The other day while slicing tomatoes too speedily, I cut my finger with the knife. It was just a little cut: tip of the knife and tip of my finger. But it reminded me of a bigger accident I had had once while slicing bagels.
Years ago, back before we had children, we were entertaining Ted’s brother and his wife at our home. I had gotten bagels for breakfast and while slicing them in the kitchen with a big serrated bread knife, I sliced my finger instead. Although I put pressure on it, the wound continued to bleed and it looked deep.
A weekday morning, I called my primary care physician. However, she was too busy to see me and referred me to the ER. At that point I really started to cry. I remember my sister-in-law remarking how I was more upset about the insurance than the cut. It was true. I knew right away if I was headed to the ER that it would be an expensive finger accident, both in terms of time and money. And I was right. Not only did we spend hours waiting for someone to tape up my finger (it wasn’t quite severe enough for stitches though so I appreciate that I was not an urgent case!) but I spent hours later dealing with the ER bills….
Immediately a friend of ours gave us a bagel slicer device. It doesn’t quite fit the big Noah’s or even Safeway style bagels but I appreciated her care. And while at another friend’s home, years later, I saw another bagel slicer device, and I heard that this friend’s uncle was an ER physician who said that bagel cuts were too common.
A couple weeks ago we went to a Halloween-themed birthday party. The hostess had decorated the house with pumpkins. I remember the pumpkins used as vases – that looked like a great idea: cute and festive. But I also remember that my friend’s finger and thumb on one hand were wrapped with bandages: she had sliced herself in the process of hollowing out all those pumpkins.
And I imagine that these days of late October are busy days for ER docs…..so be careful while carving with those knives! And be careful with bagels too :)!
3 responses so far ↓
1 enoch // Oct 30, 2003 at 12:40 am
yup, if it wasn’t for bagels, i’d lose a third of my laceration patients 😉
2 emily // Oct 31, 2003 at 1:22 pm
I still remember your accident after all these years…esp. when I’m slicing bagels for my family, a favorite breakfast food.
3 Katherine // Nov 1, 2003 at 9:33 am
I remember a friend of David’s family who worked at a hospital casually referring to the myriad of “Sunday morning bagel cut” patients.
It makes me wince and hold myself tightly together just to think of anyone slicing themselves…ugh!!! Good thing God designed our bodies to heal themselves so well…