On July 4th, 2014 ( Independence Day) I was climbing up the stairs just before eight in the morning heading to my class and ended up cutting the tendon in my thumb completely through. This is what happened: At the time I had two habits that basically brought me to my doom. The first was that I was carrying around glass jars with me to drink from. It was an advertisement factor I could use in my classes when we talked about being 'environmentally conscious'. I felt pretty snug about it. Also, I was walking up 5 flights of stairs. I had a habit of always walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator for a couple of reasons. First, I thought it was good old fashioned exercise that was good for me. Also, the elevator systems are set up to kill people. Most times, the doors are set so that maybe two people can get through and then the doors swiftly close, so as anyone still in the motion of getting on end up violently running into the doors. It also does not help that Vietnamese people have the habits of crowding the entrance so that people cannot get off the elevator efficiently, and when they get on the elevator, they press the button...repeatedly, to close the doors even if they see someone walking toward the elevators...anyway, I made it a habit of walking up flights of stairs instead. I was in between the 2nd and 3rd floor when I accidentally tripped on the stairs due to the awkwardly over-pointed tip in the gray tennis shoes I was wearing at the moment. Instead of throwing the glass jar, I held onto it and, at the same time, tried to catch myself by my hands. The result was that the jar went crashing into the floor with the pressure of my hand coming sequentially next.
Well, I looked at my hand. The first thing I cared about was to try to see if any glass was actually IN my hand. When I noted that there wasn't from what I could see, I instinctually realized that I needed to stop the bleeding. I went to the bathroom right away and got some toilet paper. That's when I really realized how much I was bleeding. The toilet paper I grabbed, quickly soaked to the full capacity. I decided to try to wash out the wound and got a pretty clear look at how deep it went into the thumb. I realized it was serious and that I needed medical attention right away. I got more TP and then went up to the 3rd floor. I showed the CC in charge of my class and then I went to the class room to announce why the class was canceled...
I drove myself to a clinic I thought was fairly trustworthy, Columbia Asia Clinic on Le Duan. It was silly because they were going to have me wait until I showed them my hand. They set me up with the doctor, who was extremely professional. He was also from America, I might add. He tried to clean the wound by injecting sterile water into the wound...it was the first time I had ever felt woozy. He noticed and asked if I had to lie down. It helped a lot. He diagnosed that I lost full functioning in my thumb and figured it was severed completely. He suggested I go to the hospital and set up a surgery as soon as possible.
I went to Columbia Asia Hospital that afternoon, only after stopping off for some fresh orange juice (it helped a lot). A lot happened that was not professional at all, including the doctor acting extremely casual about the situation, suggesting that I only get surgery when I'm ready, explaining that everything will be just fine, to just head there when I'm ready (I found out later from a different doctor that the longer I wait the more the tendon retracts which creates massive complications in surgery.) Also, they set up a surgery for that evening, also saying that I could pay half and then set up payment plans later. That evening, they switched doctors entirely, saying the other doctor was unexpectedly busy along with telling me that I had to pay the entire surgery in full before the surgery.
Well Hannah and I scratched that hospital and headed to Family Medical Center. Luckily, there was a hand surgeon specialist there at the moment. He canceled all of his appointments that night and strongly recommended I get the surgery at that moment. He was very serious so I said of course. They stated I wouldn't pay until after the surgery which really made sense. Everything was good with Family Medical Center, so we continued with it.
I was in surgery around an hour. I wasn't knocked out, but my arm was numbed. it was such a silly feeling, being able to feel his tests on my fingers.
After we were out he explained the point about the string running through my thumb nail.
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