That Didn’t Feel Too Good…

My surprise trip to Urgent Care

They say when you make plans, God laughs… Yesterday I spent over an hour writing out my to do list for the week, Monday through Friday, morning through afternoon… I was ready to have a very productive week! 

After that, I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes to warm up for my tennis lesson. I had a great tennis lesson, saw a friend that I grew up playing tennis with and hadn’t seen in 15 years. My serve is finally coming back. The week was off to a great start!

I got home and began preparing my lunch. A veggie omelet. Nothing special for me. I made one this weekend. 

I was mincing the garlic clove, and on my last chop, I sliced the tip of my finger. 

Luckily it didn’t go too deep!!

Over the years I have been CPR, lifeguard, and wilderness first aid certified, so I knew to immediately put pressure on it and ran to the sink to look at it and rinse it off. 

Yes, there was blood flowing out of my finger, but not gushing!!

Once I rinsed it off, and still kept applying pressure, my mom grabbed me a paper towel. 

Continued to apply pressure.

Next move was to call my cousin who is a nurse.

Luckily she understood the urgency when I called her during her 4 kids’ virtual lunchtime without any text warning. Whew!

We explained what happened, sent her a photo, and asked if it was worth going to the Emergency Room or an Urgent Care. Both are 10 minutes away from my house. 

With COVID cases not being great, we both were hesitant for me to go to the E.R. 

Due to the cut not being terribly deep, we both thought I wouldn’t need stitches, but I would definitely need it cleaned out and either get my cut glued or steri-strips.

She called the Urgent Care, explained my situation, and had created a plan. They let my mom register for me while I waited in the car. They called me when the nurse was ready to see me. They had me in a private room. Oh the things you don’t want to think about but have to during COVID times!

I’m sure this sounds very uneventful and you may be wondering why I thought I should write a blog post about it… stay tuned!

I get to my room, a nurse takes my vitals, and I sit down on the bed. I still had my finger wrapped in a (somewhat) bloody paper towel.

The nurse removed the paper towel and placed my finger in a cup of distilled water. It had stopped bleeding at that point. Woohoo!

The nurse started to ask me a few questions, and this is where I get slightly frustrated that I have to go into detail about my medical history. (I didn’t express my frustration to the nurse – it’s slightly exhausting making sure that you are telling the nurse enough info.)

“Have you had a flu shot this year?” Thankfully I was allowed to get one right after Thanksgiving. My new immune system’s first shot!

Halfway through the questions, the nurse asked me when my last period was and what day it started on…

“Uhhh it was over 2.5 years ago, and I have no idea what that date was…” I told him nicely.

Then I proceeded to tell him that I had a bone marrow transplant 14 months ago and have done lots of chemo and that’s why I haven’t had a period. 

Next question. 

“Have you had a tetanus shot?” He said.

Now MOST people have had a tetanus shot for many years at this point. I pause, and go, “Oh no, uh oh, I only have the flu, meningitis, pneumonia shots and something else. And I just got those two weeks ago…”

Looks like I was getting a shot!!

I said that I had to call my oncologist to make sure that it was OK for me to get it. I knew that it most likely wouldn’t be a problem, but I’d rather just call and double check and make sure they didn’t need me to do or get anything else done. You never know!

Guess who got their tetanus shot!!

(I can’t really bend my middle finger…)

It was quite an eventful day. I got steri-strips, I got my tetanus shot, and I am on an antibiotic for 10 days. 

Just when you think something won’t be too complicated, there’s always more to it when you’re a cancer patient!