Smashed Thumb: What to do!
Posted at 12:22 PM

About a month ago, I closed my thumb in the door of a car by accident.  It was closed on my thumb for several seconds to my great distress, the driver didn't realize what had happened until I began jumping up and down, flailing my other arm in pain.  Then the door of the car was opened and my poor thumb was finally set free.  I wanted to take pictures of my thumb from the beginning of this journey to the end, but I lost my camera at the time and it still has not been located to this day. 

Day 1. My left thumb got smushed in the door. It hurt like hell 5 mins later.  I went to work that day, but left work soon after arriving because it hurt so much.  My whole thumb swelled up to triple its size, I could not bend it at the joint.  I decided to ice the thumb to numb the pain.  I slept most of the day to ignore the pain.  My thumbnail and parts of the tip of my thumb turned blackish-purple.

Day 2. My thumb was still incredibly swollen.  I still could not bend the thumb.  I called some friends to ask their opinion. One suggestion given to me was to soak my thumb in honey, as the honey would soothe the pain somehow.  This did NOT work! I did some research on google to find out what to do when you've smashed your thumb, and all these forums and posts online told me to stick a very hot heated paper clip through the thumbnail to alleviate the pressure.  Since I decided I was too wimpy for that, I decided to seek medical attention.  I made an appointment to see my doctor the next day.

Day 3.  I went to the doctor's office, and paid him $25 for an office visit and $5 in parking fees.  He proceeded to take a device that electrically heats up a pin (the pin was approximately the circumference of a paper clip, except it was sharp and pointed at the end), made the nurse hold my thumb, while he proceeded to puncture my thumbnail with the super hot pin.  I will not lie to you, it was OMGWTF painful!!!!! As pressure was applied to the heated pin, a hole was melted in my thumbnail.  Immediately, blood gushed out of that hole and started leaking all over onto the cotton balls and bandages, etc.  It wasn't a little teeny bit of blood you get when you have a paper cut, this was the bloody niagra falls coming out of a teeny hole in the center of my thumb.  It soaked through 8 layers of those sterile cloth bandages!!!! However, my gigantic swollen thumb was gradually returning to normal size.  The nurse even smushed my thumb even more to get whatever remaining excess blood there was in my thumb, out.  I was told to soak my thumb twice a day in a 50/50 peroxide-water solution for 3 days. (I only did it for one day)

Day 4. My thumb was feeling MUCH MUCH MUCH better, but now I could see that there was a gap between the nail and the flesh on my thumb.  Whenever I took a shower or washed my hands, hot or cold water would fill into the hole in my thumbnail and get into that space.  I would then get a napkin or paper towel and smush out the water that had gotten in there.  The nail was still discolored at this time, but didn't really hurt much at all unless I tried to use my left hand to pick something up.  Then it would hurt a little, but this time, the pain was no where near what it was before I got the hole in my nail.

Days 5-14.  My thumb became more and more useable over the days, but the nail got drier and drier.  And I could see that another nail was starting to grow in.  It kind of reminded me of those diagrams of plate tectonics where one plate is pushing the other one out. 

Day 15.  My thumnail started to fall off. But it didn't fall off all at once. The edge of the nail that was attached to the right side of my thumb started to come loose.

Day 16.  The nail had detached enough from the thumb that the gap (mentioned above) was revealed and the thumbnail was almost completely off

Day 17. The nail was only attached to the left edge of my thumb by a tiny portion, I would say it was 95% fallen off and 5% still attached.  But the part that was still attached hurt like a bitch when tried to just rip it off so instead, I cut the detached nail from the part that was still attached with a pair of scissors.  Now, the exposed thumb looks really gross and nasty.  The part that was growing a new nail also looked gross (there are a few spots of purple on the new nail).

Day 18-22.  The teeny piece of old nail that was still attached to my thumb is still there. Bastard.  The new nail keeps growing in with its gross little purple spots, pushing that teeny old nail piece upwards and upwards.

Day 23.  The teeny piece of nail was pushed out far enough so that I could finally just rip it off.  Now I just have new nail growing on my thumb.

 

So there you have it, folks.  What to do when you smush your thumb, and what to expect afterwards!!!

 

The Interview and The State of the Economy.
Posted at 12:35 PM

I called around to several architecture firms in my area telling them that I would work for free than sit at home sending out resumes, not getting any responses, and getting depressed.

One of the places I contacted was Hogan Campis Architecture.  I spoke to Mr. Hogan on the phone, he was very sympathetic towards my situation, and asked me to come in for an interview.

They were right on the other side of the park from where I live, and while I could walk there on a nice summer day, it was freezing cold outside so I drove. 

Mr. Hogan was incredibly kind.   He looked at me as if I were some poor stray kitten that showed up on his doorstep and he really wanted to take me in, but he already has 9 other cats at home and a tenth cat would probably be too much.  He genuinely want to help me out, but told me their firm had to give everybody paycuts to keep them all aboard.  I was persistent.  I told him I would do anything, as long as it kept me busy.  Even for no pay at all. I gave him my resume and contact info and he smiled and told me that we would keep in touch.

I tried at least 8 other firms close to me with the same plea, but none of the others granted me an interview or called me back.  What kind of industry could turn down free labor in a bad economic sate?  Architecture.  They really do work for passion and not the money.

sigh.

It's back to the drawing board.