Wicker, laundry and sore knuckles



Yesterday afternoon, I went to put some clothes in my wicker laundry hamper like the one above. It is about 10 years old and over time, the wicker will break off once in a while as it comes loose. As I was putting clothes in with my right hand, the basket lid slipped out of my left hand. My right hand was in a forward motion and collided with the lid, breaking off about 1/2 piece of wicker and lodging it inside my finger right across the top of my knuckle.

The pain was horrible. It shoved the splinter deep into my finger and there wasn't anything sticking out to pull it out with. I numbed it with ice and dug at it as much as I could stand with a needle so I could get it with tweezers, but nothing happened except to cause me more pain. I waited about 30 minutes till hubby got home from work and he tried to get it out and couldn't so we headed to ER. I figured they would just take a super tweezers and pull it out. No biggy.

The RN came in my room to start the charts. She took one look at it and said "Oh my gosh!" Then she went and got an intern (who wasn't even going to be waiting on me) so he could see it and his reaction was the same. Not an encouraging way to start an ER visit, especially considering I didn't think it looked that bad. By the time my doctor came in, there had been about 4 people by to look at the splinter. If you look closely, you can see the knots on the knuckle where it was lodged in and starting to swell.

My dream of a quick little "let's get the tweezers and pull it out" didn't happen. First off, they did some type of shot they called a saddle block. This shot was right inside the palm of my hand at the bottom of my middle finger. You can see the little dot where they poked me. The pain was horrendous. I about bent the metal on the bed rail I was gripping it so hard. The shot itself hurt and then the medicine was stinging as it went in. Imagine being stung by 50 bees in one spot at one time. Unbelievable pain.

Then, while it was starting to numb, he gave me something called a local. He shot that right into the area where the splinter was. It wasn't quite as bad since my hand was starting to numb, but I could still feel it. Then he went to work with his tweezers to pull it out. Sounds easy, but he couldn't get a hold of it. So he used a little scalpel that looked like an exacto knife to "pick" away at the edge of it. Once he removed some of the tissue that was covering it, he used the tweezers again. After many tries alternating with the little scalpel and the tweezers, he asked the RN to find smaller tweezers. The point on the pair he had was to big on the tips. They were looking everywhere and couldn't find any so he kept trying with what he had and kept saying he needed smaller tweezers.

Now, I am the wife of an Eagle Scout so I have been taught to always be prepared. I even own my very own dainty little Swiss army knife. I jokingly said "I have a little tiny Swiss army knife and it has a pair of tweezers in it." His face lit up and he said "That's exactly what I need. Can I use them?" So, hubby got in my purse and got out my trusty knife and handed him the tweezers. (Thank you to my daughter who bought me the little knife at her work.)

Once we handed him the tweezers, he went back to work and you could hear the click-click sound as the little tweezers made contact with the wicker. After just two attempts, he locked on to the splinter and it slid right out. I was still numb so I didn't feel a thing. I was so relieved that it was over. The painful part was done. Until I heard him tell the nurse to give me a tetanus shot. I hadn't had one in 13 years.

Bottom line is that here I sit 15 hours later no more splinter but my middle finger and part of my palm is till numb and where the numbness is wearing off a little, I am starting to feel the pain in my finger. It is really sore and I am having trouble bending it. Typing without it is hard but I had to share my story. My left arm is sore from the tetanus shot so I am not quite up to par today.

I have decided that the whole process was very traumatic. And now, just the thought of laundry traumatizes me so I may have to have hubby do the laundry from now on. Think I could get by with that?