I was chopping up a candy bar to add to some ice cream, and I was using my brand new, super-sharp, large kitchen knife from Top Chef. We love Top Chef the TV show. So we gave their brand name kitchen knives a try, and we are super impressed with how well they cut through everything like butter.

I had managed to slice up most of the candy bar with impressive ease, and there was only one slice left to make. Just then, my wife asks for my attention.

"Hey Ryan, look at this", she says.

I turn my head just before making that last slice. I was not looking at the candy bar any longer and the knife sliced into my finger just as easy as it did anything else.

The Emergency Room

My wife teared up a bit, she was scared and worried but she was able to gain her composure getting to the ER. As we sat in line, other folks arrived to the ER and there was a lady who was crying pretty hard the entire time we waited. Whatever she had been through that night left her in panic, she was a total mess, and clearly having her worst day in a long time.

I kept pressure on my finger cut and I thought about what it is like to work in the ER. To get exposed to such tragedy every day. It would be impossible to shed tears for every single case that comes in the door, so I expected the staff to be very cold, and very clinical with me.

The ER Staff

A young Nurse Practitioner entered my room and introduced herself as the one who would be taking care of my cut. As she began to peel back the bandage my wife wrapped up for me, I began to bleed everywhere. The nurse jumped up with lightning speed to get some gauze and she was able to get the bleeding under control very quickly. I was impressed with her speed, skill, and confidence so I asked the nurse,

"Have you done this sort of procedure before?"

The young nurse turns her eyes away from my cut for a moment, looks at me and says,

"Lucky for you, I You Tube'd this procedure just before I came in here so I am feeling pretty confident about it right now"!

My wife and I looked at each other and started to laugh nearly instantly at what this gal had just said to us.

It turned out, I was totally wrong about the staff and how they might treat me. They were all very nice, supportive, funny, friendly and most of all... Knowledgable.

Dealing with Really Bad Cuts

The nurse numbed my entire finger so she could peel the cut back, and open it up wide for cleaning. While she was scrubbing away debris from the inside of the cut she said,

"You are lucky, you didn't even hit the finger nail. When people hit the finger nail, it makes things more complicated and many times, the fingernail doesn't grow back correctly."

I felt a lot better knowing that, because I had not looked at it myself. So I didn't really know what kind of damage I had done. The nurse starts to stitch up my cut after cleaning it out and she says,

"You are also lucky that you got here within 12 hours. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to fix a cut like this after 12 hours. There is too much bacteria in the cut at that point so all I am allowed to do is wrap up your cut and prescribe you some antibiotics. I would not be allowed to clean it and stitch it."

Again, I felt better about everything. It was a Friday night, 9:30 pm, I was drinking a beer and watching a movie with my wife and I had a kitty cat in my lap. The last thing I wanted to do was go to the Emergency Room. Once the bleeding was initially under control after cutting myself back at our house, I can remember thinking...

Do I really need to go to the ER now? If I just hold it really tightly, I can probably sleep through the night fine like this, and then just go to my family doctor in the morning, rather than the ER.

That would have been a bad move. They would not have been able to fix it for me at that point so I was glad that we made the decision to actually go into the ER that night.

Healing Up

After 10 days the 6 stitches came out and the skin on the outside began to peel off revealing fresh, smooth skin below.

After trimming it up, it is starting to look really good!