Coffee 4-12- 14

LsFarm wrote:what are you allergic to?

Me? Flagyl & Lyrica.... that's it. Dr is fairly confident it's not an allergy, it's an infection.

I don't know the back story on the metal splinter, shrapnel, chunk of steel. It could easily be several years old & I just don't remember. It's a fairly common thing for me to come into the house & "NURSE! Clot break, come look & see what it needs" I get an automatic 18 minute break each time I draw blood. I clot sooner than that, but I absolutely, positively, can not get blood on fabric when I'm working. Of course if I'm in the "metal shop" blood doesn't matter, but I still afford myself the luxury of an entire 18 minutes. Here's a true story from less than 2 weeks ago that give an idea of how I might have gotten the "implant". I was making an oval sign out of 1/2" "signboard" ( 1/2" marine plywood with aluminum on both sides). I made a stainless steel band to go all the way around it with some welded eyes to hang it from. While drilling and countersinking holes every 8 inches, a drill broke while using the drill press. Part stayed in the steel, part stayed in the press, but a third corkscrew shaped part flew the 12 inches and lodged into my belly, right in the inward slope of my belly button. I tugged my t-shirt thinking it would just pop out , but, it tore a hole in my t-shirt. Still sticking out of my belly was this 3/4" sliver of corkscrew shaped drill steel sticking out of my belly....bloody on one end & a scrap of t-shirt on the other. I yanked it out & that was that. Now.... I suppose it might have been longer & deeper than I thought and it broke leaving the piece in my little finger....but that's a lonnnnng stretch to be part of this story. LOL I'm sure some similar story from 1 or 11 years ago accounts for the steel in my hand.

Off to the drug store for antibiotics. Eloise just got here. I can't drive, that's for sure.... I've been sleepy & drifty all morning.

Enjoy!

<edit> Here's a photo of my thumb. You can see how germs might find an easy path in. My fingrers are alwasy like that.... I work my hands hard! Also...an enhanced version of the x-ray.

The Dr gave me the x-ray pics....if you ever want copies of any x-ray, just ask! YOU paid for them, they will give them, but sometimes you have to come back & get them from a different department.

Freddy, just to let you know anything real close to the belly button you have to be careful with as it is a direct line to the liver & can lead to a very bad infection.

Now, I'm not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn at least once or twice in the last ten years. !

It seems 'odd' to me that if you have an infection from that chip of metal, that you don't have a red spot, soreness, swelling on the finger and at the point of entry.

Did you use any new chemicals? Solvents, parts cleaners.?

Just seems odd that you 'all of a sudden' get this significant swelling.. You sure you didn't get an insect bite ??

Greg L

Freddy wrote:Here's a photo of my thumb. You can see how germs might find an easy path in. My fingers are always like that.... I work my hands hard!

My hands tend to look like that or worse, due to chronically dry skin more than to hard work. Whenever I do almost any work now, I slip on disposable vinyl gloves and throw them out when done. Saves many harsh skin-drying hand washings per day. We buy them by the case (1000) from Overstock.com. They are thin enough to give good feel and dexterity for all except tiny screws and such. Avoid latex and especially powdered latex; some people can develop severe allergies to latex.

LsFarm wrote:It seems 'odd' to me that if you have an infection from that chip of metal, that you don't have a red spot, soreness, swelling on the finger and at the point of entry.

The Dr thinks the infection is NOT from that piece of metal. We will never know just what caused it. That's OK.... one every 59 years...I can deal with that. I might not get it removed. We'll see what the surgeon thinks.

I use nitrile gloves They are way better than latex...the price reflects it!

I need a nap. See you!

Cripes,Fred,You look like the Stay-Puff Marshmellow Man from Ghostbusters ! It's Time for a "Little Freddy Time" ! You seem like one Hell of a Multi-Tasker,so I think You're now the Best CareGiver To Both You And Marty ! Stay up on that hand,Mister ! Thank Miss Eloise from all of us for the Relief Role ! Due to very early appointments,Late Night Coffee on the Porch is 'gonna do !

We had a pretty significant weather event last night. at about 7pm I think. I heard thunder saw the black clouds in the distance, to the west, there were rain shafts falling from the cloud bases. Looked pretty neat, but the thunder was really grumbling.
So, I shut down the shop, brought in the JD. And closed the doors. I took along a thermostat housing that I needed to clean up on the wire wheel of the bench grinder in the basement of the house.
So while I was downstairs I heard a hell of a bang, sounded like someone dropped something heavy on the floor above.
A moment later another one..

So upstairs I go, and the wind is just howling, and then comes the machine-gun rattling/banging on the siding and windows ! 1/2" hail covering the ground.. it came down at a 45* angle from the wind blowing it.. After about 5 minutes the hail tapered off, and soon the wind dropped, and the black cloud moved off east.

WHOA.. Grumpy lives east of me about 30 miles.. so I gave him a call, told him to bolt down the shutters and close the windows.. Glad I did call.

His weather event was much worse, he lost two telephone poles on his street, power lines down and arcing to the ground, one of his trees blew over and is blocking traffic on his road. He had a big piece of roofing membrane on a flat roof peel up and numerous other bits of damage. He's still without power, internet, etc. But his cell phone still works.

I'll upload some photos later.
Greg L

Well it seems the weather created some excitement for me too.
The wind kept carrying a whiff of smoke to me this afternoon. the wind was occasionally from the northwest.

So I took a break from working in the shop and took a short walk north up the 2-track.. and found the smoke.

It seems one of those very loud bangs I heard last night was a lightning strike on a tree out back, about 200-250 yards north of the house. The lightning hit a live tree, but there was a dead tree right next to it.. the dead tree caught fire, and it appears that it burnt pretty well for quite awhile last night and this morning.

I found a log or two smoldering, I buried them in sand and watched for a while to see that there was no more smoke.

Photos of the hail first, then photos from today, from the burning tree.

It came thru here first - very nice light show for the daytime
blew off a shed door but it was rotten - so that was my morning project
wasn't watchin what I should have and twisted my ankle - so now I can sit here with it on a pillow and yack about how dumb I feel

LsFarm wrote:We had a pretty significant weather event last night

Sting wrote:It came thru here first -
blew off a shed door

Well, Cripes! It sure looks like you came close to having things much, much worse. I guess the tiny bit of snow that we had today isn't worth mentioning. I'm glad you're all OK.

My swelled up hand is much better, and I feel much better... I can see my veins again & the pain is down to almost zero. Tell me again why I need to take 8 more days of antibiotics? Noooo, don't, I understand why..... just wish I didn't have to.

Ask Marty why you need to keep taking the antibiotics !! She'll tell ya !!

Glad your hand is shrinking back to normal size.

Greg L

As Greg said........

Ow !

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