They say you don't want to die without any scars.
I've already gotten a couple good scars on me from accidents over the years, but last night's story is a good one.
Most of Baltimore is still dealing with fallout from Hurricane Sandy. Thousands of homes are still without power and schools are closed throughout the region. I spent most of the storm at my girlfriend's house helping her take care of her kids, but my roommate text me Monday night, asking if I'd be home the next day. Apparently there was minor flooding in the basement of our house and he needed help cleaning it up. I told him depending on how the weather was on Tuesday, I'd be home to help him.
Sandy ended up not being as destructive around Baltimore as was expected, so I headed back to my place yesterday. My roommate had rented a high power fan to dry up the water in the basement, but he wanted to dispose of the old sectional couch that was down there. We took the pieces out back one at a time, and then eventually took them out to the trash.
I should mention that the basement in this house is barely 6 feet high, and since I'm 6'1 I have to duck a little to walk around down there. I've banged my head on pipes and beams down there on many occasions, some leaving a good welt on me.
While we were putting the finishing touches on putting everything back together down there, I banged my head on a metal pipe that ran from one end of the basement to the other. I was already ducking to avoid hitting it, but somehow I managed to really hit it hard.
On a metal corner.
I let out a few four-letter words, grabbing my head where I hit it. This time felt a little different, and when I had pulled my hand away from my head I saw it covered in blood. I went upstairs to put some pressure on it with paper towels, and fortunately the bleeding slowed down pretty quickly. My roommate looked at the wound on my head and immediately wondered if I needed stitches at all. I washed my hands off and looked at it in the mirror. I immediately expected to need stitches, not just to close the wound, but to put the chunk of skin dangling from my head back in place. Yummy.
We got to the ER and I checked myself in. There were several other people there waiting for medical attention, so I had to sit around for a while before a nurse was able to see me. Finally they called me back, and the nurse practitioner checked me out. I think she was genuinely impressed with my wound since she wasn't quite sure how to sew it back together.
She eventually put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but the best part came last. She said she recommended that I not go into work today because the wound needed 24 hours to heal before I washed the area with any kind of soap. I was supposed to have a training class this week at work, which was canceled due to the storm, so I knew I wouldn't be missing anything. So I ended up with an extra day off to watch bad daytime TV and do stuff around my place.
Maybe giving myself a million dollar wound occasionally while I'm still living here is worth an extra day off.
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