Red Blooded American

Had surgery on my finger yesterday and I do mean surgery. They gowned me all up, had to take off my wedding band, put on the goofy hat, the whole nine yards. I thought having to take my pants off to get a splinter out of my finger was a bit much but the nurse explained that we were going into a sterile operating room and the proper protocol needed to be adhered to. The same situation took place in the operating room. Everyone was robed and masked, they painted my arm up with some orange anti-bacterial cleanser, put a tourniquet on my arm and numbed up my hand and went to work.

I saw the doctor Wednesday, he examined my finger and took some x-rays but nothing came up, so I was a little concerned that he wouldn't find anything and all this monkey business was for nothing. I became even more concerned when the surgeon was poking around in my finger and couldn't find anything. He was about to give up when I heard him say: "I found it. I got lucky". Sure enough, a splinter about 1/4" - 5/16" long. I see the doctor this morning for a bandage change and look see, then the stitches come out in two weeks. 

After the doctor's visit Wednesday, I had an advisory committee meeting at the college so I took my oil pan with me to repair. The bottom of the pan was caved in rather badly but I got it knocked back out and I brazed up a spot by the drain plug that was pushed in and had a sharp crease. Next step is to sand down the braze repair, wire wheel the outside and then get some of the hemi orange paint on it. Of course, I'll have to wait and see how much I can do with the boo-boo on my finger. I do have some mittens I can use to protect it and keep it warm - just don't want to pop the stiches open. Always something.