned about lack of communication skills though.  I didn't talk to anybody for at least 2 years when I first got to the kid prison the fancy people called a home for boys.  Saw my file when they ran me off cause I aged out and it said I might be retarded cause I didn't talk to anybody.  I figure it never occurred to any of them professional people running the place ever bothered to figure out I neither spoke or understood English.  Retarded worked out well for me as time went on.

[Chillylulu]

I wouldn't get overly concerned about lack of communication skills though.  I didn't talk to anybody for at least 2 years when I first got to the kid prison the fancy people called a home for boys.  Saw my file when they ran me off cause I aged out and it said I might be retarded cause I didn't talk to anybody.  I figure it never occurred to any of them professional people running the place ever bothered to figure out I neither spoke or understood English.  Retarded worked out well for me as time went on.

Made my day!

[rusty]

>them professional people running the place ever bothered to figure ...

Some of the most incompetent people I have met in my life were people whose job it was to judge if other people were competent....*sigh*