Time (and medical attention) Heals All Wounds by niallsb: Forevolution
January 24th, 2008 1:11 AM / Location: -40.76151,145.29679Okay, I'm pretty sure the majority of you won't have any problems looking at these pictures, the warning was just for the squeamish and also some shameless self promotion (I'm very,very sorry)
Day 1
This task started when I cut myself during the preparation for the critically aclaimed Fun With Food task.
I was cutting up the Big Bosses that would make up the grid for the game of Battleships with Lowteck when my knife slipped into my thumb.
The cut wasn't that deep, but more long. I had cut into and across the skin. I wasn't so horrible that I was bleeding everywhere but it took a few minutes to stem the flow completely.
I actually had read this task and kept it in the back of my mind, just in case, no sorry, when I hurt myself. The optimist and opportunist in me (he's the same person; take what you can get, count your blessing ect.) quickly grabbed my brother's camera and got some shots:
Sorry about the focus. I only found out about the macro function later. Y'know, when I wasn't bleeding.
That night I wrapped it in a bandaid and then later that night impulsively decided to go for a 25 mile walk. No, I do not blame the blood loss for my actions. Ever.
Day 2
After an incredibly long sleep in (can you blame me?), I took the bandaid off and took more pictures. The wound actually looks really awful in the photos, but I suppose it could have been:
Now the yellowish tinge was only brought on by the soft, cottony bit of the bandaid which, for some incredibly stupid reason, was yellow. My skin wasn't/isn't/hasn't been horribly infected with some mad, stampeding cow disease. I apologise for the grossness. I should have put a warning up the top or something...
...Okay, have done that.
Day 3
This wound was one of those cuts that just won't stay closed. You know the ones I mean: the long thin cuts that open as soon as you bend your thumb/finger/appendage. This was like a worse version of a paper cut, because it was made by a knife (metal cut just sounds ambiguously stupid). Although the cut wouldn't stay closed, the deepest point had healed up while the rest of the loose-ish skin had started to die:
Day 4Although the cut looks worse here, it's actually getting better. The red colour in the thumb means that more blood is moving to my thumb to help it heal (I think). It's actually formed a proper scab as well, for which I am relieved:
Present DayIt's been about 7 or eight days since I've cut myself. All that's left is a scar where my cut used to be. The scar's quite visible now but I'm sure it will still fade a bit more before it's completely healed. I am AOK now:
8 vote(s)
Ben Whitehouse
5
GYØ Ben
5
Lizard Boy
5
Lincøln
5
susy derkins
5
Augustus deCorbeau
5
JJason Recognition
5
Sir Ducksbane
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(none yet)8 comment(s)
Vote for bending you appendage, and for revealing to be awfully squeamish yourself. I was expecting nicely gore images of bleeding, oozing thumbs.
I wonder if the cut will mess up your prints for ID purposes. That would be cool.
I clicked each and every one of those links, even though I knew what was coming...
Anyway, Doesn't pineapple juice wear your fingerprints away?
Oh, does it?!
Attendance is registered on a fingerprint machine at work. I could show them that the stupid device is broken and they´ll send away for repairs! Talk about lounging against the machine.
Where is my piña colada?
Whoah.
What sort of Orwellian business do you work for?
Whether the cut messes things up is an interesting question. It probably makes it harder to compare to old prints, but certainly not impossible.
If it turns into a scar (unlikely, from the looks of it), that will make the scar much more distinctive and make fingerprinting easier in the future.
And lots of chemicals, including mild acids like pineapple juice, as well as lab solvents and such, will remove prints with prolonged use (usually years, though it can be faster, iirc).
A while back I was (quite briefly) an intern with a couple groups dedicated to improving labor conditions for migrant farmworkers. Before I was there one of them once worked with a woman who had no fingerprints.
All of the lines in your hand wear away with serious use. Manual laborers have far fewer than people in cushier jobs. In extreme situations it even extends to the little ones like fingerprints.
In her case, she'd been working in the fields since she was very young, and she was in her late fifties or so - old, for a farmworker; the average lifespan is in the forties because of exposure to occupational hazards like getting sprayed with pesticide while working - and her fingerprints had completely worn away.
This was a bit of a problem when she applied for US citizenship and the INS wanted to print her.
Normal people's scars might heal a little better than mine. My skin likes to scar (apparently) and my body is, well, not pockmarked, but has quite a few pink or white patches on it where I have done things that cause me pain.
My knee looks like moon rock, you can even feel the uneveness of it.
Vote is for the random backgrounds. A more clever player than I might try to extract a story from them.