Beware the Splinter

So, I'm up in West Point, GA putting in a new 911 answering system. I'm walking into the PD and heading back to the dispatch area. They have these half doors that you pass through, and the technician in front of me has half opened the door. I place my hand on it to open it all the way, and as I walk by my hand slides a little along the top of the door. I feel a jerk.

I look down at my hand and see a hole in my skin. I press on the hole, and notice a white dot against the skin of my palm about 1.5 inches away from the hole. I realize that I have a splinter in my hand, and judging by the way it is stretching out my skin, it's pretty big.

The dispatcher radios the FD next door and I meet the Chief for some impromptu "poor man's surgery." After he uses the top of an epi needle to slice away some of the skin (no anesthetic mind you), he is able to grasp the top of the wood with a blunt pair of tweezers (felt good when he was digging in there). However, when he pulls, my skin gets pulled, and it looks like it won't back out. I'm told, "you have to see a doctor."

I wait 1.5 hours in the waiting room of their local doctor (this is a small town on the border of GA and AL), I finally see the PA. She proceeds to stare at my hand and then tell me I need to go to an OR. Unfortunately for her, the OR doc is out of town, so she gets her doc to agree to do it.

So, this family practice quickly converts to a makeshift OR, and I am swapped with betadine. I then get two shots of Lidocaine into the wound (feels wonderful), and in about 2 minutes, I can't feel a thing. The doc whips out the trusty scalpel and proceeds to filet my palm (not that bad, really). He widens the entry enough to get forcepts around the head of the piece of wood and it slowly backs out.

Took 2 stitches to put me back together. The installation went flawlessly as soon as I returned to the job site. Below is evidence of the ordeal.