Blood, Boston and Baseball
Yesterday as I was picking up the living room (which is code for I was sitting in the comfy chair, playing a game on my phone and strategizing the pick up in my head), Todd came in from the garage, holding a ginormous wad of paper towels around his hand and said, “I may need you to take me to Urgent Care.” I gave him that look – the one exasperated mothers give their children – and asked what he had done. He pulled the paper towel back and all I could see was a pool of blood. I heard words like “table saw” and “sorry” and “not my fault this time” as I hopped up to grab my purse.
I’m not squeamish when it comes to blood, but puking is another story altogether. He was in a lot of pain and I kept asking if he was going to throw up so I could start psyching myself up to fight the urge to join him. Thankfully he was NOT nauseous.
The nurse at Urgent care asked to see the wound so Todd pulled the paper towels back for her. This time instead of a pool of blood it was a stream of blood. I just watched Julie & Julia the other day and all I could think of was Dan Aykroyd’s Julia Child skit.
Shortly after that the PA came in the exam room, looked at his finger and quickly assessed the damage. No stitches were necessary because there was nothing to stitch. He sheared the side of the tip of his left pointer finger right off. Thankfully it didn’t hit bone so as bad as it was, it could have been much worse.
What she did do was apply foam gel. This stuff is amazing! It has enzymes that cauterize the wound and then seals it, acting like a scab since there was no skin to do that. After that the nurse came back in, cleaned the blood off his hand and arm, and wrapped up the finger.
When we got home, Todd wanted to make sure he didn’t get blood on his beloved table saw. Coming through the garage, we stepped over to the shop side and didn’t see any blood. What we did see, though, was the tip of his finger. I would have rather seen blood. He made me take a picture of it. I also have pictures of the injury. Wanna see them? They’re super gross. And the blob of skin looks just like the blobs of skin seen in slasher movies. All pale and waxy looking. Yuck.
Let’s take the focus off Todd and bring it back to me because it’s how I do. Due to the pain, he didn’t sleep well last night and he took pain meds this morning so I had to drive to Boston today in the rain. (Truth is I don’t mind driving and do often, but this makes me sound more long-suffering.)
Why are we in Boston? Because our good friend, Ed, and his family are here from California. We haven’t seen Eddie since our wedding over 29-years-ago and have never met his family. So when we found out they were going to be a mere six hours away, we jumped at the chance to meet up.
The rain we drove through today was Harvey’s last stand on U.S. soil and I’m happy to say tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful up here. Perfect for catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. And taking in a Sox game.
I just hope Todd doesn’t try to catch any foul balls with his left hand.
Love you both and SO grateful you made the 6-hour drive! I cannot contain my excitement!
Several years ago, I experienced the same thing, only I got to stay home while my mom took my dad to the ER to get it stitched up. There are still spots of blood stained into the concrete in Dad’s work room in the basement. I don’t know if he purchased a safer table saw afterward, but to my knowledge, it hasn’t happened since!