Friday, December 22, 2006

New scars, and my doggie charge.

So there I was, ready to start another day of tanning and relaxing. I figured I'd hydrate before playing at being a lizard. I had a bottle half-full of water. I needed a big glass to pour the water in it. I looked in one of the kitchen's many cabinets, and find a nice, big, 2004-olympics-edition coca-cola glass. Neat!

I took it out, and saw a nice crack in it. Ah well, if they still had it in there among the glasses that were being used, it'd probably still hold. I did remember that I had to wash it before using it, though, 'cause this wonderfully warm country is the perfect breeding ground for cockroaches, and they get their filthy paws everywhere, so it's a good tip to rinse anything that was kept away before using it.

I was all energetic, looking forward to the sun, so I just quickly put water in the glass and started rubbing the edge in a circular motion, trying to rub off all the little pawprints...

Crack!

All I felt was a stab on my thumb's knuckle. My first reaction was to start cursing, upset that I had been so dumb as to use a cracked glass. I looked at my hand. A small semi-circle was drawn in dark red on it. Now I had to worry about bleeding all over the place... I just stood there, frozen for a couple of seconds, seeing the cut and wondering what I could grab that wouldn't remain stained. I finally ran for some toilet paper in the bathroom.

The cut was small, but seemed deep. Nice big drops of blood kept forming on the surface. After the anger, I started to worry. I was alone in the house. Just last week I went to get a vaccine and I had fainted. Visions of me splayed on the floor, bleeding, with no one to find me for another couple of days, got me up and running.

The phone. I had to call someone. One of the nephews of the family whose house I was staying at lived nearby, and he had been helping me over the week to run errands and answer any question I had. He was also the same guy that had gotten more scared than I had when I fainted at the pharmacy... So I wasn't sure how useful he'd be for an emergency, but he was the only person I could call right away.

The first thing he asked me was if I felt faint. ;) I said no, but last time I had also felt fine up to the moment we were leaving... I seem to have a delayed-reaction fainting system... :P He said he'd call some doctor and come pick me up. I started to get ready, trying to get dressed while holding the bandaging in place... left food for the dog, closed all the doors.. At some point I did start getting woozy. I couldn't let myself go! I started jumping up and down, kept saying "no!" and looked for any sugary stuff in the kitchen. I poured honey into my mouth straight from the bottle, and ate cookies. Then I went outside to wait.

He showed up half an hour later.

In a scooter.

I looked at him, worried. Yeah, he means well, but definitely not the right person for emergencies...

It didn't help that on the way over we almost ran over a child.

His girlfriend's brother was the doctor we went to see. He was home for lunch and he could check the wound, see if it needed anything serious.

Final verdict: had he been in the office, he might have considered putting some stitches in. As it was, he disinfected it and put a band-aid on it. Said it should be fine if I didn't bend the thumb too much.

We were on our way back after about 15 minutes, where I took the time to calm down and be sure I could get back on the scooter.

I didn't think to take pics right away, unfortunately, but I did take some the day after. You can check the wound out, and see also pics of the doggie I'm taking care of (in this trip I've taken care of more pets than I've had in my whole life...!) and another cool nature shot.

'Til the next adventure! :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hej, hej, Valeria. Happy Christmas and my wishes for a spectacular New Year. I will be in NYC for several days after Christmas. Let me know when you will be travelling through the northeast US; perhaps we can arrange a visit. Take care...please!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh y dices que no tienes material para tu libro... jeje.. ese es el comedy break de alguna escena dramatica jejejeje.. el mae en scooter estuvo genial. Mejor llamas a apuy la prox vez :P

Anonymous said...

срећан божић и срећна нова година !
e vediamo cosa ti ricordi di cirillico...