KLUTZ

I'm a klutz. I painted some walls about a month ago and finally got around to painting the trim last Tuesday. The day started off well.

See the back of a step stool in the background? I catapulted off that stool several hours later when, forgetting the stool was backwards, I lowered myself to a step that wasn't there. I'm thankful there were no serious injuries, especially since I was expecting to snap a wrist upon landing, but my legs got banged up and hurt like crazy. Tim checked on me, then set about cleaning up the paint I'd splattered everywhere on my descent. I dried my tears, then kept painting until the job was done.

Fast forward three days to Friday. I'm still not sure what exactly happened, but I managed to cut and smash my finger while tossing a couple logs onto our firewood rack. The little Ws are a well-oiled machine when it comes to injuries, so Naomi and Tyler immediately got me some Tylenol and water. I realized I might need stitches, so they grabbed my shoes, keys, wallet, and water bottle (can't believe I forgot a book!), then sent me off to urgent care.

I was able to avoid stitches and a fracture was ruled out after a slightly suspicious x-ray, but our fingers have a lot of nerves and the pain was excruciating. (Just like when I locked my finger in a car door about seventeen years ago, but that's another story.) I missed a scheduled phone call with my dad while I was being treated, but we exchanged some messages in the quiet time between different medical people stopping by my room.

Isn't he helpful? And funny?

Speaking of funny, I had to try adding a little humor to the situation when it came time to change the dressing that night. Here's what my finger looked like when I took the original bandaging off.

Looks like a smile, doesn't it? So I added eyes to make the face complete before wrapping it all up again.

This morning, six days after the stool debacle and three since the finger incident, all my bruises are getting better. They still look a little gnarly, but the pain level is less, swelling is gone, and everything's healing up.

My goal for this week (and hopefully for quite some time beyond) is to not inflict any injuries upon myself from sheer stupidity. We'll see how I do!