Update on ... THE WOUND

I love it when i'm over dramatic!! But since a lot of people have actually inquired on how i am and how my wound is going, i thought i might just write a little update on my bad ass looking scar.

Stitches went off on Friday, so 5 days ago. Out of the 8 stitches, 3 of them were a bit more painful to extract but over all, it went just fine. My hand was covered over the week end for the sole reason that i attended my cousin's wedding and there was no way i wasn't getting any attention **laughs**. Seriously, i needed a reminder that my wound was still very fresh and a bandage did just that. Knowing how clumsy i am, without it, i might just have hit the scar or the inside of my hand and reopen the wound. 

However, when on Sunday night, i got rid of both the band aid and the bandage, holy sweet mother of god, what a relief. To begin with, i was FINALLY able to take a shower without wrapping my hand in a plastic bag and scrub the outside part of my hand that was covered in this yellowish second skin looking film of antiseptic. All of the sudden, both my hands had the same color again. Niiiiice.

Since then, let's be honest, the recovery has been going slowly but surely. I can use my hand almost normally, even though i'm still careful with it. There is a spot in the middle of the scar which still is sensitive and i don't have as much strenght in it as i used to. So i'm trying to use it as much as i can so as to rehabilitate it faster but i've just read online that a stitched up wound can take months to recover. Even the doctor said last week that my file for this particular accident will be open for 3 months.

I put lotion on it often so it smoothes the skin which is calloused around the wound. I mean even if it stays that way, it'll be in a part of the hand that is callous anyway so oh well. The only down side of this, apart from that sensitive area, is that i still don't know what the heck my middle finger is doing. Hopefully, nothing obscene! **laughs**

my bad ass looking scar \m/

Green Thumb!

I've always been pretty good with plants but lately, it's not been that good. Quite frankly, i can even say it's been quite a disaster. I've managed to lost quite a few cactus (seriously, how did that happen?), a few plants that i've bought got either too much water or not enough, either too much sun or not enough but bottom line is that they're all dead. And that's without mentioning the veggies i planted which were growing good and then from one day to another, just shriveled up and rot. Nor the countless seeds i planted that didn't even pretend to grow.

I know plants are not like pieces of furniture: they need time, attention and care. At least most of them. I'm only blaming myself, and maybe a serie of bad luck that i've been going through lately. I've been extremely busy at work, i haven't taken the time to take proper care of my beloved plants, i've been exhausted and recently, unable to use one of my hands, my left one obviously, so not a very good gardener all together.

This morning, since i'm still stuck at home for another week because of mentioned wounded hand, i decided to do some long needed dusting. And when i made it to the shelf where my plants are, i noticed that some of them needed watering. 

I've always had orchids because i think they're just beautiful plants but unfortunately, i've never been lucky with flowers, less of it with orchids and they've all died on me. Since we moved in where we're currently living, i got myself an orchid at the local supermarket for something like €5. A beautiful dark pink almost purple tiny orchid. I had it for several weeks when naturally, the flowers dried up and died. I then decided to cut the stem on which the flowers had grown and kept the plant hydrated. And it's been standing still for months. 

Up until this morning, when i noticed this:

My orchid has a new growing leaf, which gives me high hopes on it blossoming again sometime in the future. I can't believe i've actually managed to get an orchid growing again. Has my wheel of bad luck with plants finally turned? Am i getting my green thumb again?

In a few more months, we'll be living in my man's grandfather's house. There is a massive garden and 2 gigantic balconies. I'll finally get room for more plants and most important: the proper sun exposure for them. Can't wait!

I Can Clip My Nails Again!

I can also put toothpaste on my toothbrush, i can cut my meat with a knife, i can drive my car, i can tie my shoelaces and attach my bra. No big deal you're gonna say. WRONG. It is a HUGE deal. Don't ever take these amazing abilities of yours for granted. 

You might remember that at the begining of July, i lost a wheel in the field hence couldn't continue on working the land and went back to give a hand to the Boss and my colleague in installing a sewage system. That's when i took the "give a hand" a tad too literally. Long story short, my hand got poked by a 1.2 tons tank against a sharp piece of metal while we were bringing down said tank into the hole we just dug.

Excruciating pain, profuse bleeding, during the fraction of second it took me to grab my hand and actually looking at it, i was convinced i had only the thumb left on my left hand. When i didn't see any finger on the floor and that they were actually all still attached to my hand i couldn't help but feel a massive relief. 

It's amazing the amount of blood that pumps out of a hand. I mean it'd give Old Faithful a run for its money. The couple we were working for rushed to me with a paper towel in which i wrapped my hand not to have their kitchen look like we've just sacrificed an entire cattle of pigs to whichever god. 

Put my hand under the tap, saw the damage, knew for sure that i need quite a fair amount of stitches and that i needed to go to the ER stats. 

The amazing thing with the ER is that if you're actually dying, well, you'll probably die waiting. I waited for an hour before someone came pick me up to check on me. The pain was tolerable but my middle finger and my index were getting numb and that was worrying me.

I had my hand dipping in some antibacterial liquid for a good 30 minutes before a doctor came to see me. Since the wound was deep, he told me he'd anaesthetize my hand. I swear to god, when he put the needle in my hand, it was like he was hiting me with an ice pick. All the pain i wasn't feeling up until now shot out and i honestly screamed. I'm normally pretty strong before pain but damn, that one was insane.

He dug in, noticed that it was super deep and told me, you need to see a specialist.

Following day, met the specialist of the hand at a clinic, he saw the wound, touched it a little, i jumped, he said: we're keeping you for the day. 

DAMN IT.

Anaesthesia second round, needle in the armpit to numb the entire arm. I don't know what kind of needle they use for anaesthesia but hot damn, are they painful.

Went in for surgery with a very nice and laid-back surgeon and staff in the OR, he told me that i had missed both the nerves and the tendons. Hold on, let me get back and finish the job.

8 stitches and quite a few hours later, i was back home. Alle-freaking-luia.

2 forced weeks off-work. A nurse coming to change the bandage every 2 days. Middle finger still numb but got the use of my hand back a couple of days ago. Now i can tie my shoelaces. Even though i know i'm using my middle finger, i still have no idea what it's doing!

Stitches are getting off on Friday. I can't wait. I'm dying to go back to work as well which is unfortunately unlikely since the wound is so fresh and in such a delicate part. Being stuck at home is depressing.

Hopefully, some good news are around the corner. I mean i went to the ER twice and through 2 surgeries in 3 weeks, i'm starting to feel like i've had my share of bad news, i could do with some good ones. I promise if i win €45 million at the lottery this week end, i'll stop whining.

I Missed the Fireworks

Yesterday was July 14th. Bastille Day as they call it in the States. Rightfully so, since it's the taking of the Bastille back in 1789, during the French Revolution, which officially put an end to France's monarchy and the begining of it being a democracy. I won't comment on that knowing that the French Democratic Republic is more a name than the true meaning of it. Moving on.

So yesterday was a celebration nonetheless and i wouldn't normally miss the fireworks. I absolutely adore them and it's always very emotional for me. Don't ask me why, i wouldn't know. But i can't help but tear up a little when i watch fireworks. I can somehow feel it in my gutts, i don't know, it's a weird feeling.

But i wasn't in a good place yesterday and by the time they actually started firing them, i was already in bed only wanting to sleep to make that awful day come to an end. Needless to say it's always when you truly want to sleep to make the hurt go away that you can't find any. 

So here's a picture of beautiful fireworks (i've also watched some online while trying to fall asleep!). There's another one planned to be fired in August, at the fare. I'll go for sure then!

Oh No, Not Again!

It's harvest time! I missed it last year cuz i wasn't working there yet and i missed it this year cuz well, i had to call in sick. DAMN IT. But anyway, the day i got back to work, i was sent back in the fields with my tractor to start preparing the land of newly harvested fields. And off i was. 

A lot of people i know don't like being in the fields, working the land with a tractor cuz generally, you're going super slow. For this particular work I'm doing, I'm going 5km/h. Needless to say it's gonna take me for fucking ever to do a 17 hectares field but i don't care. Drawing lines in a field has this amazingly soothing feeling for me. I'm focusing on the lines, not thinking about much else and i drains any bad thoughts from my mind.

At some point, i was making it back to a place where i had to skim the neighbor's field when i saw this big slice of un-worked land ... My first thought was: wow, was i this bad the first time, passing this far from the neighbor's field's edge? I mean it was a good 6 meters wide and I knew i hadn't been that far off. Right at that very second, i saw a massive harvester pulling out of the wheat's field. 

Security scream (as my colleague calls it!). And off i was again, minding my own business!

A short time later, i heard an unfamiliar sound/noise as i was making a U-turn in the field. I turned around and i was like: holy crap, I've lost a wheel!

I was cartoon-like, when the driver loses a wheel and he sees it going its own way rolling away. Took me a few meters to stop and contemplate the "work".

CRAP.

Called the Boss, told him that, hum, well, i had lost a wheel. He started to ask me about mechanical shit and i was like, i don't know any of that: the wheel is unattached to the trailer it's supposed to be on, nothing seems broken, please come help me!

Verdict: bearings are DEAD. We'll have the new ones in 3 days.

Well, i guess i ain't working in there for the rest of the week then. Booo.

Does this kinda thing only happen to me? I mean, seriously? I've pretty much been on the spot for every breaking there's been with agricultural equipment ... (** sighs **) Maybe once I've had broken every single one of them at least once, I'll be able to work properly! One can only hope!