>I never freaked out, it was no big deal to me. But everyone else (the
>secretary in the next room, the school nurse, my mom, etc) flipped.

My own bleeding doesn't bother me. I'm so blase about it now that it disturbs the members of my family who *are* bothered by the sight of blood. If I cut myself while sharpening one of my knives (which I do periodically) or cooking, I'll usually finish what I'm doing before I bother taking care of it, unless I want to avoid staining something or don't want to risk getting an infection or blood in what I'm cooking. (And I don't get infections easily, so that's not really much of a worry.)

>I did this too, slightly younger.

I was making popcorn on the stove. The popcorn was done, so I picked up the pan and started to dump it into the bowl -- had potholders, so I wouldn't risk burning my fingers (I type a lot and I play bass off and on; I'm very protective of them). After a few seconds I noticed a rather distinct burning sensation coming from the underside of my right forearm; I put the pan down in time to watch a layer of skin come off onto its side, and while my sister freaked out a bit, I swore, ran my forearm under cold water, and went to the bathroom to disinfect and wrap it. It was worse than second degree, but not quite what I'd call a third degree (nothing looked charred), complete with a few blisters. I've got a bit of a shiny spot, still, on my forearm, which doesn't tan and can be seen if the light bounces off it right.

The most annoying thing that's scarred me was when I got the chicken pox at sixteen. And it's true that the older you are when you get it, the worse it is; I was out of school for a week, and afterward looked like something had tried to eat me alive. I've still got scars all over my body from that.

>I once dropped a large cast iron ingot so that it managed to land on
>JUST my big toes. Messed them up, bled a lot. I ended up with an
>ingrown on the right which became infected. It only bothered me it
>someone stepped on my foot or something.

Same here. Except that what drove my left toenail into my toe was me -- I stepped wrong while kicking a ball at the day camp I was a counselor at, and folded my big toe under my foot. I was limping for the rest of the day, but felt fine afterwards.

>But healing from the surgery? CODEINE! I could feel every heartbeat
>in the incisions. Kept me on my back a couple of days, popping happy
>pills.

I didn't take anything. I noticed that it didn't hurt as much when my foot was elevated, so I spent the three days or so until they could take the wrappings off laying on the couch and reading.

Another interesting story from that experience -- when I went in for the surgery, the podiatrist shot up my foot with lytocaine (man, that stuff was great -- I could walk normally, but, man, I didn't feel a thing in the whole area), then put a curtain in between me and my foot so I couldn't see what I was doing. He also gave me a pocket radio with earphones so I wouldn't hear him cutting the nail away, but I heard it anyway. His son was sitting there the entire time, watching the surgery, and I heard the nurse asking him if he wanted to go and get something when his father was done. The boy said yes; then the pod turned and looked at him, and asked him if he wanted a hot dog. The kid turned a few shades paler and shook his head.

To this day I wonder what my toe looked like during.

>It crushed the tissue under the nail, and I got another infection.
>This time I took care of it with scissors, a sharp blade, alcohol to
>disinfect, alchohol to drink (scotch), and a flame to pass the blades
>through. I had to remove the nail and some tissue.

I almost had to do that, but my toe healed up on its own, fortunately. So I never had to try that particular procedure out.

>Really good spicy food (like good Indian or Thai) is spicy but still
>flavorful.

Actually, I like Indian and Thai, although I have to be careful what I order; I'm not acclimated to it like I used to be.

>I very, very use salt on food. Even things other people douse with
>salt.

I don't like to add salt. There's already plenty of salt in most foods. (In the South, though, where I'm living now, it seems salt is put on *everything*. The practice revolts me when they put it on things like melon.)

-- Sean --

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