Ouch. Tending wounds the poor student way.
I passed up the chance to use my shiny new health insurance last night.
A classmate asked me if I would help her finish deflesh and disarticulate a pig that was going to become part of the archaeology department's faunal collection, and being me, I eagerly agreed. And it was fun. But after about five hours (it was about 11 PM) of attacking tough, slimy connective tissue with a scalpel, I started getting a little impatient, a little careless, and sliced open the middle knuckle of my left index finger. And it was a DEEP cut. Like, almost down to the bone. I could see other tissue that was beneath the skin. For a minute, I was like, "Wow! What a dramatic cut! How cool!"
My classmate's reaction: "That looks really deep, you probably need stitches."
Me: *has been totally fine spending hours cutting up pig parts* *Suddenly breaks out in a cold sweat and gets woozy at the thought of stitches in her own hand*
For a couple of minutes, I was seriously concerned I might pass out or puke. My classmate kept asking me, "What do you want to do? Bandage it here, or go to the hospital?"
And I couldn't think of an answer beyond, "I just don't want to puke or pass out right now." Luckily, my overreacting nervous system soon realized I was not about to die from a 1 cm cut on my finger, and I recovered enough to slap a bandaid over it and think about my situation. I had bought an accident and illness insurance policy through my university a few months ago after repeated urgings from my parents who were concerned about how much it could cost them if I were to be permanently disabled. And that's about all it pays for. To use the policy, one must first pay out of pocket for the medical service, and then fill out paperwork to get reimbursed. In my case, that would have been after spending who knows how long waiting in the ER to even be seen, and then quite possibly told that the cut, which was small and neat, might not even need stitches, in which case, I could just clean and bandage the thing myself, especially since my last tetanus booster was only four years ago.
I thought it over. I was kind of curious to go to the ER since I've never been, but ultimately decided that for the time it would take to do all that, my classmate (who is first-aid certified) and I could just get some first aid materials (since the archaeology lab does not have a first aid kit anywhere) and doctor up my finger ourselves. So that's how I ended up in the parking lot of a WalMart at one o'clock in the morning getting $14-worth of hydrogen peroxide, neosporin, gauze, butterfly bandages and a finger splint applied to my finger. If a cop had rolled by, it probably looked like a drug deal going on.
After bandaging my injury, we took ourselves to the 24-hour diner in town and got dinner.
So that was last night. Twelve hours later, the finger is doing okay. No sign of infection, although it still smarts. (I hate hydrogen peroxide. I'd have much rather have used an antibiotic saline solution or just plain water to clean it out since in my experience, hydrogen peroxide irritates and stings like a bitch, but my classmate, with years of experience in field dressing wounds, overrode me.) The pressure of the splint was uncomfortable, so I changed up the dressing today and have the joint immobilized with a taped-on Q-tip instead. Once the cut heals up a little more, I'll go back to the splint. If it does show signs of infection, then I'll go to the ER and see what good my new insurance policy is.
A classmate asked me if I would help her finish deflesh and disarticulate a pig that was going to become part of the archaeology department's faunal collection, and being me, I eagerly agreed. And it was fun. But after about five hours (it was about 11 PM) of attacking tough, slimy connective tissue with a scalpel, I started getting a little impatient, a little careless, and sliced open the middle knuckle of my left index finger. And it was a DEEP cut. Like, almost down to the bone. I could see other tissue that was beneath the skin. For a minute, I was like, "Wow! What a dramatic cut! How cool!"
My classmate's reaction: "That looks really deep, you probably need stitches."
Me: *has been totally fine spending hours cutting up pig parts* *Suddenly breaks out in a cold sweat and gets woozy at the thought of stitches in her own hand*
For a couple of minutes, I was seriously concerned I might pass out or puke. My classmate kept asking me, "What do you want to do? Bandage it here, or go to the hospital?"
And I couldn't think of an answer beyond, "I just don't want to puke or pass out right now." Luckily, my overreacting nervous system soon realized I was not about to die from a 1 cm cut on my finger, and I recovered enough to slap a bandaid over it and think about my situation. I had bought an accident and illness insurance policy through my university a few months ago after repeated urgings from my parents who were concerned about how much it could cost them if I were to be permanently disabled. And that's about all it pays for. To use the policy, one must first pay out of pocket for the medical service, and then fill out paperwork to get reimbursed. In my case, that would have been after spending who knows how long waiting in the ER to even be seen, and then quite possibly told that the cut, which was small and neat, might not even need stitches, in which case, I could just clean and bandage the thing myself, especially since my last tetanus booster was only four years ago.
I thought it over. I was kind of curious to go to the ER since I've never been, but ultimately decided that for the time it would take to do all that, my classmate (who is first-aid certified) and I could just get some first aid materials (since the archaeology lab does not have a first aid kit anywhere) and doctor up my finger ourselves. So that's how I ended up in the parking lot of a WalMart at one o'clock in the morning getting $14-worth of hydrogen peroxide, neosporin, gauze, butterfly bandages and a finger splint applied to my finger. If a cop had rolled by, it probably looked like a drug deal going on.
After bandaging my injury, we took ourselves to the 24-hour diner in town and got dinner.
So that was last night. Twelve hours later, the finger is doing okay. No sign of infection, although it still smarts. (I hate hydrogen peroxide. I'd have much rather have used an antibiotic saline solution or just plain water to clean it out since in my experience, hydrogen peroxide irritates and stings like a bitch, but my classmate, with years of experience in field dressing wounds, overrode me.) The pressure of the splint was uncomfortable, so I changed up the dressing today and have the joint immobilized with a taped-on Q-tip instead. Once the cut heals up a little more, I'll go back to the splint. If it does show signs of infection, then I'll go to the ER and see what good my new insurance policy is.