Baby Blase

OK… I’m finally going to write about the trip to the E.R. that I eluded to on Tuesday.

After having such a bad experience the night before I was determined to pull myself together and let us all have a good evening together. Marc picked H up a little early from Finn’s house so that I could have some time to play with him while Marc made dinner… we had to make those scallops that were bought for the previous night’s dinner. Wonderful aromas of fennel, onions and garlic were wafting in from the kitchen while I enjoyed a glass of vinho verde (the foodie version of a white wine spritzer and my official drink of choice for summer). When he was about done we switched and I stepped into the kitchen to make the kid’s dinner, as scallops are not on the OK-to-eat list in this country – if we were almost anywhere else in the world, he would have for sure tried them and the whole list of shellfish by now, but, we have to follow SOME rules. So, I started to make Mac & Cheese – AGAIN – this time following the directions to the letter and having quite a bit more success. Until I chopped the spinach.

Because Marc had been cooking, he had his GINORMOUS chef’s knife out, so I used that to chop the veg. I was done so looked away but, made one last chop. Right into my index finger on my left hand. Without inspecting the damage (I’m freaky when it comes to blood) I ran it under cold water and wrapped it in a dishtowel. I tried to curb my instinct to scream at the top of my lungs, because as soon as Marc walked in with the kid, H started to cry because he could tell that something was wrong with me.

While holding the kid, Marc inspected the cut (I still wasn’t looking – and haven’t still). I instructed him to take a look and DO NOT tell me anything about it… just tell me if you think I need to go to the hospital?

His responses repeatedly broke my rules.

“I can’t tell if the cut is just skin or if it-”

“AH! what did I tell you!? NO DETAILS!”

“Um… OK… well, it’s just that the cut is into your nai-”

“AH AH! Stop! Just – should I go or not?”

“If it was me, I probably wouldn’t go. But, I think you should.”

With that I gathered my things, gave Marc a report of where I had left off in the kid’s dinner and drove myself to the nearest E.R. NPR was, of course, babbling the entire time about the Swine Flu PANDEMIC that will kill us all. AAHHHHHH! I wasn’t really listening, as I was concentrating on NOT thinking about the cut – about how deep it was – about where exactly the blade fell through my finger – and about the inevitable stitches and poking and prodding that were about to take place.

I walked into a full-to-capacity waiting room. Half of the people there with dust-masks on and looking miserable. Eying each other, and me, to try and guess who will be the one to infect the city with the Pig Disease. I walked to the check-in station where the nurse was making everybody disinfect all exposed skin with sanitizer. The woman checking-in before me was doubled over in pain from abdominal cramping – that’s all I needed. I turned around back out the way I came and drove myself home. I called Marc on the way to double check that the finger wasn’t in danger of completely falling off… that the decision to go to the E.R. was aesthetic – right? Because I can live with a deformed finger, but, I can not live with giving my son Swine Flu. With some apprehension he agreed and I continued my drive home.

I also called my parents to make sure that I wasn’t doing something totally stupid. They related a story of the time my dad almost cut his thumb off with a saw. When I asked what he did to treat it, he replied – self-medication.

So, home I went. After H was asleep Marc untied the makeshift bandage, redressed it and fed me a vicodin that I had left over from H’s birth. Then we sat down to enjoy our fennel risotto with scallops. The finger has been throbbing a bit, but, right now it feels completely fine apart from the fact that typing is a total pain in the A$$.

I still haven’t seen the wound… until now – let’s take a peak, shall we?

OH YEAH. It’s bad. YIKES! It’s a diagonal cut from the side of my finger into the middle of the tip of the nail. Marc just asked “Yeah – it’s bad. I wonder what’s holding it on?”

That is precisely the reason I wanted NO DETAILS from him when it happened!

Listening: Pink Mountaintops (the new album is coming out May 5!)