Did You Take a Picture?

There are two versions to the story you are about to read, the truth, and Steve's extended version.

October 14th, I was working on numerous projects around the shop (as usual). Pet Lodge had placed an order for another round of t-shirts with a full color print. For these we print the logo onto opaque solutions (thin white vinyl) and weed (with a dental pick) around Lodger. (I then place a heat sensitive mask material across it to transfer the print to the t-shirt.) Well, as I was weeding, I needed to grab a box down from the back shelf. Being the multi-tasker that I am, I held the dental pick in my left hand and reached for the box. The box stuck to another and they both started to come down. Using my typical gracelessness, I put my hands out to prevent the boxes from falling and ended up impaling the dental pick into my hand.

(For those with weak stomachs, skip this paragraph.) The pick punctured the skin approximately 3/4" below my left pinky finger. With the pick about an inch and a half deep into the skin, I panicked for a second and decided to try and pull this out! Yeah, didn't work so well. Then the EMT in me kicked in and I reminded myself the rules about impaled objects....don't pull them out! So I called Steve and this is how he describes our conversation;

J - Hkjsa hskldah cdshjkfhwp shfklashgd

S - Are you okay?

J - Hkjsa hskldah cdshjkfhwp shfklashgd

S - What happened?

J - Hkjsa hskldah cdshjkfhwp shfklashgd

S - Do I need to call 911?

J - NO

So once I finally spit out what had happened, I hung up with him and went to CIS. Thankfully John and Teresa were there and John drove me to Urgent Care. Once I was in there, the pick was out within 5 minutes (and numb...boy did I appreciate that!). In my line of work, a dental pick puncturing a hand seems out of the ordinary, so I had to explain what we actually use the picks for; An intriguing concept for most! (I had a few extra faces pop into my room to check out the incident!)

Steve arrived shortly after while I was finishing with my good ol' tetanus shot. Steve had only two questions for me. Thankfully he asked the correct question first, "Are you okay?"; This was followed by the line "did you take a picture?". What a guy! The jokes started flying after this and we all had a good laugh (the doctors, nurses and Steve more than I).

Steve drove me to the pharmacy and back to work shortly after this and was disappointed upon his arrival, noticing there was no blood anywhere in the shop! The extended version he created at this point, consisting of "gushing" and "spurtting", was the big joke around Seaglass Logowear for a few days.

It has been nearly two weeks, my hand is almost back to full function without pain. I was lucky not too do more damage! Don't worry Matt, we have joked about the incident and I don't hold you or Lodger responsible! (Sorry for the delay in the shirts!)

The valuable lesson learned, don't multi task with a dental pick in your hand!

Now every time Steve, Christina, Catie or Loressa sees me walking with one in the shop, they move out of the way and tell me to put it down! Fear!