h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

oops

You know that 'thing'.... you know... the one where 'people' say, when using a knife, like, say a Stanley/box-knife, to only* cut 'away' from yourself? yeh... well... who atually follows those kinda instructions? Not me, that's for sure
I think that's gona leave a scar on my hand oops

I re-potted the houseplants today, you see... and the Cheese-plant, was in a plastic pot, that I didn't really want to keep or anything, so I figured the best way to get it out, and mimnamise root damage was just to cut the pot off the rootball/compost (whilst the lot is sitting in a big plastic tub, so to collect all th emess)... faultless plan... in so far as it worked... basically cept for my slicing a rather large couple of inch long, hmmm... five mMillimeter or more deep cut into my left hand, just behind my forefinger nuckle (sort of just where the finger ends, and the back of the hand is)... I couldn't stop at that point, so it all got very messy in the cut, with mud and bit sof plant in it that I washe dout later on...

Well, at least the house plants are both repotted, seemingly with no major damage to them as an obvious result of the repotting in a few days I expect they'll either be dead, or starting a serious bout of regrowth, what wiwth the new compost they've got, and larger pots
First proper* injury I've done accidentially to myself like that in ages...

Oh man... make sure you don't get an infection from all that dirt now.

You're just going to be a big lump of scar tissue by the time I get to get over there, aren't you? (Or you get over here, but since it's been nearly TWELVE YEARS since you were going to come visit, I've kind of given up...)

Then again, it's been a while since there's been an injury journal...

Yeh... I've been doing really* well recently... nothing more than a few not worth talking about burns on my hands, and arms, and cheese-slicing related cuts

I gave it a good wash out at the time, with hot water, and It just got a good clean now with soap and stuff when I showered I'll stick some anti-scepticle cream on it later after I've had dinner (and it'll get washed again then, in the water when I wash up after dinner too

Anyhow, no self-respecting, and most of the non self-respecting 'bugs' don't like getting near the inside of my body

Back in February, I was at a rally in Jennings, LA. I cut my finger (stupidly) showing off how sharp my knife is. I quickly look around for some clean water to rinse it off with when my Cajun* buddy, in all seriousness, tells me to just "stick it inna dirt! Tha'll fix it. It'll stop bleadin' an it'll heal quicker."

I decided against relying on this home spun lore, went back to camp and got some bottled water and my first aid kit.





*I'd have preferred to use the endearing colloquialism but I fear that any reference to a racoon's derriere would be ed.

The traditional way is to piss on it. It's often the most clean and sterile liquid around.

...and to stop it bleeding, spider's webs.

Which reminds me... I must go clean the blood off of the hoover (well by the time I cut myself, I was so* into doing teh repotting of the houseplants, and stuf out and ongoing, I couldn't relaly stop.. so finished it all off, including hoovering/sweeping etc, before I got to really* look at the hole in my hand ) It still keeps bleedin bleeding if I move my hand too much

*whipes blood off netbook)

Despite my earlier post, I advise against piddling on everything you need to clean the blood off.

no comment

*licks cut* ouch... that stings
I really* shoudln't be picking off what little scab has formed already... Its almost made me entirely forget about the other, random little cut on my thumb, which I still never figured out how I got ... err back on MOnday or Sunday I think at least that one is nearly* heeled

This is why we can't have nice things

I blame 2legs.

all my shiney electrical gadity things now have blood on them
*whipes phone*
*whipes netbook* now I can see the dust on them though

It hasn't bled much more today but I'm pretty much convinced now, that I probably should have had it stitched... the two halfs of the gap, of the wound, just ain't meting up, and its gona leave a decent scar

Scars are nature's way of telling you that you led an interesting life. All mine have names - Nadine (right thumb), Mel (left arm), Walt (right forefinger), The Lady I bought a Greenhouse From (left forefinger), Fred Lange (right hip).

And Annie. I can't tell you where those two are

Definately... even If I'd figured out it needed stitching, at a point in time when it'd have been appropiate to do so... like the day I cut it I'd not* have got it stitched.. forty or fifty quid in cabs to and fron A&E, plus BoB-knows how long waiting, just for a few stitches.. I'd never have bothered

hmmm... scars... all my really good ones will only be noticed if I go bald... mind, I've the nearly matching pair on my forehead (one a cyst from a lefover bit of artic lorry wing mirror, teh other from a wall, outside a kebab shop), actually, where the new scar on my hand is, I should* have a very old scar (from before I was 10) done with a sheet of glass, on the 'flap' of skin joinign the thumb to the hand, and, then, also, just a bit more towards the forefinger knuckle, from where the new fresh scar is, should be a scar from where I ran an X-acto (craft knife) into my hand to the bone, when I was... 13 or 14... from a simular age, I should have a decent big scar on my leg, front, thigh, from a rusty bolt in a fence, we were err climbing over to take a short cut...

I've scars on one of my feet, from boiling water (again when I was very young), plus a few scars on my forearms, I've my third nipple (actually a scar on my chest from where an alien burst out of my skin... well, silicon tubing not an actual alien), then the scars on my side of my temple, and round my eye socket on the right... I've scars under my armpits from boils which never fully heeled a scar on my abdomin, again from more silicon tubing... and a few others on my hands form miner cuts and burs... should be a nice one on the back of my right hand, where I burnt though so I could see bone and tendon (when I was at Uni, sort of caught it on the heating element in teh grill) I'm sure I've got others... ahh, then I've got the recessed 'bowl' scar in the bone on top of my head, right side, where there was a baloon inflated for a while hmmm.... I really have done quite well the past few years, all of those are pretty much anchient things, cept for the new one in development

I just hope the bit of the scar, that goes round the side of the hand/forefinger doesn't leave a ridge too much, or it'll potentially interfer with playing guitar Oh, and I did check... all the muslces and tendons in the forefinger and thumb seem to work, and the vast majority of heat, pain and other sensory feelings seem more or less normal... just a bit 'numb' on the 'flap' of the skin, whcih is still resetting itself, to form the new scar

actually... you know... if I got the box knife out... I might be able to recut it all open... and reset the tissue ... I've got some glue, or sticky tape...

You've got me beat by a country mile

Actually, I forgot a couple. There are at least two good ones on different fingers that I did cutting fruit at work. I'm trying to recall the name of a local greengrocer when I was a kid - Somebody and Somebody. If I ever remember the two Somebodies' names, that's what those two will be called. And there's another one on my left forefinger that I did a few weeks ago shaving some coconut. I'm going to call that one Keith because I was making a Keith Floyd recipe at the time

While you lot were comparing scars I was out at the back looking over the vast expanse of water. I saw a gigantic dorsal fin so now I've come back to say: We need a bigger boat.

cut his finger recently, bad enough to require more than a week off work. They glued it rather than stitching it. You should try to remember that next time 2legs. For there will be a next time. left hand is full of scars. He has horribly horribly sharp knives. I think that's part of the problem with healing, if it's a jagged tear I think it fits back together better.

Being involved in food preparation - of any kind - will definitely do that to you. The chef at work gave himself a very nasty one, and during the four or five years I spent making sweets I never met an old sugar boiler who hadn't lost the tip of at least one finger to a drop roller. Drop rollers are like small mangles with brass rollers that have shapes (pear drop, lozenge, pips, square) cut into them which match up as they turn and mould the sweets from the soft sugar, and anything else you might care to feed through them, like a digit. Ow. I was lucky - the only time it happened to me I was wearing gloves and it was the glove that got mangled. Here's one in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F1Ab9q1IRk You'll notice it says that the guards have been removed for the demonstration. Guards? We didn't need no stinking guards signor

First aid tips, for a small cut, WD 40 works well to stop the bleeding and it doesn't sting.

Also there are special 'butterfly' band aids that can be used in lieu of a single stitch to draw the sides of a small laceration together, though you'll probably need to try a medical supply house to find them.

Gosho, you're now making me wonder how often in my life I've been an unwitting party to cannibalism. I'm sure it's been more than once or twice, especially when I used to eat dodgy manufactured meat products.