Thumb's down

[soc_puppet]

Well, slightly. I started worrying that it was infected late on the 23rd, but the weather was horrendous; I talked to my mom and my retired nurse grandma, and neither of them thought it was infected, so I figured I was probably okay to wait a bit at least. The doctor that is authorized under worker's comp is a forty minute drive away, and even though the roads were somewhat better on Friday evening, they were still far from great, and right after that is Christmas Eve and Day.

Monday I was scheduled to work regardless, and that would be day ten of "your stitches need to be in for ten to fourteen days" anyway, so I figured I'd stop by the doctor after work; one way or another, they could give me a more definitive answer, letting me stop worrying so much about it. They could also tell me whether the stitches were ready to come out, or if they needed a few more days.

Turns out I was right, my cut is infected! The doctor thinks that it was due to how much I was keeping it covered, which was. A lot of the time, really. Honestly, the stitches were not a good physical sensation, and my skin picking habits didn't need the extra temptation on top of it, but I think I would have at least tried to leave it uncovered over night if I knew this was going to happen.

Anyway, the doctor took the stitches out and used suture tape or something to keep the cut closed now, since it wasn't quite ready, but since there was some buildup around the stitch sites, there was clearly a problem with them. I was pretty cool with this, right up until the first time I washed my hands with the new tape on and they started to come loose. And yes, the doctor advised me to wash my thumb at least a couple of times a day. Luckily, she did also send me home with a few extra tape strips to apply if the originals came loose, which I did this morning when the first set stopped even pretending to stick properly. I also anchored them with some extra long bandages, sticking the ends down while letting the cut still breathe.

The doctor also prescribed me some antibiotics, but didn't drain any of the pus, on the chance it would open the wound back up. She assured me that the oral antibiotics she prescribed should drain things out for me. I was also instructed to come back in if my thumb is the same or worse on Friday, which would be the two week mark since I got this cut.

This has been a long and frustrating road, and I truly hope the end is actually near.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

That is very frustrating!

A little vindicating to know that you were right about the infection, but it'd still be preferable NOT to have the infection instead!

[soc_puppet]

Agreed 100%. ...I have no idea how this is going to impact my work schedule. I guess I'll find out tomorrow maybe?

[mistressofmuses]

I hope it doesn't impact it negatively. :/ (Unless you want some time off, in which case milk it for all it's worth, lol. But if you want hours, I hope it doesn't prevent you from getting them.)

[soc_puppet]

Lol! Honestly, I could go either way with work. I don't want to be completely out of the loop, but if I end up having a few more days off or of very light work, I wouldn't complain. A lot of the work I do is reasonably hand-intensive, and the thumb plays a pretty important part in a lot of it. That said, I might still be able to do a good amount of it with one-and-a-half hands (or two half hands, since Lefty isn't quite as well trained as Dexter), if more slowly.

I do think it would be a golden opportunity to get some recipes typed up. We have an unreasonable number of them written down only on scrap paper or large post-its, with just measurements and minimal or no directions. I can still type reasonably well at the moment, if nothing else.

[mistressofmuses]

Ooh, that could be a good chance - to use the opportunity to type things up so they're in a more useable format. That would be a good way to use your time, even if you aren't able to do everything you'd usually do. Baking is SO hand-intensive, and it's hard to avoid jostling the injured thumb, I imagine.

[soc_puppet]

So it seems like my boss actually cleaned out a lot of the scrap-paper recipes we'd been relying on 😛 Whether I'll actually see many of them again or they're out for good remains to be seen.

Otherwise, today was a fairly okay "test run" at work. A lot of dough shaping was still more thumb-intensive than I'd like, and I'm still not actually washing dishes yet (though I can spray them off and put them away when they're dry), but there's stuff I can do. I can measure things out for recipes, I can mix stuff, as long as I get the right scooper I can scoop stuff. I gave the cut a good, thorough cleaning this evening as well, and it's also a lot more healed up than I thought it was under far too much gunk. I'm feeling much more confident in using it, though I'm still going to try and take it easy for at least a few more days. I work tomorrow, and then my next work day is Sunday, so maybe by then I'll feel up to something more adventurous.

[mistressofmuses]

Oh no! I hope that doesn't mean the recipes are actually lost, if you were relying on them!

And yeah, all of the above is pretty thumb-intensive. I am glad it's healing better now, though. Definitely try to give it a break!

[redsixwing]

Ouchie. I hope the antibiotics clear it up quick!

[soc_puppet]

I took the chance to really clean up the area this evening, and honestly it's definitely looking better! Still gotta make sure to completely finish out the course of antibiotics, of course, but everything looks to be in a much better state than I thought. I am much relieved ♥

[lightbird]

Ugh, I hope you heal up quickly. At least you caught it.

[soc_puppet]

I did a bit of intensive cleaning in the area this evening, and honestly it's looking much better now that everything's drained and cleaned off! Checking in with the doctor was definitely the right thing to do, and I'm also feeling much more confident about how it's healing now that it's cleaned.