A Tad Tough To Type Today

So, my streak of tough luck continues...

Sunday, I decided to finally get the dryer vent cleaned out. In every other house we've ever lived in, the dryer vent has run horizontally from the laundry room to the outside of the house. In this house, the vent goes up from the laundry, through the attic, and out the roof. I don't know if it is the vertical orientation, the humidity, or a combination of the two, but lint accumulates on the inside of the vent pipe, restricting the flow of the dryer exhaust and dramatically increasing the time it takes to dry a load.

Shortly after we moved in, Jeanie's Dad helped me clean out the vent run, but we had to improvise as we could not find a 4" flue brush, and the improvised solution was only moderately effective.

This time, I decided to "do it right" and purchase a brush - which I did via the Internet from HomeFocus. There were a number of choices I found when searching, but they seemed to fall into one of three basic choices - a brush with a plastic pull cord, a brush with a metal pull cord with plastic handle, or a brush head with separate fiberglass rods. While the metal pull corded brush at first seemed like the best choice, I had concerns about the quality of the brush head and the durability of the plastic handle. The separate head and rods looked very durable, but I was concerned that the rods would not be flexible enough to negotiate the bends in the ductwork and they were very expensive. Thus, I decided the plastic pull cord option was the best option.

The ten foot length on the pull cord was just right, and the brush did a good job, but the upper section of flue pipe appeared to have some corrosion on the inside which prevented me from getting it really clean, so I decided to just replace that section of pipe.

So, off I went to the Lowes around the corner. Even though the flue pipe is round, it is sold in curved sheets which you "fasten" prior to installation. There was two loose pieces in the bin, but they were both bent. There were also two unopened boxes of twelve pieces each, so I took one of the boxes down from the chest high shelf, opened it up, and removed the contents from the box so I could remove an unbent piece. When I went to put the rest of the sheets back up on the shelf, the bundle started sliding and sliced the back of my thumb severely.

I could tell right away that it was serious, as a quarter size hunk of flesh had been fileted from the back of the thumb between the first and second joints. The interesting thing was that right afterward, it didn't really hurt, or bleed. Of course, as soon as I saw what happened, I clamped my other hand around my thumb and walked up to the service desk. I informed them that I was injured and asked them to call Jeanie so she could take me to the emergency room.

They brought over a piece of gauze to put over the wound, and as soon as I removed my hand from my thumb, the blood started gushing. I had read about, and seen on TV and movies, the sensation of gushing blood, but it was fascinating to actually experience it. The blood gushed out into my hand and then onto the floor. It felt warm and wet. It was deep red, and syrupy in consistency. I immediately clamped my hand back over the laceration, and stopped the bleeding.

Jeanie arrived within about ten minutes and whisked me to the ER.

It took longer than I would have preferred to be seen, but in fairness, it was a Sunday morning, in a small town, and my injury was not life threatening.

The ER staff was very nice, and they spent their time explaining what they were doing and why.

In all, I ended up with about twenty stitches and my thumb splinted to both protect the injury and prevent me from bending my thumb, which would put strain on the sutures and decrease the chances that the dislodged meat would reattach.

The one big "miss" on the part of the ER doctor was the lack of a prescription for pain medication. Prior to being seen, my thumb didn't hurt that much, probably due to me being mildly in shock. Prior to suturing, the doctor used a local anesthetic to numb me up real well, so there was no pain after he finished sewing. Unfortunately, around 4:00 PM, the local wore off, and I found myself in a significant amount of pain. Jeanie called the ER and asked that a prescription be written, but she was told we'd have to drive back over, blah, blah. Jeanie told the nurse that she still had some Darvocet, and the nurse suggested that I just take that, and then if I was still in pain the following day, that I see my personal physician. Thank goodness for the Darvocet!

So, at the moment, I am reduced to typing one handed, thus explaining the title of the entry.

I guess I should say that while on the one hand (pun intended) my luck continues to not be so great, on the other hand, I could say that I am extremely fortunate that my injuries weren't more severe. While it would have been nice had I not been injured at all, things could have been so much worse.

  Digg It!     Bookmark it!  

Posted by David at May 02, 2006 06:59 PM