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Post by steveh on Dec 16, 2012 23:22:57 GMT 12
Yeah, stay away from the glassware unless its got something amber & drinkable in it.  Sure sounds like the sort of thing you could have done without, at anytime, but probably especially now. Hope its all good for a quick recovery. Steve. |
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Post by pjw4118 on Dec 17, 2012 12:30:05 GMT 12
Your vivid description rated very highly on the cringe factor, especially as I know how flesh grips onto the item. Remember bayonet training.
I wont let you clean my chainsaw.!
Take it easy and Merry Xmas
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 17, 2012 17:28:48 GMT 12
Thanks to all for the good wishes. For those who are squimish, look away now - here's a photo my sister took on her phone of one side of the injury - yes it went through and out the other side... I have no idea what sort of lense her phone camera has but my fingers are not really that chubby!  Anyway, to update you all. Yes that post on Saturday evening after A&E was pretty much one finger typing. I am back to the usual two finger now. Yesterday morning my good kind frind Phil picked me up a little after 7.00am to take me to Waikato Hospital's A&E department, arriving just on 8.00am. The doctor at Anglesea reckoned it would be quiet at this time. Well it was quiet when we got there, but it wasn't for long. After signing in it was a long, boring wait in the waiting room with Phil till about 12.00pm before I was finally seen (everyone else seemingly getting seen before me, whether they had arrived before or after me!). The surgeon decided I had to be admitted there and then which was a surprise as I had been led to believe by the Anglesea staff that I'd be seen and sent home after being put on a backlog waiting list for a few days. So I wasn't really prepared for this. Andother hour or so in the waiting room till I finally got told there was a bed for me. So Phil and I went up to the ward and we sat and waited till the staff worked out what they wanted to do with me. An x-ray had been done and showed nothing but some staff reckoned I'd be rushed into surgery for a look inside while others suggested I might need an ultrasound. In the end Phil left about 3.30pm as he was knackered. My sister and her husband who live in Hamilotn then showed up to visit and while there the bigwig surgeon arrived to say I did need an ultrasound as the x-ray was inconclusive. They wouldn't do surgery without it. So no surgery on Sunday, and also she said they don't do ultra-sound on weekends either. So she said I had to stay overnight. Feck! I then said to her that I wasn't ill, I wasn't receiving medication, I had no major pain, and as far as I could see I didn't really need to stay the night. Could I go stay with my sister and get dropped off in the morning? The surgeon said yes. Fantastic! And now after a day of no food and a really rumbly tum I was finally able to eat again. Straight to McD's drive thrui on the way to their place. So I stayed with them and Shelley dropped me back at the hospital at 7.30am as arranged. It was now I got to talk to the others in my room and get to know them. One guy was really interesting. He turns 93 in three weeks time, and he joined the British Army at 17, in 1938. He was sent to France with the Royal Armoured Corps when war broke out and all their little two-man Mk. 1 tanks were destroyed. He got to Dunkirk on a bus and at 2.00am boarded a ship that turned out to be the last to leave the Dunkirk beaches. They went along the coast to Calais, being shelled from the shore, and then when they got into the channel they were strafed by six Messerschmitts, killing 600 aboard and he was wounded. Afer recovery in the UK he was posted to North Africa in Matilda tanks, and was involved in the first siege of Tobruk, where ultimately he was captured. He then spent time in prison camps in North Africa, Italy and finaly german till the end of the war. This is the first Dunkirk veteran I have ever met and what a really interesting chap. The other bloke in the room was listening too and afterwards told me how fascinating he found it all, and how he could have listed to Ron's stories all day. Anyway at 10.00am I got to go for an unltrasound scan on my finger. This too did not show any sign of glass in the finger. A long wait ensued and eventually at 2.00pm I was released. Mum picked me up. I now have to get the wound dressed each day for who knows how long, and I have to go back in two weeks for a check up too, which is a right pain just for a cut, but I'd better. Thanks again everyone! |
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Post by beagle on Dec 17, 2012 18:20:32 GMT 12
Welcome to the NZ Health System.
Good to see someone is using my taxes to the utmost.
Yes what a great read there Dave, even the mrs had a read.
Yes I too have been sitting in the ER waiting room for hours on end, but the trick is that you get an ambulance to take you in and you are usually rushed staright through.
So everyone will be taking pity on you and going all out to buy you an extra big special xmas present.
So you just sit back and make the most of it.
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Post by suthg on Dec 17, 2012 19:08:32 GMT 12
I don't think golf clubs are on the list and he wouldn't be able to hold one for a bit... (ouch!) I had a lump of stick or bone or something in the web of L thumb and index for about 8 years until it got a bit infected and it all came out safely. I hope they have everything out Dave - a tricky place too. Get some one else to mow the lawns!! Keep smiling - and not too much of the medicinal... |
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Post by The Red Baron on Dec 17, 2012 19:42:08 GMT 12
Interesting about the ultrasound,when I had the glass in my foot the Dr sent me for one,said it found glass better than an xray.They looked for ages with the ultrasound but couldn't find anything.
As a precaution they said better have an xray.
The xray lady was persistant and took quite a few xrays at different angles before the glass showed up.
The ultrasound lady was miffed and dragged me back for more ultrasounding until eventually they found it.
Have too say I have more confidence in xrays since then.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 17, 2012 19:54:14 GMT 12
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Post by jonesy on Dec 17, 2012 20:38:39 GMT 12
Nice pics Dave! I've just used them here in our clinic for a quick Q&A with my paramedic on what we'd do, given that we arent particularly close to A&E. We just dealt with a guy the other day that had a 25kg pin drop onto his thumbnail, end result the underside of the thumb was split like a ripe plum......  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 17, 2012 21:13:30 GMT 12
Oooh, you just made me feel sick! Actually looking at the photos of my own finger injury make me a bit queasy too.
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Post by corsair67 on Dec 17, 2012 21:34:34 GMT 12
That injury looks too realistic - you've obviously been hanging out at Weta Workshops over the weekend! ;D That actually looks bloody terrible, and I can imagine it'd sting too.  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 17, 2012 22:00:08 GMT 12
Just a bit!!
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Post by phil82 on Dec 18, 2012 0:13:03 GMT 12
Yes I too have been sitting in the ER waiting room for hours on end, but the trick is that you get an ambulance to take you in and you are usually rushed staright through. . Lower Hutt Hospital has a brand new state of the art Emergency Department, with it's own ambulance bays, and on a tour prior to it opening, a Senior ER specialist said that anyone arriving in an ambulance is assessed in exactly the same way as anyone arriving via the front desk! If you are serious in either case, you move to the front. A couple of years ago, I was heading for my car in a car park, and collected a tow bar with my leg, and you all know how much that hurts. I had some swelling, but later that day I had an intense pain in the lungs and difficulty in breathing,and thought "this isn't right" and DROVE to the hospital, just a few minutes away. Within a few minutes I was in there, on a trolley, morphined, X-rayed and ultimately CAT scanned for what turned out to be a Pulmonary Embolism [from the leg in the car park incident]. I'd had morphine for the pain, and another injection to deal with the clot, and a very nice Doctor came by and explained what had happened. "You're very lucky, because had that clot stopped any way in the pulmonary system, we couldn't have saved you". I love honesty! The point is, the NZ has a truly excellent health system; from the moment I arrived I was treated expertly and quickly without fuss. I'd never been in hospital before. The bollocking came later from herself, because I'd driven myself to the hospital having left a note "Gone to Hospital" on the kitchen bench! That morphine is lovely stuff by the way, and you really can feel the rush from the injection! You do tend to talk a lot of crap though! |
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Post by JDK on Dec 18, 2012 7:38:33 GMT 12
Told you NZ was more dangerous than Australia's wildlife Dave!
Glad to hear you're on the mend. Hope you heal up quick.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 18, 2012 8:44:38 GMT 12
I must check if that glass was made in Australia James.  Waikato Hospital also has an all new ER department which was much beter than the olden days, and yes everyone is assessed the same way no matter how they arrive. It seems a bit of glass in the finger is the lowest priority for ER, and rightly so, some of the people coming in there looked awfully ill and went straight into be seen. |
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Post by ngatimozart on Dec 18, 2012 11:38:16 GMT 12
Dave, good to see you back, hale & hearty.
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Post by JDK on Dec 18, 2012 11:54:46 GMT 12
I must check if that glass was made in Australia James. ;D Special To Kiwi-export version... More seriously, the accident illustrates how many lives have been saved by safety glass over the years - that used to be (a long time ago) how car windscreens would break.  Regards, |
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Post by mumbles on Dec 19, 2012 11:05:24 GMT 12
Upshot it more injections, wounds stitched up, and referral. I now have my arm in a huge bandage splint to keep my finger immobile. Tomorrow I have to go to Waikato Hospital at 8am and see a plastic surgeon about getting special surgery, under general anesthetic, to try to get the glass out, before it does further damage. Damn!! Ouch, reminds me of the time I cut a fingertip off with a bandsaw. I was cutting frozen meat and didn't feel or notice anything until I saw the blood Now you have the fun task of explaining ad nauseam why you have such a big bandage for such a 'little' thing. Hope it heals well and there is no permanent damage other than a scar and a good story! |
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Post by beagle on Dec 19, 2012 11:10:11 GMT 12
Ouch, reminds me of the time I cut a figertip off with a bandsaw. I was cutting frozen meat and didn't feel or notice anything until I saw the blood a "figertip" which part of the body is that. please tell me it's near your hand. Did it go into the stew too if you were making one. |
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Post by mumbles on Dec 19, 2012 11:11:56 GMT 12
Oooh, you just made me feel sick! Actually looking at the photos of my own finger injury make me a bit queasy too. The guy who helped me patch up my finger (this was at work) felt the same way, which puzzled me since it was my finger that had been squared off and I felt fine ;D Thanks for posting the pictures, they illustrate exactly what was going on better than any description could. Looks ouch. |
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Post by mumbles on Dec 19, 2012 11:16:31 GMT 12
Ouch, reminds me of the time I cut a figertip off with a bandsaw. I was cutting frozen meat and didn't feel or notice anything until I saw the blood a "figertip" which part of the body is that. please tell me it's near your hand. Did it go into the stew too if you were making one. Sorry, finger ;D I only just caught the blade, so the part severed (about 1cm square) was destroyed in the process. The meat I was cutting (frozen lamb fillets to be exact) was discarded so no worries there. |
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