Accident Prone

It started out as a peaceful Sunday evening.  I had just gotten home from dog walking on campus, which my semester is responsible for and each student is assigned 3 to 4 dogs for a week, and was running up the stairs with a laundry basket, backpack, and a physio binder in my hand.  I had almost made it to the top of the stairs and BAM, my graceful genes kicked in and I manage to fall up the stairs, bashing my knee into the edge of the tile step.  This bashing shoved my kneecap upwards and sliced the cutaneous layers below my kneecap open.

I proceeded to get a shower and clean it well and hobbled back downstairs where I asked my roommates' opinion about whether it needed stitches or not.  At first, we settled on butterflies and proceeded to try to make them ourselves; after a while of studying and everyone walking by and watching it start to swell and gap more and more it was determined that stitches were definitely needed. 

Maggie had a plan B option but I decided to rule it out.  :-)

I absolutely refused to go to the island hospital for such a small injury and so my roommate Ashley broke out the expired suture she brought from her clinic to practice with.  After a few practice runs on a plantain, she sutured my knee for me.

I have sutured myself before but it was in the stomach which is thin skin and doesn't have many nerve endings....the knee is very thick, tough skin and the cut was deep enough that there were definitely nerves present!  I made it through the procedure though and managed to at least look like it wasn't bothering me as my roommates were impressed with the stoicism. 

Cramer wasn't so easily fooled and kept passing me the rum! 

The best part was the fact that I studied through the whole thing as I had a test on renal function the next day...True vet student in action!




The gash is mending well and I passed the test the next day with flying colors so all in all this escapade was a success.  Conner gets off quarantine this Saturday so more to come.  Hope everything is well stateside and know you are all in our thoughts.