Saturday, August 9, 2008

Ouch!

Ouch.
Yes, it's true. I had some serious chigger bites on my under carriage last week. Bad enough that I got slightly worried when the lymph nodes in my groin swelled up and hurt just to touch.

Olympics.
I love the Olympics. Have ever since I was a kid--the pageantry, the pomp, the back stories that tug at your heart strings. I believe that sport can, and many times does, transcend politics. That being said, I kinda wished the entire world had let the Chinese spend all that time and effort and money building all that infra-structure and then everyone had boycotted. Then again, I watched the opening ceremony last night and they were awesome. On the other other hand, to put it bluntly, China is an economic, cultural, and population juggernaut.

More ouch!
I was at the gym earlier today and spotted some young guy doing a lift incorrectly so I went over to help with some friendly free advice. Unfortunately, he was a dumb athlete and failed to let go of the bar when it started to come down. The bar was overhead, he held onto it as it came down in front of him, and both his hands got pinched between the bar ( total weight ~60kgs) and the bench. First I thought he might come out okay, then I looked at his hand. His left thumb had a good two inch long gash that went down to the bone. I quickly took my towel and squeezed it onto the wound. I walked him over the a clear area and had him lay down. A cursory glance at his other hand showed a missing finger nail. All in all not too bad. I grabbed another towel and told him to make a fist with that hand to put pressure on that finger tip. After I bandaged up his thumb with the gym's first aid kit I took another look at the finger. When I peeled back the towel the little flap of skin holding on the nail came off in the towel. The sight I beheld will haunt me for the next few hours. It looked like the tip of his finger had been chewed off by some rat. I could see the ragged edge of what was once the tip of his finger and a little tip of bone poking through the raw meat. Whew! I wrapped it up quick with some gauze 4x4s and cotton wrap.
Last I saw him he was headed to the nearest ER.

I did something similar several years back (cause all athletes are dumb sometimes) but I managed to luck out. Long story short I dropped a 140kg barbell on my knee when I missed a jerk at a local weightlifting competition. Got away with just a bruise but could have very easily sheared off my patellar tendon. Live and learn I guess.

2 comments:

Janet said...

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

GB, RN said...

Now that you are a badass ER nurse, you are more than ready to handle such situations.

I, on the other hand, would have puked.

Glad to hear your undercarriage is well.