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Published: March 8th 2007
Yes, that is my toe. And yes, that is a lot of blood on it. And yes, that is a razor which I am holding. And yes, that razor caused the blood.
Kate & I went diving today off the shores of Phuket, Thailand. We went with
South Siam Divers, which turned out to be a fabulous company. I highly recommend them both for quality of equipment & guides as well as professionalism, given what happened on our trip.
It's obviously not as dramatic as I make it out to be, since clearly I have a penchant for the melodramatic (which has been enhanced recently by my reading of
"Kushiel's Dart", a highly recommended if somehat risque book). Basically, I was descending underwater and failed to notice that I was descending upon a
long-spined sea urchin. Imagine a tennis ball sized thing, covered in spikes that are about as long as a chopstick, except needle-thin. That's what my toe descended upon, and, as spikes and thorns and other sharp objects are wont to do, it became lodged in my toe.
Whereupon rising (after sighting a juvenile leopard shark at about 1m!!), began the affair of removing said spike from said toe. And no
Ow.
Becky picks out bits of flesh and urching spine (pure calcium) with a razor.one on board had tweezers. The implements that we assembled for my surgery included: the boat boy's needle & thread, my nail clippers, and one of the instructors' straight-edged razor. We forewent the scalpel in the first-aid kit.
The order in which we discovered the implements is the same as given above, and therefore the order in which we attempted to remove the spike. I might mention now that the 1/2-inch long spike was lodged probably about 1-2mm below the skin, which doesn't seem like a lot now but take a look at a ruler and see if you've ever had a cut that deep. Steve, our wonderful and friendly lead guide, was kind enough to assist me by digging into my toe with the needle. It was painful and Kate has some fabulous action shots of me grimacing. This managed to gouge a flap of skin from above the spike. After snipping off the skin, I used the razor edge to slice open my own toe on either side of the spike. Even that didn't remove it, so I was forced to sit there picking it out with the razor tip for a good long while, piece by
Happy Ending
Kate & I after surgery is complete. You can't see it but there's a band-aid covering my toe, and I'm wearing "Prada" sunglasses from Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur :) piece. I eventually got tired of picking bits out of my own flesh, so you can still see a bit of the black spine in the toe, if you look amongst the blood. That was probably the most challenging part of the whole affair, once I got past the "Slice yourself open" step: blood was everywhere. It was sometimes impossible to know what I was picking at because of the gushing everywhere, so I ended up poking at my toe blindly with a razor. I alternated slicing, picking, and daubing with a tissue. Mucho divertido.
Really, as an afterthought, Steve deserves more than a one sentence mention, since he inflincted a hell of a lot of pain upon me. In addition to digging at my toe with unabashed abandon and a needle, once all was said and done he both poured over and rubbed into the wound isopropyl alcohol. And I really mean rubbed into, good and well. In truth, I think Steve was a sadist and really relished it all (which is ok because we all know I'm a bit of a masochist). So here's another sentence in honor of Steve: OW TO ALL DAMNATION.
It was
And now for something completely different...
A poorly lit/angled but surreptitious photo of the lady boy & patron on the trip. This deserves another entry by itself so I won't go into detail now, but it was an amusing way to complete a Thai Diving Adventure. a great day 😊 Camera credit goes to Canon for their macro mode.
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DoreenO
non-member comment
SUrgery?!
I never thought I would see you hacking up your own foot! Egads, you hate the sight of blood..especially in the presence of the leopard shark... sounds like a short dive. love ya!