Be careful when using a hammer.

What a weekend. Phew. I cannot tell you how glad that I am it's over.

Friday was pleasant and the kids played in the neighbor's pool and it was all good.

And then Saturday came. It started pretty fine. Ran around town with the girl, did some stuff for VBS and figured out what needed done for our GS weekend in October. So that was good. Later that afternoon we had a Memorial Day bash with church friends. The mail came and along with it my new stamping tool for my jewelry tags. So I figured it would be the perfect time to stamp all of them (hundreds of them), it would only take an hour or two, so why not do it now? That's really what was going through my mind.

Wow. I wish I had re-thunk that! lol

Normally when I stamp (aka: hammer every tag) my house is quiet and peaceful. Void of children running about and making loud obnoxious noises that will interrupt my work. Ugh. So I decide that I'd just hammer these stamps and be done with them, kids or no kids.

Again. Bad idea.

So um, yeah. Something really NOT good happened. Not the worst thing in the world, no, but certainly NOT GOOD.

The girls were playing upstairs (hide-n-seek) and someone found someone in a closet and that someone screamed because she'd been found, and well, you get the idea.

And at the very moment that someone screamed (heart-stopping screams) was the very moment that I put hammer to my thumb. Not the stamp.

My thumb.

I didn't scream. I didn't cry. However, aside from the two tummy tucks I've endured in my life and the multitude of other crazy things I've done to myself during my life, this was probably the single worst pain I've ever experienced. I'm not joking. My mind was seeing stars and Nathaniel rushes to see if I'm okay. I couldn't even speak. I just kept holding my hand above my head, wishing that someone would take my thumb off my hand just for a moment, just to stop that throbbing pain.

Horrible.

(I stopped hammering my stamps about then.)

We had to leave for our party with friends. My hand was killing me. The blood was rushing to my thumb and turning black. ugh. ::sigh:: I pulled myself together and went to the party. First, I call Jeff and tell him what has happened. Here's his words of wisdom.

"You need to take your dremel and drill a hole in the nail bed so that some of the pressure can be relieved."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Is this a joke? I say.

"no no... not a joke. that's what you need to do."

YEAH. Forget that!

So I go to the party with the kids helping me bring chairs and food, trying to keep anyone, EVERYONE, from touching my thumb or even bumping into me.

I sat and chatted with friends. Tried to get my mind off of my pain, and then I thought I'd ask the hostess (whose husband is a carpenter) if he'd ever smashed his thumb.

"Oh YES. He has, lots of times! And his fingers too."

(so I show her my hideous thumb and she says...)

"Oh, that's terrible, what you need to do is drill a hole in the nail bed."

OH MY WORD. ARE THESE PEOPLE NUTS?

Turns out, Tom, the host, comes to tell me that indeed yes, this IS what you do and it will really help. UGH!!!!!

Okay. Here's the thing. Normally I don't believe anything my husband tells me because USUALLY he makes up crap and then I go running around spreading this crap to other people (ie: they paint the lines on burgers at Burger King, or the time he tells me to pee in a glass jar and pour it over the fungus growing on our mulch in the yard. yeah. nice.) So when he tells me to DRILL a hole in my nail bed, well that just seems NUTS. Right? I mean seriously, that sounds a bit OFF, right? Yeah, of course it does! Ugh. However, this time, this one time...

he. was. right.

So I went home and tried this.



Don't freak. And don't think this didn't hurt. It hurt so badly, I can't describe it.

There was lots of screaming going on in my head. In times of stress that happens to me. Does it happen to you? Chaos going on in your brain that sounds something like this, "OMG! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING???" lol

My drill bit is sharp, sharp-as-a-needle-sharp. So I wasn't worried that it would take a long time to get through the nail bed, I was just worried about what it would do once it DID get through. And this is what happened when the bit found its way to the tissue...



The above photo is when I had drilled a second hole in my nail. When I started the majority of my nail was black (from the blood) and once I put that hole in there, it all began to be released so it actually looks so much better.

I know you're thinking I'm nuts. lol I keep thinking it too, really. I'm learning that I have a high-tolerance to pain. lol

It's difficult to grasp things but the pain isn't as bad now, just a small headache in my thumb. lol I cannot bend my thumb either, that's annoying. All day on Sunday I couldn't put my arm down because the blood would rush to the finger. Ack. That was the worst. Now it's doing better and I think I'll be able to use it in a day or two.  However, it's inevitable that I will lose the nail bed. Bummers. That will be gross, no? I'll be sure to take pictures for you. You know, so you can be grossed out too?

I'm nice like that.

I hope your weekend was wonderful. :)