Another 48 margaritas and I should be good to go

My boredom exhibited in my previous post was due to an injured thumb on my right hand which prevented me from doing much of anything except sitting here with an ice pack on it and watching television.

I hate it when I can’t multi-task.

I would like to say that a long cactus spine poked me under the nail and then I got Euphorbia ‘Sticks of Fire’ sap in it which caused it to swell up like a baseball. That didn’t happen.

I would like to say that Little Queen Olivia mangled my thumb, giving me a good case of Cat Scratch Fever. That didn’t happen either.

What really happened is that, after 65 years 1 month and 11 days on this Earth, I still bite my fingernails. I sometimes (sometimes?) bite them so short that they start bleeding. Occasionally they get infected. That’s what happened. Doesn’t sound near as cool as the two previous scenarios….

This was not the first time I’ve gone through this, but it definitely was the worst. I have found throughout life that the best way for me to prevent this is to keep busy—work, gardening, playing with Little Queen Olivia, typing, playing the piano…. anything that keeps my hands out of my mouth….

Maybe I could wear a mask all the time!

The only reason I went to Urgent Care on Sunday was because the pain at the tip of my thumb was expanding into my whole thumb, my palm, the outside of my hand, and into two other fingers. I could not move my hand without severe pain.

I took an aspirin at 11:30 p.m. on Sunday. Thirty minutes later I was in worse pain. I took 2000 mg of acetaminophen. Thirty minutes later, worse still, so I took 800 mg of ibuprofen. Thirty minutes after that the pain had subsided enough that I was able to get in a catnap. Tells me a lot about aspirin, acetaminophen, and ibuprofen….

Normally, I would have gone to the 24/7 Urgent Care 1.9 miles down the road, but in these dystopian COVID-19 times we are living in, it’s not open 24/7. Neither are the other two within 10 miles of me. Additionally, Urgent Care doctors are not on premises right now because they all are needed at the hospitals. The first two Urgent Care’s told me to go to the hospital, which also has an Urgent Care, and which is where I eventually found myself.

When I finally saw a doctor at the hospital’s Urgent Care facility, he gave me a prescription for antibiotics, a prescription-strength Motrin, and a really cool reusable ice pack. He told me it would get worse before it got better and told me to come back in 24-48 hours if it didn’t get better. He also told me that for this kind of pain, ibuprofen only.

It got better, and it’s getting better. This, however, might be the event that convinces me to quit biting my fingernails.

Another 48 margaritas and I should be good to go again!

And no, I did not put a picture of my thumb on Facebook.

After reading about this nasty occurrence, I thought I should leave you with some beautiful pink flowers for your Wednesday.