» DIY Surgery

Nail bother
I'm about 9 and dummy-wrestling (as in WWF as it was known at the time) with some friends and my brother out in the fields in the middle of town. I go along with a kind of DDT (a headlock cum piledriver) which is when a more odd than painful sensation occurs on my right kneecap.

Until I try moving my right leg when it is all painful. I pull up my jeans to see a dirty old nail sticking out of my kneecap (just to the right of the boney part in that soft, smooth bit of skin). I hobble off homewards and by the time I get in there's a fair deal of blood down my leg and pooling in my shoes.

My mum sees me examining the wound with my new pointy friend and without much fuss she prepares a poultice and some other solution for
cleaning the wound. She takes the nail out using her fingers. Then nail was surprisingly long, I thought it might be an inch or two but it was more like 3-4 inches. Cleaned the wound with cotton buds and antiseptics. Then squeezed the poison out which had got in there surprisingly quickly. Removed cleaning
poultice, applied dressing poultice and that was me, good as new!

Except I can still predict thunderstorms by using my right leg.
(Fri 21st Jan 2011, 8:49, More)