I had to make a trip to the acute care clinic at the VA today.  I was going to start clearing out hte old strawberry patch and turn it into a spice garden when the old piece of garbage wheelbarrow decided to twist in my hand and shove a splinter deep into the base of my index finger on my right hand.  I was unable to find a pair of tweezers so I went Rambo and took a knife to it.  But hey, Rambo I ain’t and made it worse.  So off I go to the VA.  Did not have to wait long actually.  I was only there for about an hour and half.  The nice PA sat down and looked at it and started off by saying she wasn’t sure if she could get it out and might need to cut but she didn’t want to block my hand.  I told her that I had a high tolerance for pain and to go ahead.  She dug out the small ones but could not get to the one at the base of my finger.  She said she needed to cut.  I reminded her of my tolerance for pain so out comes the scalpel.  So she starts dig and cut and finally gets out the tip and says, “I got it”.  I smiled and said, “hmmm, no” and then I pinched finger together and she saw that it was really about an inch long and buried deep.  So she went at it again.  She looked up at me and said this was inhuman, I am digging and cutting on you and you are just sitting here.  I smiled and said do what you need to do.  So she dug and cut some more and still couldn’t see it. Muttering inhuman to herself again she stopped and called a surgeon.  He told that he woulnd’t do it and advised her to let it come out naturally or if it get’s infected then he would operate to take it out.  So here I sit with a inch long piece of crappy wood in my finger waiting for it to work it’s way out or for my finger to turn red and become hot and ooze puss.  I doubt very seriously I will get an infection, I’ve never had in the past and I’ve cut myself numerous times though it has been a while since I had a foreign object left in me.

I added to my tribute page.  Loki’s first picture.  Check it out.