The Casualties of Cooking
People injure themselves fairly often while cooking. Cuts, burns, burning the mouth, eye irritation, slips and falls from greasy or wet floors are, sadly, a rather common occurrence according to data gathered by insurance carriers from hospitals, clinics and doctor's offices.
Let's start from the beginning. I receive my Covid vaccine last Sunday at the Javits Center., Monday I didn't feel my best but it wasn't terrible. I woke up with diarrhea, vomiting, a fever of 99.1 that went up to 99.6, a bit achy and fatigued. By Tuesday I was fine. Wednesday I was out and about. This morning, at 4 a.m. I woke up with a fever of 101.2 and my eyes hurt. Per the doctor, it was nothing to be concerned about. The highest it went was 101.5.
Between the fever and not feeling 100% and the nasty weather today, I decided to make some vegetable soup. For my soup recipes, click green link.
I finished my blog post about my dog's successful coup and when my sister picked up my husband so they could go to the Verizon store together, I got started. I had noticed the other night that my knife was a bit dull and being I was going to be doing a lot of chopping today, I sharpened it. Ugh.
For Dog treats recipe, click green link.
I had chopped carrots, onions, peppers, celery, garlic, sweet potatoes, gold potatoes and the soup was on it's way to a pot of deliciousness. I wanted to add some greens - escarole and spinach, and then later some frozen peas, frozen string beans broken into bite sized pieces and beans (black, white and kidney).
My mom cutting escarole. She didn't nearly chop her finger off. For her recipe and procedure, click green link.
WARNING: THE PICTURES AND VIDEO BELOW MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME:
There's a first time for everything. Today was a first. In 56 years, I've never needed stitches. I received my first stitches tonight. Oh joy.
Funny Story: They started working on me before the nurse took vitals. They wanted to stop the bleeding. Now, I'm sitting with my head turned and my eyes closed with my injured finger on a table and the Physician's Assistant is giving me needles in my finger to numb it. The nurse is taking my oxygen level using the finger on my other hand. I never realized she took it off and left the room. Yes, my oxygen level was completely normal even wearing two masks. Anyway, I still had the finger of my right hand sticking straight out and the PA started chuckling. Finally he said, "You can put your finger down now."
I also no longer had a temperature. That was a good thing.
The sweet potatoes and gold potatoes were cooking in the big soup pot along with the peppers, onions, celery, carrots and garlic. I was preparing the escarole. I washed it and was cutting it into small pieces. Remember, I just sharpened the knife too.
Luckily for me, my sister and husband had arrived back from the Verizon store just as I started doing this. She went into my mom's side of the house to see her and my husband came into our side of the house and started preparing himself lunch. He chatted with me about his new phone as he worked In no way am I blaming him for my slip up. I am actually glad he was home when it happened.
Somehow the knife slipped. I don't know what I did. All I know is I felt a sharp pain and let out a yell and blood started pouring. Being I'm on blood thinners for years, it's hard to stop the bleeding.
My husband gave me a clean towel and wrapped my hand then ran for the first aid kit. He wrapped my finger up as best he could. Afterward, I went into my mom's to show her and my sister. My sister called her daughter who is a Physician's Assistant. My niece told her to tell me to get it checked. Did I listen. No.
I figured I'd wait and see what happens. Bad idea. The bleeding really didn't stop. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law came over and met my sister here to have dinner with mom and dad.
After I ate dinner on my side of the house, I went in to show them the mess that was my finger. My brother-in-law wound up getting the bandage off my finger. See video below. Now I see who my niece takes after and why she went into the medical field. He's a cement layer, but had no problem dealing with my bloody finger.
Guess I won't be playing the Eensy Weensy spider finger game for a while. In fact, I can't do much with it for at least 3 day.
The whole time my brother-in-law was getting the wrapping off, my sister was filming and taking pictures. She sent it all to my niece who told me to go get it taken care of.
So... my sister took me to where my niece works. She wasn't there, but they know us in that office. They've treated us before as patients. We made it in record time even with the rain. Mario Andretti was driving after all (I mean my sister aka Mario, her nickname since she got her license at 16)
They poured stuff over my wound to clean it out. Then he numbed my finger with a needle which he stuck in two different places. He stitched me up (4 stitches) and then put medicine on it and wrapped it with gauze and tape. To add the final touch, he put the finger of a plastic glove over it.
Yes, when I came home, my husband called me "finger d*ck" I know, it looks like a condom. And to think, I have an affair to go to Saturday. At least the purple matches my outfit!
