What I heard coming from an emergency exam room

[stm61]

My father and chain saws just didn't mix well. When I was really small, maybe 4 or 5, he was helping my granddad cut firewood. The saw jumped back at him and slid down his leg. Granddaddy told him to go to the ER, he decided he'd be fine if he wrapped it with an ace bandage. He drove home, about an hour, and by the time he got there the bandage was soaked through. His next brilliant move was to hide in the bathroom and try to clean it and rewrap it himself. Mama got around that move by having my brother and I tell him we had to use the bathroom NOW, then bribing us to tell what he was doing in there lol. What she didn't know was that Daddy was bribing us NOT to tell at the same time End result: he had to come out some time and Mama the RN ended up recleaning it and wrapping it with sterile gauze because he absolutely refused to see a doctor.

Fast forward about 13 years and my brother is now about 16. They're cutting firewood and brother has the chainsaw. Daddy puts his foot on a log to hold it still, brother tells him to move it because if the saw slips he's gonna get cut. Anybody wanna guess what happened next Yup, saw hit a knot and jumped off the log, right into Daddy's leg. This time there were to many witnesses to hide the injury. Mama rounded up all the boys and told Daddy if he didn't put himself in the car she'd have his sons put him there and she'd sit on him herself to make sure there weren't any detours on the way to the hospital Daddy decided it was easier to just get the stitches

 

[mlynn]

My father and chain saws just didn't mix well. When I was really small, maybe 4 or 5, he was helping my granddad cut firewood. The saw jumped back at him and slid down his leg. Granddaddy told him to go to the ER, he decided he'd be fine if he wrapped it with an ace bandage. He drove home, about an hour, and by the time he got there the bandage was soaked through. His next brilliant move was to hide in the bathroom and try to clean it and rewrap it himself. Mama got around that move by having my brother and I tell him we had to use the bathroom NOW, then bribing us to tell what he was doing in there lol. What she didn't know was that Daddy was bribing us NOT to tell at the same time End result: he had to come out some time and Mama the RN ended up recleaning it and wrapping it with sterile gauze because he absolutely refused to see a doctor.

Fast forward about 13 years and my brother is now about 16. They're cutting firewood and brother has the chainsaw. Daddy puts his foot on a log to hold it still, brother tells him to move it because if the saw slips he's gonna get cut. Anybody wanna guess what happened next Yup, saw hit a knot and jumped off the log, right into Daddy's leg. This time there were to many witnesses to hide the injury. Mama rounded up all the boys and told Daddy if he didn't put himself in the car she'd have his sons put him there and she'd sit on him herself to make sure there weren't any detours on the way to the hospital Daddy decided it was easier to just get the stitches

wow your dad got lucky the 1st time he didn't get infected. The doctors put my husband on the strongest Antibiotic because it was a live tree it could cause a bad infection.

 

[stm61]

wow your dad got lucky the 1st time he didn't get infected. The doctors put my husband on the strongest Antibiotic because it was a live tree it could cause a bad infection.

Yup, it was a live tree. My mother always told him he better not quit drinking because the alcohol must be sterilizing his body. She said anybody else would of ended up in ICU on IV antibiotics. When he was a kid he rode his bike to the general store for his mother. They lived in the mountains then and it was a windy, country dirt road with no street lights. He got run off the road, went over the side of the mountain, and busted up his knee. It was dark out and it took awhile from the time the family missed him until they finally found him. They got him home and sent for the doctor. He ended up having surgery on the kitchen table. (this was in the late '30's) No antibiotics back then, no painkillers other then whiskey for that matter. He lost part of his kneecap and whatever else is in the joint. He never had any infection from that either.

 

[cm8]

Yup, it was a live tree. My mother always told him he better not quit drinking because the alcohol must be sterilizing his body. She said anybody else would of ended up in ICU on IV antibiotics. When he was a kid he rode his bike to the general store for his mother. They lived in the mountains then and it was a windy, country dirt road with no street lights. He got run off the road, went over the side of the mountain, and busted up his knee. It was dark out and it took awhile from the time the family missed him until they finally found him. They got him home and sent for the doctor. He ended up having surgery on the kitchen table. (this was in the late '30's) No antibiotics back then, no painkillers other then whiskey for that matter. He lost part of his kneecap and whatever else is in the joint. He never had any infection from that either.

 

[bumbershoot]

OH man these stories. Usually I'm up for a good story like this, but a few of them...


My relatively wimpy ones...

Cut to the knuckle bone with a tuna can lid, the pop-top type, just after getting home from freshman year spring break. Cleaned it, put a bandaid or four on it, healed up. Didn't have full mobility in the joint (the one where finger meets hand, and I should know the name of it by all rights but the brain has forgotten) for around 15 years (figure it damaged the connective tissue in there), but now I do!

At 11 was arguing with my brother, I ran into my room and was pulling the door shut with one hand, and moving my robes away from the opening of the door with the other. Brother let go, I slammed the door on my own finger, took off the nail, took off the end of the finger, bone right there. We were latchkey kids and this was a weekend (my mom worked at a winery on the weekends, but of course we didn't have school), and our neighbor was coming over soon to take us to the museum, mom had just left around 20 minutes earlier. He heard me screaming and ran over. No cellphones, so we had to wait until my mom got to work (about an hour away) so she could get the message he left that she needed to come home, then wait for her to GET home, and then she took me to the hospital. I still remember watching Love Boat and watching the orange towel change colors... Then I waited another hour or so at the ER as I got paler and paler... Ended up having almost nothing done, either than cleaning it out (shots in between the fingers hurt quite a bit, in case you don't know), but at a follow-up orthopedist appt, the memorable part was when the ortho slapped my bottom after flirting with my "developed" 11 year old self.

My finger is still much shorter than the "good" one, the nail is weird, and the bone is *right there* and aches when it gets really cold (as a teen, I could tell you when it was going to rain b/c of the way it would hurt).

Then in my 20s I took off the toenail on a big toe, b/c I was moving a table while wearing open toe sandals. Turns out the table opened to accept a leaf, and I was carrying it the WRONG way (I was moving it from 2nd floor apt to my car, carrying it with legs out, holding the sides of the round table), and just as I got to the car, it opened and the side (which was on the bottom the way I was holding it) fell off. Called my ex (whose table it was), made him come over, made him take me to the urgent care, where UNgloved nurses took lots of xrays of my actively bleeding toe (b/c the xrays are "obviously" the important part in the situation, grr). Ungloved nurse #1 actually said I didn't LOOK like I had any diseases, so she wasn't going to worry about me bleeding on her. This was in '97 or so, so people did know that they are supposed to wear gloves all the time!

Then the MD came in, and said..."ew". Squirted it with some saline, prescribed me vicodin, said bye. Vicodin doesn't work on me (also found out that there's another person with my same name in my town who went to that same Walgreens, and takes some yucko medications that they tried to give to ME!), I never went back, nail grew back eventually, nail is weird and doesn't "stick" to the nailbed going down the middle....but no problems.


Compared to the rollercoater and the horse vs hand story, and many others here, those are nothing!

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

My mom was mowing the lawn and there was something in it or something..I'm still not sure..
But I guess the blade didn't stop moving and she reached under to fix something and it cut the tips of her right hand middle and index finger off.
After going to the doctor [they just wrapped it up and gave her antibiotics] I had to be the one to change her gauze. She is lucky I am into medical stuff and don't get queezy!

Also, I called my dad from the school parking lot at that time. He told me what happened. It was raining. I was driving home to go see her fingers after getting off the phone. I got into a fender bender with me hitting the back of another car.

Oh, what a day that was..

 

[mlynn]

Yup, it was a live tree. My mother always told him he better not quit drinking because the alcohol must be sterilizing his body. She said anybody else would of ended up in ICU on IV antibiotics. When he was a kid he rode his bike to the general store for his mother. They lived in the mountains then and it was a windy, country dirt road with no street lights. He got run off the road, went over the side of the mountain, and busted up his knee. It was dark out and it took awhile from the time the family missed him until they finally found him. They got him home and sent for the doctor. He ended up having surgery on the kitchen table. (this was in the late '30's) No antibiotics back then, no painkillers other then whiskey for that matter. He lost part of his kneecap and whatever else is in the joint. He never had any infection from that either.

Wow your dad has somebody watching over him.