Accident Prone

The older I'm getting, the more accident prone I have become. Literally one of my friends today suggested that I wrap myself in bubble wrap. I mean I still have scars from earlier this year where I fell flat on my face while power walking in Forney one time, skinned both my knees and an elbow and completely shattered my iphone. I broke my pinky toe when we were on our cruise. I hurt my back this summer. So it should really come as no surprise when earlier today I sliced my thumb open with a box cutter while at work.

I was doing a switch out of Christmas cards to Valentine's Day cards at one of my Family Dollar stores. I had removed all of the Christmas cards and after counting them, we have to make them unsaleable before we throw them away. Since they're wrapped in a plastic sleeve you can't just tear them in half, so I use a box cutter to slice down the front of them as I drop them in a trash box. Apparently I was working a little too quickly and sliced my thumb instead of a card.

Immediately I sat down my box cutter and ran back to the bathroom so I could grab some paper towel. I went up front to ask for a first aid kit and the manager handed me a couple of bandaids. I went back to the bathroom again and when I removed my paper towel and saw all the blood, I realize that this wasn't a little cut. The running water caught the flap I had just sliced open on my finger and I knew that I probably needed stitches. Great. I'd say the flap was around dime-sized. It was pretty deep.

I'm only halfway through my endcap. I couldn't just leave it like that - so I tried to finish it...but my finger was bleeding pretty bad. Plus I still had one other job to do in that store! I realized that it wasn't happening, so I shot my mom a text to inform her that I thought I needed stitches and could she please come up there? Luckily Mom works for the same company, so she could finish my end cap and complete the other job I had as well. She arrived pretty quickly because I wasn't far from her house, and I went to Care Now.

They made me soak my finger in some cleaning solution that burned and then the doctor came in to check it out. He gave me the option - I could do stitches, which I really didn't want to do, or he could use some steri-strips and bandage it for me. Since I didn't have to work for the next several days, he thought that I could get away with not having stitches so naturally I took that option. Needles have never been my favorite thing.

I got a nice little blue bandage, a tetanus shot because I had no idea when my last one was, and a couple of prescriptions for infection and pain before the sent me home. The best part was that since I was working when the injury occurred, they made me fill out worker's comp paperwork and I didn't have to pay anything. Hopefully I won't get some random bill at some point. I've never had a worker's comp injury so I don't really know how all that plays out.

Here's to an injury-free 2016.