About two weeks ago, I posted a blog about having burned my finger through my own idiocy. This was the photographic evidence taken shortly after the event. Perhaps you can see the burn blisters. Once the initial pain and cussing was over and after I sufficiently numbed the area with a series of cold packs that took up most of that afternoon, it really didn't hurt very much. To be fair, my sister and I both have a rather high pain tolerance. It's just how our brains are wired. It has nothing to do with being brave or courageous or tough. What someone else might call very painful, to me is, at worst, uncomfortable. So that has to be taken into account here. That aside, for no particular reason at all, I became kind of fascinated with the entire healing process of this burn. And I photo documented it. When I told Tim what I was doing his response was, "Gross". To me it is all kinds of geeky science interesting. To him (and perhaps to you) it's disgusting. Be forewarned. If this isn't your kind of blogpost, feel free to move on. I promise to not judge you as long as you don't judge me. This is your final warning. Sooo, moving on. By the day after the burn incident, while it was admittedly tender, it didn't really hurt unless I whacked it on something. But it looked a lot worse. The blisters on their own are nearly invisible. If you didn't know they were there, you wouldn't be aware that I injured myself at all. Funny how much more discoloured it was the next day. Everything I read indicated that it's best to leave a burn open..so no bandage was applied. I kept it clean...after all, it was, clearly an open wound. But mostly I just tried to not bend that top joint. Every time I accidentally bent it, the wound kind of cracked back open. Yucky. I was astonished at how much more discoloration there was on this second day! Weird eh? Over the next few days, I saw more and more signs of healing, which is all good. But not necessarily pleasing to the eye. I saw more than one person avert their eyes upon spying my peeling finger. I think the dead peeling skin was worse looking than the open injury don't you? Just not pretty. The reddened skin is that new baby skin. It is so tender and fragile that it actually hurt a little bit more to touch. Not that I was touching it on purpose you understand. There is something about a wound that has magnetic properties. There is no scientifically documented studies that I've read when I advance this theory. It's my own life experiences that show, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that I whack any injured area FAR more often than an uninjured area. And other people are a zillion times more likely to accidentally bump, hit, smack, twist, touch another persons injured finger than a non-injured one. That finger was hit by tossed pencils, flying crumpled up balls of paper, grocery carts, shoulders and so forth Far more than any uninjured finger of mine ever was. Clearly, an injury invites this sort of interaction. Magnetic attraction of some sort. In short, "Ouchie". As the days passed by, I was pleased to see the new skin toughening up and the old peeling skin is nearly done shedding itself. The open wound was granulating nicely, no sign of infection or problems of any sort. It no longer hurt to be bumped into. We have reached my favourite injury zone which is the one where I've completely forgotten that the finger happened to have been injured at all unless someone says, 'Hey how's that burned finger coming along?" Then I have to look at my hands to figure out what they are talking about. With a quick glance I can see that Yes indeed, there does seem to have been some recent injury that is healing up nicely and I say so. And now, it's 99.9% done healing. In just over two weeks, my finger looks very nearly like it did before the burn. Isn't the bodies ability to heal itself just The Most Amazing Thing? I I am absolutely agog over this. It's just incredible to me like the best magic trick ever!
It's not just the healing of burns or bruises or the internal repair of a broken bone that I marvel at, but the bodies ability to deal with all sorts of trauma inflicted upon our poor fragile human bodies. Most of the time we manage to come back from surgeries and illnesses that, in other circumstances would be the end of us. In his lifetime, my dad came back from a severe heart attack and quintuple by-pass surgery! My mother from cancer surgery, chemo and radiation in her lifetime! That is just so WOW! What a marvelous thing these complex and amazing bodies of ours are! It's not as if every illness and every injury is repairable, sadly. But the sheer number of times in our lifetime that we are bruised, broken and sick but still recover is kind of mind-boggling! I vow to at least try to treat mine better and to appreciate this wonderful ability it has to bounce back from every stupid thing I do to it. All ten of my digits are functional and relatively normal looking and all is well with the world once again. Until I do something else stupid at least. And then I trust that my body will once again, repair itself. Not to the point of regrowing a limb like a starfish (though that would be so cool) or regenerating damaged auditory nerves so that I could hear normally again (though I honestly believe that will happen in the future). But still, isn't it just amazing when you think about it!! Or is it just me..... Maybe you shouldn't answer that. Okay if I have sufficiently grossed you out I will sign off. Have a wonderful weekend. And be safe!
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AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
February 2025
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