Adventures in managed care and occupational slashing

[thatcrazycajun]

Cut my thumb open with an X-Acto® blade this morning at work while trimming down a printed proof for a customer. This was not the usual one-centimeter nick I've had dozens of in my career, but a gouge about 1/8" into the side of my thumb and clear into the nail. Hurt like ow-ow-fuckity-OW! and bled like a stuck pig. After getting the bleeding stanched and the wound cleaned and dressed, a coworker suggested I should consider getting a tetanus shot if I couldn't remember when my last one was, which I can't.

So I called the company that handles my employer's work-related injury treatment coverage and they referred me to our HR/accounting person, who referred me to the Concentra clinic in midtown. I called the clinic and they said I could walk in anytime, but they couldn't just give me the injection and say buh-bye; I had to do paperwork, get examined and have a determination made as to whether stitching would be required (oh, gods above and below, NO!) and a shot would be administered as part of my treatment. The good news was, they had early and late weekday hours and I was in no danger waiting until after work to go in.

So around quitting time, I drove down to the clinic and filled out forms, then waited some, then filled out more forms, then waited some more. Then they finally called me in and asked me to empty my pockets, then gave me a cup and pointed me to the bathroom for a urine sample. Apparently a tox screen is part of intake; wish they'd warned me so I could have drunk more water to prepare.

Then a nice young nurse took my blood pressure, gave me a glass of something clear, red and foamy to soak my thumb in and stuck the needle in my arm to give me the tetanus shot. Then a nice middle-aged lady doctor came in, pulled and prodded at the now-closed wound (causing me not insignificant pain in the process), suggested I would need stitches and watched as I blanched and said, "I do? Oh, God..." She took this to mean I would refuse stitching and instead ordered the nurse to use something called Steri-Strips to bind the edges of the wound together. I thought all of this was way overkill for what was essentially a minor wound of the sort that is an occupational hazard in my line of work, but I was so grateful not to have my already-aching thumb darned like an old sock while I watched (and likely either vomited, fainted or both) that I didn't kick about it.

They finally sent me home with some painkiller and instructions to keep the wound clean and dry, limit use of the left hand and come back in two days for a follow-up. So now I type with a huge, bulbous bandage wrapped around my left thumb and a profound sense of relief that I didn't have this happen before getting this job.

Comments

[anaisdjuna.livejournal.com]

Ugh! Yuck! Sounds like time for some paid R&R, yo!

Hope it feelz better.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

Heh. I did something very similar back in March only my thumb wouldn't stop bleeding on its own and I had to get two stitches to put it right. There was no tox screen before the tetanus shot, though.

Despite being stitched, my thumb didn't actually scar. It's shaped differently than it was before, which is slightly odd.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

FWIW - some doctors are using Crazy Glue for minor wounds like that. Not wise, however, for you to do it to yourself.

Cover it with Day-Glo Orange and you can hitchhike at night. < g,d,r >

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

And if you are hosting a Hunter, do not go to a boarding school nurse.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was the one who insisted on the shot; in fact, getting it was the primary reason for my going there rather than simply having kept the wound tightly bandaged for a couple weeks. They just wouldn't give it to me without all the ancillary procedures.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Owwwwwww. I hope it heals quickly and well!

[mshollie.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Here's one vote for a single-payer healthcare system. We need it, and NOW!

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Steri-strips are the awesome.

She probably wanted to stitch it because thumbs are, um, high-flexing locations, and therefore it's more likely you'd pop it open than if you'd had a comparable wound on, say, some random stretch of forearm.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

Matt, I hope you're doing better.

[dsthomas.livejournal.com]

Tox screen in case you were 'under the influence of something while at work... since Work is paying for the visit, most likely. Hope all goes well with the injury. KEEP IT DRY!

What? No pictures???

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

PICTURES?!? Woman, are you barking MAD?! I don't even want to see the damn wound myself again until it's had at least a few days to heal some. I can't imagine seeing it would brighten anyone else's day.

[dsthomas.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling that would get your attention hun. Just kidding about wantin them tho. :o)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Steri-Strips FTW! I sliced the heck out of the back of my left bird finger (that's the second scar on that finger; the first one *did* take stitches) two years ago with a not-sharp-enough knife when it bounced off a way-too-hard della cotta squash I was trying to slice... fortunately for me, cflute was (a) home and (b) Civil Defense certified in a whole bunch of things, first aid among'em. It didn't want to stop, so she got out the butterfly bandages and patched me up... saved me an ER trip, and, thanks to her work and a clean cut to begin with, it healed up really pretty... you can't see the scar when the finger is extended, only when it's flexed...

*sigh* which reminds me, I'm due for mine... prolly when I get around to having a full physical.

Did they give you the new fine-needle DPT booster thingy, or the old-school regular tetanus which hurts like the dickens the next day?

I learned just not to watch when they use needles on me these days. That and the vampires (hospital jargon for phlebotomists, folks who suck your blood) around here are so good it's hardly worth getting worked up about. I just show'em this one little spot on the outside of the crook of my left elbow, they prod it a second and say, "oh, yeah,", and poke and all done! My endocrinologist is particularly good at it.... and his new assistant isn't half bad, and *very* easy on the eyes... ;)

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

It's not sore now, so it must have been the fine-needle booster; I didn't look as I'm no better about being punctured than you are.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'm a hell of a lot better than I used to be; used to was even not looking a major blood draw would make me woozy-headed... but between some major arcana and frankly getting jaded (when you're undergoing therapy for the Big C, you get poked a LOT... sometimes you'd think they could supply Grady on a Saturday night on a full moon with all the blood they pull) (ok, it's not THAT bad, but...) I'm pretty nonchalant about it now. Knowing where to tell'em to poke helps; the easier you make it for them, the less discomfort you have.

[sodyera.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you got it seen to. I remember the one time I actually used my employer-provided health care the day I stepped on a nail a block away from the office. I limped in, signed in, showed off my wound and they called me a cab. My paperwork was minimal and I never saw a bill. Those were the days!

[filkferengi]

Ouch! I hope it's feeling much better.