Wow, I’m really surprised that talking about the nude spas in the previous post didn’t generate more comments. Oh well, I never know what will spark comments, but it was a bit of a shocking experience to me.
Friday’s plan was lots of sewing and then post a Work in Progress before I got into the Morocco photos. Unfortunately, I never made it because I ended up having a sewing accident and had to go to the ER for stitches. Warning: Rotary cutter blades are sharp!!!
The Weapon
As I was taking apart my rotary cutter to put in a sharper blade, I dropped it and immediately jumped back. My Mother-in-law has given me all kinds of warnings about how dangerous those are after she had one drop on her foot years back. I thought about that as soon as I dropped the blade, especially since I only had socks on. Unfortunately, the blade hit the ground and rolled around, with my foot landing on it. Yikes!!
I don’t do well with the sight of blood (and there was a lot), but I was able to bandage it up to stop the bleeding. I messaged Thomas online about what happened and told him that it was deep enough that it would probably need stitches, so he came on home to help me navigate our first time with the Belgian healthcare system.
It all turned out okay. Once he was home, we called a taxi to take us to the local hospital. They gave me 5 stitches and a tetnus shot and sent me home. There were, however, a few differences in how everything worked:
- I didn’t have to fill out any forms. They just swiped my identity card and had all the info they needed.
- No money was exchanged at the hospital. A bill will be mailed to me, and since I forgot my insurance card, I can work that out afterward.
- They used tough threads that need to be removed rather than the disintegrating kind. I get them removed by my general physician, rather than back at the hospital.
- I *think* that if I had needed the stitches before 5PM, I could have had my general physician put them in rather than the ER.
- They gave me a prescription for antibiotics, but we had to search for a pharmacy that is open past 6PM. They’re generally closed then, but they rotate which one is open later, printing the list in the newspaper or online.
- The ER was thorough and good, but more with a tough love kind of feeling. I was surprised that they didn’t give crutches – yes, I can hobble around without them, but the US would have given me some, at least so I didn’t step on the wound before it was sewn up. This one was the biggest surprise to me.
It all worked out and though I didn’t get any real sewing done, my friend Sarah is coming over today so we can work on our projects together.
Since I can’t stand the sight of blood, myself, I’ll hold off on posting more photos in this post, but if you really want to see more, they’re on Flickr:
P.S. No quilt blocks were harmed in the making of this blog post.
