**NOT 2009** A Blitz Tale part 1

[SharkHart]

Pulling into the hospital I started to already think "oh man this is going to take long in the ER, I don't think I am going to get back there any time soon".

I walked in with my hand hid under my sweatshirt, as I didn't want to alarm any women and children. Checking in you have to eventually say why you are in the ER, and I sheepishly told her I had a hook in me I need removed.

She made me show her and she instantly hit me with "now you know how the fish feel!"

She went on to tell me I was 6th person to come in for such an issue since the weekend and explained how the last guy had a pretty gold lure dangling from his hand. Looking out over the waiting area I saw maybe 3 other people, and 2 appeared to be together, "well maybe this won't take long" as I started to watch Al Roker and Matt Lauer.

About 30 to 40 minutes later they called my name and took me into the real ER area. It looked like a MASH unit back there, people were everywhere! They put me behind a curtained area where I waited close to 2 hours before the doctor came to see me. He took a look at the treble sticking straight down the tip of my index finger and asked the nurse to find some wire cutters. He came back with two needles -- one a tetanus shot for my arm and the other was to numb my index finger. The numbing shot turned out to be the worst part as it wasn't just a prick under the skin as I thought it would be. Half the needle did a disappearing act straight down into my finger and burned like hell. This made my already hooked finger feel about 10 times worse until he pulled that needle out. "Great now pull out the hook and I am out of here". I had to wait another 15 minutes for the finger to go numb.

The doctor didn't seem want to tell me the plan, but I was pretty sure what was next. He grabbed the hook with some pliers and began to push rather then pull. I had to look... I saw another area on the tip of my finger go white before seeing the barb come pushing out the other side.

He grabbed the wire cutters and he tried but was unable to clip the barb off. He muttered something about stainless steel and the size of the hook and asked me reposition and lay my arm flat across the table. He called a nurse in to help and said to me "I need you to use your good hand to help hold your arm down good"

"WHAT!" I have to hold my own arm down! When I seen how much strain and pressure the Doc put on those pliers I couldn't help but to think with a slip of those pliers or my arm could lead to much pain and me squealing like a pig. I just about cut off the circulation pressing down on arm to prevent any slips, the doctor said: "close your eyes".

"great, now I have to close my eyes too"

The barb finally gave way and shot across the room like a bullet. The doctor pulled the hook back through the entry spot and quickly left to attend to others. Another short wait went by before a nurse appeared with a tray of various bandages,gauze, and plastic wraps. Looking at this tray it was clear she intended to wrap me up like Tutankhamen.

Before she could get started I stopped her with a special request, " I can't bandage this up because I won't be able to fish with one hand!" She asked me if I was serious and started to lecture me about a fresh wound being susceptible to bacteria, and I shouldn't risk getting it dirty for a day or two.

Obviously not understanding the allure of a blitz, she still seemed intent on wrapping me up good. She said: " I'll be right back I am going to make something for your finger if you really have to go fishing again." After she left the curtain area she ran into another nurse and I immediately heard "he wants to go back to the beach"

A few minutes later the nurse reappeared with what was calling a padded finger condom. She made a contraption of gauze and some tape, slid it over my entire finger, and then applied a rubber finger over the whole mess.

It was huge! It looked like a had giant cartoon finger. The numbing medicine had spread to most of my hand but my thumb and pinkie were good enough to pencil pop, I figured. She gave me some larger type band aids and antiseptic for later in the week... ha! big mistake for that nurse.

After checking out of there I found a nice trash can in the parking garage to toss the finger contraption into and began to do my own post op work on my finger with the extra bandages she gave me. I cut down the tip of the rubber finger she gave me and using some scotch tape put the finishing touches on a much smaller finger tip only wrap.