 | 6 Nov 09 |
Today at my job, I was given an assignment that no one else wanted to do. Being the newest staff member in my department, I had to do it. It wasn’t a HORRIBLE job, mind you, like say, shoveling elephant poop, cleaning out sewers, or keeping the world safe from arachnids, but it wasn’t fun.
I am putting old employment announcements into boxes, numerically by announcement number, logging them, stacking them, and then, when finished, I will ship them off to storage. Dealing with all those files, and papers, and boxes, the inevitable happened. I got three NASTY papercuts. The worst one, by far, is under my left pinky nail, and it hurts to type. Especially when I press the shift key. Everytime I hit shift, I am reminded about the job I did today, and what awaits me tomorrow. It’s not a “go to the emergency room STAT” kind of pain, of course. Can you just see that? Excuse me, but please let me in ahead of that man whose arm is six feet behind him, because I have a BAD papercut.
But it hurts. It hurts pretty bad.
They say that the reasons hangnails, papercuts, and other finger injuries are so painful–and also the reason why getting your finger poked for blood is ten thousand times worse than having it taken out of your arm with a much bigger needle–is because of all the nerves we have in our fingers.
I would rather give six quarts of blood than two drops, because I do NOT like having my fingers poked. I always want to poke back, and that can lead to assault charges.
As long as I turn my head and don’t watch the actual process, drawing blood out of my arm is usually pretty-much pain free. It just looks worse.
So, back to my subject at hand, it seems that paper cuts, while minor and small, are more painful and irritating than often larger wounds. I heard a horror story once about a woman who got a paper cut, then got a dreadful septic infection and died. Death by papercut. How unglamorous is that?
But the truth is, it can happen. Not only do papercuts hurt like hell, but they have the potential to become deadly. If not tended to, the smallest papercut can become a huge abcess.
Life is pretty good at handing out papercuts. Since we use paper every day, they are pretty hard to avoid. In fact, I would like to find even ONE person who hasn’t had at least one papercut this year. People without hands do not count. Even the unemployed must deal with paper–and often paperwork. And the homeless use paper as bedding and insulating material. The extremely wealthy probably get papercuts from counting all their money. Heh.
And those of us who are decidedly middle-class, possibly frumpy, definitely hard-working and trying to get by in a difficult world? I guess those of us who don’t live on the street, have jobs, and not a lot of money to count–well, we probably get more papercuts than your average Joe.
Even though no one knows you are feeling it, because papercuts are hard to see. The fact someone else can’t see it doesn’t make it less real. Or less painful.
The key to dealing with those nasty papercuts–almost invisible wounds–is to keep them clean. Cover them up when you are working with dirty materials, but give them air to breathe when the environment is safe. Whatever you do, don’t let them fester and abcess. The pain will eventually ease. The wound will close. No visible signs will remain. And no one will ever even know you were hurt.
Natalie R. Collins was born in Logan, Utah and attended the University of Utah. She worked for eleven years at The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah's largest daily newspaper, before leaving to devote more time to her family. During the ensuing years, she wrote five novels. She also worked for the 2001 and 2002 Sundance Film Festivals as an editor. Natalie is a member of the International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.
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Kid #4 is fighting a staph infection right now. She got a little cut, didn’t tell me and now here we are w/ 2 antibiotics.
I hope your papercuts heal fast.
by HollyD November 6th, 2009 at 9:03 amI haven’t got a paper cut this year, I’m pretty sure. They are nasty, I never really understood why.
I loved drawing blood as a kid, I’d watch the blood get out of my body and into the tube, while my mom felt sick in the next room. I always liked blood. But paper cuts are horrible.
by Barbie November 6th, 2009 at 9:09 amI hate paper cuts! Hope yours heals cleanly and soon, Nat.
Papercuts. Interesting metaphor for life and the stuff that happens in it.
by Silver James November 6th, 2009 at 10:03 amHope yours heal quick.
I’m a bookseller and not a day goes by when someone doesn’t get a papercut. One time I had three. Two on my right hand and one on my left. Guess which hand I use the most. Yeah. Not so good times.
by Cassie November 6th, 2009 at 10:21 amThey do hurt! Especially under the nail. ((hugs))
I’m kind of weird in that there are times when I like filing stuff. The repetitiveness and the time to shut off the creative part of my brain is like a mini-vacation. I wouldn’t want to do it every day or even on a schedule, but every once in a while, I’ll go looking for stacks of something to file…
by S. J. Day November 6th, 2009 at 4:33 pmSorry to hear about the paper cuts. My dad was a paper cutter for a living. In case you don’t know paper things (post cards, posters, etc) come in big like 6′ x 6′ sheets and have to be cut into individual things. It is probably all electronic now but in my dad’s day you had to do all the math calculations yourself.
He would come home with hundreds of paper cuts up and down his entire arms. He couldn’t wear long sleeves or they would have been shredded by the end of the shift, so his arms got cut instead.
by Jill James November 6th, 2009 at 5:08 pmFiling was my most dreaded job when I was working (still is, but it’s not as bad when it’s MY stuff I’m filing) for exactly the reason you mention. It’s the cuts that snag the cuticle that bug me, although an under-the-nail would be miserable too. And putting on rubber gloves to do the filing would be going too far.
But complaining ranks right up there with “I stubbed my pinky toe.”
And good reminder about how to deal with the analogous paper cuts of life.
by Terry Odell November 7th, 2009 at 7:31 amI’ve gotten paper cuts from the edges of file folders, too. Ouch!
by PK the Bookeemonster November 8th, 2009 at 4:51 pmAnd regarding infections: take them very seriously. I had an infection in my leg this summer that they initially thought was MRSA (big bad virus). The first antibiotic wasn’t strong enough. Had to go into the hospital for IV antiobiotic (IVs are nasty nasty things) and I had an allergic reaction to that — in hospital for 7 days total. Laid out, had to have my leg elevated for most of 24/7 for THREE months. Infections are serious and those bad bugs are everywhere. Become a germaphobe and wash and antiseptic wipe all the time, people.