It Hurts to Get Hurt

We've had a pretty rough last two weeks here at the farm. Of course, the worst of it all has been Eddie's ordeal.


I'm so happy to report, though, that Eddie has a localized cellulitis (infection right under the skin) that caused his leg to swell up and go lame. Things could have been so much worse. He could have had joint ill or even an injury to his already-compromised joints, but thank goodness, he doesn't. This morning he was swinging his leg around freely. I think that he'll be walking on it quite soon. Yay!

In the meantime, Suzie rolled into the fencing and skinned up her back leg. Thankfully nothing even broke the skin. Then Paula's eye was infected and the meds are on backorder, but again, thankfully, that cleared up on its own.

Then there's me. I can barely type this as my hands feel like raw hamburger. Over the last few weeks I've gotten lots of small splinters under my skin from working around the place--splinters that are too small to extract, but of course they always get up under the skin, dig around, cause a small infection and hurt like hell.

Then yesterday I got a couple of nice big wounds to finish it off:


I got a splinter right through the meat of my middle finger of my right hand. The above picture actually isn't mine, but it's very close to what happened to me. Unfortunately while I tried to remove most of it I think some of it is still in there. I tried to "operate" last night but it was much too painful. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach. In the meantime, "Ouch."

I'd to to the hospital but by the time they open it up and I get stitches I'm sure I'll have to come up with the full $500 deductable, which, after Eddie's ordeal now reaching close to a grand in meds, salves, bandages, vet calls, etc., I just don't have to spare.

Then while trying to trim Eddie's foot on his good leg while he was laying down (since, if you'll remember, he's still lacking the shelf he needs to stand on on his bad leg while I do his good one, I thought I'd take advantage of his naps to trim him), I did this to myself.

Rasp and knuckles do not mix. I've done this so many times over the last 5 years I've been trimming that I have scars now. I haven't done it for a long time, though, as I usually have gloves but mine have fallen apart and I've put off order more due to all the additional expenses I've had. Anyway, this is on my left, the splinter on my right and my hands were sore to begin with.

The important thing is we're all doing ok, though! We'll all heal, and maybe this just means that we're getting all of the year's injuries over with early in the year!

One can only hope....