* Axiom =
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword
* Corollary =
Those who play with glass will be cut, poked, sliced, pricked and otherwise mutilated in big or small ways by glass.
As much fun as the glass studio is, bleeding at the studio is a normal occurrence. It is no big deal. You put a bandaid on - not because it is a big deal, but because it is a courtesy not to share your blood with others by bleeding on the mats, and cutters, and other tools that we all share.
But for me - this week was different... I had several back to back incidents that were out of the ordinary realm.
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Incident #1:
Cutting glass, I poked my finger with a very thin point that left a minuscule piece of glass inside the pinprick wound. Not all that out of the ordinary. It was in my pointy finger and each time I used it (which was all the time) the glass cut some more, and it hurt. After a while, this got to be old, and I took the time to poke and squeeze and coax the little annoyance out of the cut, and then all was well. The pin prick is almost healed now.
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Incident #2:
This was a little bit out of the ordinary. As you know, sheets of glass are stored on shelves similar to books in a library. I reached in to take a particular sheet of glass and sliced the knuckle of my thumb on an adjacent sheet of glass. Ouch! It was such a bleeder too - what a mess! And there was a hanging flap. No mere bandaid would do. I had to squeeze it for quite a long time with a paper towel until it finally decided to stop bleeding, and then the bandaid did the rest - soaked up the remaining blood and kept it contained.
The extra ordinary factor comes in when I re-opened the wound accidentally over the next couple of days by accidentally catching it (bandaid and all) in this and that, making it gush again. I am surprised that 3 days after the incident, it would still gush at the slightest provocation. In hind sight, I think I should have got a stitch or two in it.
On the good side - it is finally sealed up, on the way to being healed. I am sure I will have a scar for years, similar to my other slicing scar from the studio about 5 years ago.
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Incident #3:
This is the embarrassing one. It was again just a very tiny tiny prick. I was crouched down on the floor checking out some supplies on a lower shelf, and I placed my palm on the floor to give myself a boost to stand up and yes, I get a tiny pin prick towards the tip of my little finger. So, as usual, it gushes, and I quickly rinse and wrap a paper towel on it and am off to Stephanie's house - I will get a bandaid there.
But over at Steph's house the silly thing keeps gushing, I think it is because I put all of my body weight on it as I tried to stand up from my crouch position, and the cut, even though it is small, is pretty ragged. Finally it stops bleeding, and I notice that there is a blue circle forming around the prick - about a quarter of an inch in diameter. Odd. I cover it up with a bandaid and play with glass in Steph's garage.
A few hours later, we are done playing, and I take the bandaid off, and now the blue circle takes up about 2/3 of the last section of my little finger. This is what I remember dead people's fingers looking like when they are embalmed. Yikes! is this an infection? I wonder if when I wake up the next day my whole arm would be blue. Will I lose a limb!?!
So, I decide to go to the doctor. After 1 hour of waiting I finally see the Dr. He looks for a few minutes, and then puts a bandaid on it and sends me home! Apparently it was nothing - it was just some bleeding under the skin that had spread. He said it would spread more and then turn colors like a bruise and then dissipate. No further action necessary. How embarrassing! That was the most expensive bandaid of my life - I paid a $20 copay, but I am sure my insurance company paid another $70 or so!
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Incident #4:
I am making some cool jewelry pieces and I decided to break down and spend the money and use up some minutes on the lapidary grinder. I used the 60 grit to get all the irregularities out, then the 200 to polish it, and by about then my hands were pretty numb from the water that cools down the grinding pad.
I used the 400 grit next to give it a higher polish and after a few minutes, I feel something, it is not pain, but something is not right. I look to find that I have ground the finger nail of my pointy finger all the way through the nail in to the pink flesh underneath (the nail bed?). And of course - it was bleeding. How annoying!
I think I didn't feel it being sanded away because of the cold water that my hands were in for the prior 30 minutes or so. But on the good side... where I still have a nail, it is polished to a nice shiny 400 grit shine :)
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