Not Today

They took out half of my stitches. Or, rather, they took out half of my stitches in the peripheral areas, and in the red-yellow middle parts they left them all in. I started with 19, they took out 7 and now I have 11. I don't know how that works.

I was waiting in the little chair in a curtained-off area for a long time. The stitches nurse wanted to wait for the wound nurse and my regular doctor to have a look. I love that wound nurse--she's this old filipina lady who is so cute and funny. She told me she didn't want to tape the bandage to my leg because I was very hairy. Also, she said not to get the "steri strips" (which is apparently what they put where stitches used to be) wet. When we asked if that meant no shower, she said "no, just spit baths."

I mentioned to the stitches nurse that I still had some numbness. She said that, because the nerves were cut, it might take a while for that to go away and *whispers ominously* it might never go away. But also to ask my doctor. He happily told me it was just a matter of time, and that the swelling was pushing on my nerves and it wasn't anything to worry about. Take that, stitches nurse! But I really liked her otherwise and didn't hold that against her.

It was the little place where people get vaccinations and TB tests and stuff. Needly things. I couldn't see the people who came in, but one middle-aged sounding lady marched in very loudly, complaining in a slightly jocular manner about how this was the one that hurt a lot and she was terrified. "Can I have like a leather strap or something to bite on while you do it?" She asked. I couldn't tell if she was joking, but I don't know that I'd joke to a complete stranger that when I think pain, I also immediately think of biting and leather. Also, it ended up not hurting at all, by her admission. But she told the nurse to inform the doctor that it was awful, very painful and such, and the needle broke, and a lot of blood, but that she handled it well. I'm sure the nurse really wants the reputation for screwing up routine shingles or something vacs.

I'm sleeping under the quilt that I held to the wound in the car. That quilt was once sort of annoying to me because it was in the car ALWAYS and just took up room. It was covered with little leaves and twigs and branches and stuff, so it was totally unusable, making it completely in the way. So I found a use for it and an excuse to make someone else wash it. Although now I'm starting to wonder if it's not bruising, but leaves and twigs and dirt pressing on my nerves and keeping the area around my knee numb.