Thursday, June 26, 2008

A Series of Unfortunate (and Humorous) Events

This past Father's Day weekend was a doozy. There's no other way of putting it. I had the wedding of two good friends in Fargo,ND and due to last minute housing plans, I decided to carpool with a friend and drive up and back to Fargo in the same day/night/early morning in order to save some cash because there were no cheap hotel rooms available in Fargo, go figure! It was a great time, the wedding was wonderful, and we made it back safe and sound... at around 4 a.m.

Fast forward to next day. I've gotten maybe 5.5 hours of sleep and have just spent the day with my family celebrating Father's Day and thus am dead tired. I'm finally heading back to my apartment, throw some junk in the back seat, and go to walk to the front seat of the car and realize that I'm stuck. What the... And then I realize that I have managed to slam my finger in the car door and not feel it. I quickly open the door, examine the finger, see that it's bleeding, and try to bend it (and it works so thankfully it's not broken). I figure that it's bleeding well enough that I don't want to drive home quite yet without gauze and some tape and call back up to my parents (they live in a condo), tell them quickly what happened, and request to be let in. I grab my purse, lock the car door, and start walking to the door.

Mind you, the pain of slamming my finger in the car door and leaving it in the uncomfortably position for more than five seconds has not hit yet. I also realize that I've managed to nick both sides of my finger so it's worse than I originally thought. I go and stand by the door and then it all hits at once. I can feel the blood rushing away from my head as a result of this and it's not good! Again, not broken but pretty close so it hurt like a, well, you know. Add in the lack of sleep and some probably dehydration and I start getting woozy and faint really quick. Thankfully there's a wall and I start sliding down the wall in time for my mom to come out and watch me almost pass out. I get my head between my legs, thankfully never lose my consciousness, and keep talking to my mom, who happens to be a nurse which means she's just a step or two under a doctor. And she worked in a hospital for ages so she's seen it all.

My dad gets down there too, the pain is still there but has subsided quite a bit, and I get up to the condo and get my finger under running water. It's cut pretty bad and I start conferring with my mom about whether or not I need stitches. It should be a pretty easy answer for the nurse practitioner but she starts sputtering and can't make up her mind. And then, get this, she tells me she's not feeling well and has to go and lay down, leaving me in the bathroom with my finger by myself. For heaven's sake, my mom is a nurse! So, my little sister who happens to be a nurse in training and my dad who absolutely no medical experience has to start taking care of me while me mom lays down in order to not pass out. Turns out I don't need stitches and I'm prescribed some antibacterial cream, gauze, tape, and then extensive icing.

I'm feeling fine again and get ready to drive home while my mom decides to call it an early night. In her defense, she started a new migraine medication which lowers her blood pressure and nearly watching her daughter faint was enough to drop it significantly.

But yeah, go figure. For the record, the finger is fine now although I'm pretty sure I nicked a nerve making part of the tip of my finger numb which is an odd feeling but I'm getting used to it. My mom informed me that feeling should come back. Until then, I guess I'll just have to be extra careful that I don't slam it in any more doors because this time I really won't be able to feel it.

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