My Day Off

So, Friday was a day off for me. I intended to do a little shopping, and then come back home and crank out some serious productivity, both in terms of cleaning and studying. Alas, this was not meant to be, due to my own idiocy. After hitting up Target (and getting the best smelling hand soap in the history of Christmas by the way), I stuck a leftover potato in the oven for lunch. I took it out, ate half of it, realized the center was still cold, and stuck it back in. The second time I went to take it out, I picked it up with my right hand in an oven mitt, turned around to put it on my plate, and promptly grabbed the 400 degree pan with my left hand, for no apparent reason. Ow!

The skin instantly blistered. I of course immediately put it under cold water, took my wedding ring off, and called me Dad. With it under cold water it did not even hurt that much. I asked my Dad if I needed to go to urgent care, or could just keep it on ice. (For those of you not in the know, I value my parents medical advice for good reason - my mom is an RN and my Dad has a doctorate in physiology, not to mention their loads of personal experience and common sense). He, of course, sent me to urgent care due to the blistering. Next came a lengthy call with DH figuring out where I should go, how our insurance worked, etc. By this time my hand was on ice, and it still did not really hurt. I drove myself to Polaris Urgent Care, and after signing in, and getting an ice pack from them, sat down for a lengthy wait. At least I remembered to bring a book from school to read while I waited. Ultimately, I was at urgent care for 4 hours. I discovered as I waited that taking my hand off the ice made it feel like it was still on fire. The doctor prescribed codeine and Silvadene creme. The pharamcy was another hour long adventure that grew more and more painful and frustrating as my ice pack melted. In the end, I got home around 4:45 PM, five hours after I burnt my hand. I spent the evening being pathetic, holding an ice pack, drowsy from the codeine, and goingto bed early.

I was very pleasently surprised to wake up in the middle of the night, moving my pillow with my left hand, and it not hurting! Wow! What a drastic change! The human body is an amazing thing. I still kept my hand on ice the rest of the night, and in the morning reapplied the cream. I have some blisters on my thumb, and first three fingers (the pinky is fine). I decided, since it no longer felt like my hand was on fire, and I no longer needed ice, we could go get a christmas tree as planned! I put my hand in a plastic bag inside of a mitten and we headed out to Timbuk Tree Farm. It is a really great tree farm, so big, so pretty, bustling with Chrismas activity. We cut down our own white pine and it now is in our kitchen, fully lit (still lacking ornaments however).

I think being in a plastic bag all morning with Silvadene actually really helped the hand out, kept it moisterized and all. By the evening I was using it (carefully) to help hang lights. It did eventually say "stop!", so I did. More Silvadene and relaxation the rest of the night. This morning it still is a little sore, but I am using it to type right now. I was also able to put my wedding ring back on today. I am waiting to see what these blisters are going to do.

And that was my day off... not exactly as relaxing, productive, and enjoyable as I had hoped. The timing sort of sucks. I was planning to use this weekend to get BACK on track as far as housekeeping and studying, and instead this injury pushed me farther off track. But, as I already said, I am amazed again by the human body. How could something that hurt so badly two days ago be usable today? When I said this to DH "the human body is amazing", his response was "that is probably why your Dad studies it." So true.