Keep the tip

Over the weekend a bunch of high school friends and I got together again for the first time in a long time. It was great to see everyone, but I had to travel quite a distance back out there as I've done a bit of moving since graduating. Unfortunately, only half of the people we were expecting turned up, and from them only half the people could really stick around for the full time - however one of the people leaving was leaving for work a few restaurants down from where we were.

So we tagged along :D

It was a great night of catching up, with plans to get the full gang together again soon (damn pikers ;P). At the second restaurant for the night we grabbed some dessert and were entertainingly served by our friend (who, after a few jokes from the gang I'm scared we almost got fired - sorry!).

So where does this blog come into all of this? As we went to pay for the dessert, my friend tells me (rather sheepishly) that one of the kitchen staff had an 'accident' in the kitchen. With a knife. And their fingertip. Well, an ex-fingertip.

Kitchen staff are notorious for these kinds of injuries, so I thought they'd probably know what to do, but offered to have a look at it anyway - which was kindly accepted. On my way in I PPE'd up from my belt pouch much to the amusement of my friends. The injury was fairly minor, she had taken the tip of her finger off but had left little skin remaining - they had found the tip from the floor but the likelihood of re-attachment was low given the size. The main concern was the bleeding, as she kept removing the paper towel they had over the finger to 'show everyone'. This has the lovely effect of removing any clots that may have formed to stop the bleeding, the end result making the wound appear much worse than it is and increasing the time taken for a proper clot to form.

After asking for one more show so I could assess, I got a knuckle bandaid and used the non-adhesive dressing over the tip and told her to keep pressure on it, put some wrapped up ice around the finger to reduce blood flow, told her to keep the hand elevated and do not use the hand - at all. She would have to go to A&E; best case to do a proper clean and cover, worst case to get a skin graft to cover the tip to let it heal properly. She had taken a fair chunk off the tip... After a bit of chit chat they worked out it was best to get a private car to the hospital and so I left them be to return to my friends.

One thing my friends and kitchen staff commented on was the gloves. They asked if I always carried them (to which the answer was yes) and why (to which the answer is you never know when you'll need them). A pair of gloves are a wondrous thing to have on your person at all times - they make great ice bags, let you pick up undesirables and other assorted fun items and, occasionally, can be used for first aid. For this reason and others I always carry my belt pouch regardless of where I'm going and I'm finding time and time again how valuable the little bugger is. $15 is a small investment for piece of mind.

I'll have to remember to check how the finger went and what A&E did, depending if they mind or not I'll throw the update in here. I think the hardest part of this job was resisting the urge to make the plethora of rather poor jokes that were running through my head at the time - although I am afraid to say one or two snuck out.

Read the post title one more time - and let that sigh/giggle out ;)