My right hand looks like William Shatner today, swollen almost beyond recognition. I can still type, just like he can still act. What happened was this: Yesterday I was making coffee for me and Milagros, the woman who's been cleaning my apartment on and off for the past ten years. I described my primitive method to coffeemaking in an earlier post. As the water was draining into the mug, the half full (notice I didn't say half empty - trying to be positive) filter slipped and the nearly boiling sludge of grinds and H2O spilled all over the back of my hand and my wrist.
“Dios mio, Barbarita,” Milagros exclaimed. I immediately went to the sink and held my my hand under cold water for a bit. I then proceeded to work at my computer, and then went downtown to my part-time job. (I have a part-time job at a nonprofit through the end of the year.) Before I left, I applied Neosporin to the burn area and wrapped my wrist in gauze. Not an easy thing to do by yourself. Over the course of the afternoon, my hand began to hurt, like a bad sunburn, and the skin on the back of my hand got redder and redder, like a bad sunburn. By the time I got home, after a nice stroll through DuPont Circle, where I stopped to buy Isaac an advent calendar, my hand was swollen. I applied more Neosporin to it. Then I noticed little blisters, bumps that resembled miniature seaweed bubbles, the kind I loved to pop when I was little, and became concerned and Googled “second-degree burn.” Apparently I have one, and apparently I need medical attention. And apparently I should not have applied Neosporin to my second-degree burn.
Of course I’ve been procrastinating about getting medical attention all morning, looking at my William Shatner of a right hand as I work on my MFA thesis. Which is probably not a wise thing, as my hand is more swollen now than it was when I got out of bed in the morning. When I finally got around to calling my doctor, of course, his line was busy, busy, busy. Then when I finally got through -- not so fast, to a recording -- I didn’t hear his name on the message. When I finally got through to a person, I learned that my doctor had retired this summer. No love lost there. But it would have been nice to have received a letter from his practice. I am now waiting for a call back.
I just entered a sweeps for a trip to New York or L.A. (I’d take L.A.!) on Rider’s Jeans. To enter, click HERE. The deadline is February 8.
P.S. Sweeps Alert: If you’re booking at a Hilton hotel between December 1 and January 7, check out this sweeps for a trip to the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in L.A. You must book online to enter. To get details, click HERE.