not much pain today, just this dull discomfort when i woke up this morning. by the afternoon i couldn't feel anything. i didn't take anymore advil except for one i took right before bed last night. i was curious to remove the gauze so i could check out the healing progress. the only other pain was on my left arm where i got the tetanus shot, felt pretty sore.
i was going to go to rite aid to get some finger bandaids, but my mother said she was going as well and if i waited i could get a ride. many hours later both my parents showed up at my place with a bag full of medical supplies they got from home. turns out i didn't need the bandaids after all, i just needed to remove the bandages. i showed my parents my new stitches and explained to them just how exactly i managed to knife myself yesterday.
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is it normal for suture ends to just stick out like that? i sort of want to vut them but maybe there's a reason why they're long like that. they remind me everything from whiskers, to the spines on a fly's body, to a bristly caterpillar, to the trigger hairs on a venus flytrap. they actually sort of function like real whiskers because i can feel them when i gently run my finger across them. my thumb looks pretty beat up and scary gross. i'd be embarrassed to go outside with my hand looking the way it does. some blood is still seeping out from a small crack in the fingernail, i hope that's normal. there doesn't seem to be any signs of infections. the fact that i'm not feeling any pain is probably a good sign. i haven't tried to flex my thumb yet, i'm afraid of rupturing the stitches or disrupting the natural bonding process. i also want to give my thumb a good washing to remove some of the dried blood but i don't want to make things any worse. i'm trying to imagine what my thumb will look like when it's healed and what kind of scar i'll have. i still have some stitching scars on the corner of my mouth when i slipped and fell at age 5. i look forward to adding another one to my small collection.
three more things i can't easily do without the use of my right hand: feed my fish, shampoo my hair, and turn the pages of a book. speaking of which, making transparent soap by catherine tailor arrived today. soap making seems a little complicated and slightly dangerous (mixing volatile chemicals, boiling flammable compounds), sort of reminds me of cooking meth (from what i've seen on television). can't wait to get started though. i will of course take all the necessary safety precautions. after my latest handshake with danger, i'm mr.safety-first now.