safety/idiots and sharp objects

[Susan Kline]

Thanks, Mark. You bring up another point: emergency rooms and hospitals
are full of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, spread around by all the people
with weakened immunity. They try to keep the places clean and sterile, but
it's usually a losing battle.

I hope I never have any lacerations or broken bones, etc., which would
force me to use an emergency room. Life is uncertain, but I try to minimize
professional medical care to the greatest extent possible. I may end up
paying for this attitude in the end, but so far it has served me well.
I do a few things like capping teeth when they break, etc. I'd instantly
go get help if I thought I had a bad appendix ... but for chronic stuff
which doctors don't seem very good at, I stay away.

I'm sorry to hear what an awful time you had. Table saws give me the
willies. I always feel safer with bandsaws, but they can be dangerous
as well, because of one's greater confidence.

Susan

At 10:41 AM 08/03/2001 -0700, Mark wrote:
>Susan,
>
>You did the right thing. The evidence is that it healed without
>complication. In my case, I went the whole doctor/hospital route - ER,
>surgery, everything. For me it turned out that I'd been better off with
>minimal professional care, since the infection in the bone was probably an
>opportunistic infection from the first surgery. The ER doc that took care of
>me is a personal friend. He said later that he wished he had just sewn my
>finger in the ER and skipped the Orthopedic consult. Hindsight is 20/20. I
>have an elderly friend from Cuba. He has an old injury that looks exactly
>like mine that he got from whacking his finger with a machete while
>harvesting pineapple. He said that he just bound it up and let it heal.
>
>
>Mark Story. RPT
>Eastern Washington University
>Cheney, Washington
>
>
>
>If it had gotten infected I would have taken it to a doc. I'm not sure if
>what I did was the "right" thing, but it worked for me.
>
>I felt like a prize idiot. I already knew that using one's left hand as a
>vise is a classic invitation to bodily harm. I had even written about it,
>for heaven's sake!
>
>Go on, everyone, tell us your mishaps. Maybe I'll feel better ...
>
>Susan