Performing Surgery on Yourself is Fun

I've had six surgeries in my life. Two on my left arm, two on my lower back, one knee scope, and one oral surgery to remove wisdom teeth.

Saturday was the first time I had to perform surgery on myself.

On Tuesday I was moving old scrap plywood around in the garage. I gave myself a hell of a sliver. Usually it feels like a piece slips in under the surface of your skin. This one felt like I got stabbed with a huge wooden stick. It was huge. 0.078 inches when I measured it on my caliper.

It started swelling and would leak a little bit of pus when I squeezed it. Then it really started hurting so it was time to do some surgery.

I grabbed a scalpel (a thumbtack sterilized with a lighter) and started poking and picking at the wound. It didn't really hurt since I was picking at what was basically a blister. Then pushed and pushed and finally felt that firm little piece of wood. But I didn't have a tweezer to pull it with.

After unsuccessfully digging around in the blue makeup bag in the middle bathroom drawer that I remember my wife putting it in, I couldn't find it. Of course. Then called her at work and learned she moved it to a box inside this same drawer. Success!

Now my thumb is healing nicely! It doesn't hurt and I squeezed out all the pus. It was quite satisfying.