This morning I was very foolish. I was out gardening wearing flip flops. Standing on the rocks in the front garden I was removing columbine seed heads. In order to reach some at the back of the bed I put my foot onto the soil. Yikes! What was that, as a huge pain went through my big toe. As I looked down at my foot I saw blood pouring out. I had trodden on something really sharp which had punctured my shoe and gone right into my foot, almost right through. D helped me into the bathroom where I washed and dressed the wound and he came back into the house with this piece of rusty wire. It was buried in the ground held in by the right angle and sticking up along side the rock. Obviously some piece of construction metal.Do you keep your tetanus shot up to date. My doctor had advised me about 14 years ago to have a booster every ten years, so I was up to date and didn't have to rush down there for a shot. Meanwhile, my foot is propped up and I'm getting on with some genealogy. Too hot to work outside, anyway.
but it's just so easy to stroll outside in flip-flops to look things over and then get waylaid by some weeding that just won't wait. I'll try to learn from your lesson.
ReplyDeleteOuch! Hope you feel better soon. I'm not up to date on my tetanus. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteYikes--hope it heals quickly! I haven't had a tetanus booster in ages, so I appreciate the advice.
ReplyDeleteOh, Jenny, OUCH! And thanks for the reminder about the tetanus shot. I have no idea whether I'm up to date.
ReplyDeleteI hope your foot heals quickly!
I already did something similar this spring, though not quite as thoroughly as you did, Jenny. I often garden barefoot, and I stepped off the pool decking into a garden bed in order to pull a weed. I came down hard on a sharp stick that dug into my arch before I could get back up on the decking. Lost some blood and had a nice bruise on the bottom of my foot, but like you I was up-to-date on my tetanus booster. Now I try to throw on a pair of sandals at least.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry Jenny.
ReplyDeleteNasty and painful. Toes are so full of nerves.
Just as well you didn't need a booster, as these days over here you are forced to accept a mixture containing amongst other things anti-polio and anti-scarlet fever as well as the tetanus.?????
I feel this is purely to save the surgery work and storage space, but find these mixtures very disquieting.
Also there is a rethink on boosters now. With fewer being better, so check up before you replenish.
With me it was a finger that was damaged this week. Must be a gremlin in the cosmos :-)
Take care and rest, foot up, tools down.
verif: adstra (= per aspera ad astra, very appropriate I hope).
jo
Here, you'd get a combination diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis shot, same as you got when you were 12. Ring your Dr to check if you need a booster: here, they will give you one if it has been more than 5 years since you last had a booster and you have a deep wound.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, *, the reason to combine vaccines is simply so we don't need as many jabs. People don't like hearing their babies cry!
Ouch! I'm sorry that happened.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I wore flip-flops out in the year was years ago -- got a honeybee between my foot and the flipflop.
There's too many "things" here -- Fire Ants chief among them -- to risk going out toeless.
Ouch! My doctor got me on the ten year plan which keeps me calm knowing I'm covered. I always wear boots in the garden. I am just not a barefoot/flip flop girl — my feet get too cold even if it's 80 out. Now I know that that may be a good thing!
ReplyDeleteHope you are feeling better soon, Jenny - genealogy is a good companion for an Austin summer.
ReplyDeleteMy tetanus is up-to-date, but I should check on the other Divas of the Dirt...half of them garden in flip-flops.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Thanks for all your good wishes. My foot is really sore which is keeping me out of the garden- when I have so much to do. I wonder what they put in the shot here in the USA. I have a feeling that it is just the tetanus and not the dpt they used to give little kids. Either way it was just a few years ago that I had another shot so I sure hope it works and that I don't get any infection. I think it would have gone right through the soles of my work shoes as it was very sharp, but I will be more careful where I put my feet in future.
ReplyDeleteJenny, I hate that happened! As I tend to work outdoors in flip flops or barefoot, I've done similar things many times in life. Man, it hurts, and don't feet bleed like crazy? If you have any homeopathic Arnica, it can help the pain and also help it heal much more quickly. Where you are, People's Pharmacy or Central Market are the closest place that would carry that. I've now taken a pair of my berkenstock sandals and turned them into my gardening flip flops. The thick leather sole seems to prevent that kind of thing from happening, and I still feel like I'm in flip flops. And I just get them wet and not care, they'll last as long as they last. Teva's with that extra thick tire tread sole can be better, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd you can also request tetanus shots that have no additives. You just have to communicate with your doctor! Take care of yourself, sweetie.
Thanks for the advice on arnica. My foot is rather swollen tonight but I have been out all day. A funeral this morning followed by bridge. I hope that is the reason for the swelling. Anyway, I now have it propped up and about to watch "Benjamin Button". I do have a better pair of tevas which I will be wearing from now on. I don't think anything could get through those soles.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how a tiny piece of wire found your foot in your big garden. That's just plain ol bad luck, any way you look at it.
ReplyDeleteLast year my wife stepped on a Mesquite twig with a big thorn on it. It hurt bad. There isn't a mesquite for a mile in any direction from here. Just bad luck as well. Hope you get better soon.
Bob- I thought I had just trodden on a stick of Salvia leucantha but my h went out there and found the culprit. It did worry me a bit that it was really rusty. foot is still very sore so gardening is limited. Wonder how that mesquite thorn got there? Animal coat?
ReplyDeleteI just shuddered when I saw this! The same thing happened to me when I was a kid--all the through my foot from my arch to the top. I had to crawl back to the house and was in pain for a couple of weeks. Deep puncture are unbelievably painful. Hope by now you are feeling better.
ReplyDeleteAiyana
Aiyana-It's on the mend but walking us still difficult. The only shoes I can wear are flipflops!
ReplyDeleteYikes! I know I do it all the time, just slip on some flipflops for some light gardening. Hope your foot is feeling better soon.
ReplyDelete