Is This Burning an Eternal Flame?
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 10:11PM Three times of significant pain stick out in my mind like no others.
The first (well, it's really three times but I think they count as one since they fall into the same category) is labor, especially that hard labor at the end in which you are most certain that all of your insides are definitely going to burst because of all of the squeezing and you can hardly breathe, but somehow you do, and oh, how it hurts, and where is the relief, but then pushing! into! pain! and suddenly there is a baby on top of your belly instead of in it and the pain just stops. (Until you begin nursing...then it starts up again something fierce.)
The second is when a doctor removed a needle from my big toe. (Yes. An entire sewing needle. Minus the very tip which broke off as the rest of it went into my toe.) The needle going into my toe was nothing. A little blip on the pain radar. I felt a small poke, really; I thought,"What was that?" I saw a tiny poke-spot, but...nothing else. When my toe didn't feel better two days later, but looked much worse, I drove myself to the walk-in clinic and had an x-ray taken. The doctor told me I had a needle in my toe. Incredulously, (I mean, how can one not know that one has a needle in one's toe?) I looked at the picture and saw it with my own eyes. So, he had to get it out. He numbed it, cut my toe, and used a magnet to find and remove the needle. (Gross.) He bandaged my toe, and sent me on my way with a prescription for a pain-killer. Once home, I handed over the prescription to Mike, who went to have it filled. Before he got back home, the local pain-killer wore off. I lay in bed, writhing, with my leg up in the air hoping to alleviate some of the pain. Nothing helped. The horrible aching went all the way up my leg and into my midsection. The sweet relief of those pills once they kicked in was nothing short of miraculous for me.
The third is the pain that I have felt today since I spilled hot (microwaved to the boiling point) water on my hand. As the water sloshed over the edge of the measuring cup that I was holding, I almost couldn't see, it hurt so badly. I somehow managed to set the 2-cup measure down rather than dropping it on the granite countertop, and then immediately stuck my hand in cold running water. I let the water pour cool relief over my hand for a good ten minutes. (Okay, it was about two minutes, then I googled what I should do, and then I stuck my hand back in for about seven more minutes.) (Truthfully...who can stand at the sink all day? Ain't nobody got time fo' dat!) (Sorry. I couldn't help myself.) I made an ice pack and set it on my hand, and have been like that for the better part of this day. Even in the car. (The good news: You can still watch a baseball game with an ice pack on your hand.)
When the numbness from the ice wears off, my hand begins to feel like it's on fire. I'm sure that someone who has actually been on fire would tell me,"You have NO IDEA what it feels like to be on fire, sister," but the feeling for me is one of burning.
My unharmed hand doesn't look all that good either...how about some lotion, Grandma? But just for the sake of comparison...
My burned fingers are swollen with small white patches. The white patches make me a bit nervous. What will become of them tomorrow, I wonder.
The only thing that has helped is the ice, and the cold water. The cold, cold, cold feels so good. I did get some aloe gel for tonight, so I hope that will help while I sleep. Honestly, I'm not looking forward to trying to sleep. I sense a long night.
I know full well that the burn could have been much worse than it was, and that compared to others' very serious burn injuries, it's nothing. This pain gives me a huge feeling of empathy for those who have been hurt severely in a fire. I cannot imagine what that must be like, what agony someone might feel after being seriously or critically burned.
This post will be short (haha, I call this short these days!), because I want to get my hand back under some ice! You are probably thinking,"Thank you for such mercy!" after some of my recent, long-winded posts. Enjoy it while you can...my fingers will be itching to burn some word miles after this unanticipated, forced, respite.
Reader Comments (2)
Ouch! Burns hurt.
As does labor.
Ask me how I know.
(Full disclosure: I am not too proud to admit I love epidurals.)
Faith was making herself some ramen last year and spilled the boiling water on her leg. I took her to an urgent care center and they gave her a miracle cream that really helped with the pain and kept infection at bay.
I hope you're feeling better today, but if not . . . get thee to a doctor!