These pictures are a little gruesome but I think they are kind of interesting too. A window fell on my fingertips four weeks ago and broke two of my fingers. It also took off one of my fingernails and bruised the other. It hurt terribly when it first happened - it felt like vise grips on the tips of my fingers - then it became a intense throbbing pain, I sat on my friends kitchen floor for a long time, I felt really weak and shaky. I had really weird dreams that night.
This happened while I was in NY for the gift show; at first I didn't think they were that badly injured so I didn't go to the emergency room - also I had no desire to sit in a New York City emergency room for eight hours to be told I had a busted fingernail (I didn't realize they were broken and that I needed stitches at this point). I finished up the show and flew home, my finger was still oozing blood and I was supposed to fly to LV for Pool the next day. I decided to go to the walk in clinic to make sure it was not too bad. The doctor took one look at my bruised nail and decided to drain it. He used a high temp fine tip cautery (it's like a soldering tool but with a really fine tip) to poke holes in my nail, this allowed the blood to drain and my finger felt better then it had since the injury happened. For all you diyers you can do this at home with a superhot and sterilized embroidery needle. Then he looked at my missing fingernail finger and he seemed a little more concerned, he sent me for x-rays and told me he was going to have to clean the damaged nailbed to see what was going on. I got a little dizzy - I was imagining bristle brushes and nurses holding my arm down. I know that's silly. Actually he gave me two shots between my fingers to deaden my finger, the shots kind of felt like the shots you get at the dentist before they fill a cavity. I didn't watch him cleaning it or stitching it up (seven stitches), but after he got done it looked better. He wrapped it up and told me to unwrap it in a few days, keep it clean, dry and covered. He told me both fingertips were fractured. The fingertip with stitches was an open fracture so I would have to take antibiotics for ten days, but I was good to go to LV for the trade show. I also had to have a tetanus shot. He prescribed pain medicine, which I was very happy to have for the next couple of days because those stitches hurt and it would have been really hard to sleep without it.
I made it to Las Vegas for POOL. It went as well as could be expected, then I went to Seattle to visit my brother and his family which was wonderful.
Printing t-shirts has been difficult and scarf making has been out of the question. I was so sad I couldn't make any scarves for the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago but I am hoping to make some for Crafty Bastards in DC. I will definitely have scarves for winter and the holidays.
My poor fingers before going to the doctor, I don't know how it missed the lucky middle one.
My fingers with stitches and drainage holes three days after the doctor visit.
The palm side of the busted fingertips.
Printing again!
