I had to be rushed to urgent care last night because I burned my hand. It was partially me being stupid, but mostly it was just an accident. To err is human, after all. I was fixing dinner and there was a saucepan sitting on a burner that wasn't turned on. Inside the pan was a stirring spoon, the kind with an oval plastic head and a long thin metal handle. Since the saucepan wasn't hot I wasn't expecting the spoon to be hot, so I grabbed it barehanded. What I didn't realize (but probably should have) is that the spoon's handle had been sticking out directly above a burner that had been in use, and it was red hot (not literally, unfortunately, as then I would have known not to touch it). When I wrapped my hands around the spoon's handle, it was like that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the creepy Nazi grabs the medallion from the fire. I instantly let go, of course, but by then the damage (to my skin) was already done.
I knew it right away too. I thought to myself, Shit, this is gonna be bad. I did all the things you are supposed to do -- avoid ice, hold it under cool running water, etc. -- but still I could feel it starting to blister up. And it hurt. I mean, it really fucking hurt. Without exaggeration, I can say that I cannot remember ever feeling a more intense pain.* It's a hard to thing to measure, pain, because there are so many different types. My shoulder pain, for instance, is awful, but that's largely because it's always there. There's a psychologic effect, a hopelessness, that magnifies it many times over. This pain was very different. But on the just-make-it-stop, I'll-confess-to-crimes-I-didn't-commit scale, it was about as high as I've ever experienced.
*One thing that could rival it was another burn I got when I was about 14. I was at Cannon Beach with my friend J, and I picked up a log to move it into our beach fire not realizing that the underside of it was already smoldering. I barbecued two of my finger tips and spent much the next few days with my hand in the cooler.
At times like these, it's good to have a spouse to convince you to go to the doctor. I didn't want to go, but when two hours had elapsed, and the pain hadn't subsided at all, S convinced me using the "Do you really want to be lying awake at 3:00 am the night before Thanksgiving because your hand hurts too much to sleep?" logic. I relented, and we hustled to our neighborhood medical center before they closed. (There was no way I was going to the ER.) S dropped me off, as it would have been difficult for me to drive.
I am so glad I went. Literally nobody was in the waiting room when I got there, and I was in and out in no time. The doctor (physician's assistant, technically) diagnosed it as a second-degree burn, applied some ointment, and wrapped it with a bandage. He gave me some Tylenol with codeine for the night and some extra strength Tylenol without codeine for the day and called in a prescription for a topical cream. The nurse gave me a tetanus shot, and then I walked to the pharmacy, picked up my prescription, and then walked home. It was as easy a trip to the doctor as I've ever had. And, like a miracle, by the end of the night, my hand was substantially better and the pain had almost totally subsided. I didn't even need the pain meds.
So, now I get to enjoy Thanksgiving. We aren't doing much. (No big gathering like the last few years.) I took the kids to the park, where Lil' S1 climbed nearly to the top of a tall tree, and now I'm writing this with a lousy Lions-Texans game in the background. I am looking forward to a Thanksgiving feast, however. We're getting carryout from some place called Sababa here in DC. We didn't want to cook, so S sent me a list from the Washington Post of places that are doing special carryout meals for Thanksgiving, and Sababa was the only one that wasn't already sold out. It looks pretty good though. They're an Israeli restaurant, so it's not quite your traditional Thanksgiving fare (one of the starters is hummus and the entrée is turkey kabobs), but that's fine by me. The kids will only pick at it either way, and S really likes Middle Eastern food.
Other than that, I'll probably fix myself a cocktail and enjoy the day off. S and I are about halfway though Queen's Gambit, which I'm enjoying quite a bit (although I'm a total patzer of a player, I've always been very interested in chess), so episode five might be in the offing. I also have a new issue of The New Yorker sitting on my mantle, and the book Three-Ring Circus loaded on my Kindle. I've been tearing through it. It's a sports book (subtitle: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty), and I always tear through sports books. Once I'm finished, I plan to move on to Claire McNear's book about Jeopardy!
And speaking of move on: Until next time...
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