In case of emergency...

Well a little 'emergency' happened last night. I was doing the dishes, putting them on the dish rack when a plate fell out and for some reason (maybe its reflex) I reached out with my right hand to catch it. I wasn't sure what exactly happened but the plate broke into a few pieces in the process and cut the back of my hand. Stupid reflex. It was quite a nasty gash and I sort of freaked out. At that point, Gideon was already sleeping and Mabel was resting in the room. I looked at the cut and didn't think it looked good, so I called for Mabel, she had a look at it and started to panic a bit.

We both agreed that the cut needed stitches but obviously I couldn't drive myself to the hospital and she couldn't do it without dragging a sound asleep Gideon along. Then we started to think who we could call to send me to the hospital. None of our closer friends lived near us (they were at least 30 minutes drive away) so our quickest option was our neighbours. Mabel ran to the first unit directly next to us but they weren't in. Fortunately the family in the next unit were home and in fact the guy of the house is a doctor! I guess some part of our brain knew that, just that it didn't occur to us that they might be home or I could say they weren't programmed in my head as one of the "in case of emergency" contacts.

Anyway neighbour doctor kindly came over to have a look at my hand. He sort of spread the wound to have a better look at the cut, made me move my fingers to make sure it was not affecting movement and also made sure they had strength and sensation. His conclusion: the wound is superficial and doesn't need stitches. Phew. That was a relieve and (I have to admit) a little bit silly that I over-reacted and thought it was very serious. But hey, how would I know? This also got me thinking: thank God it's not a real emergency but what if it was and I had a few young kids at home? To be honest, I cannot imagine and I hope that never happens.

I have to add, even though its a superficial wound, it hurt pretty bad (by my standard) and I bet there's some sort of injury to the nerves or tendon because there's a fair bit of pain in my first two fingers when they move in a certain way. So I am guessing I will have problems doing things with my right hand for the next few days - like cooking, washing and carrying Gideon and maybe driving. Now wouldn't it be great if one of our neighbours is a baby sitter and/or a house caretaker who could help with cooking and cleaning; although we probably couldn't afford it.