Jason goes to the hospital :(

And that above was the sight that greeted me as soon as I pulled the brake cable out of the rubber sheath that covered it :( I had started my afternoon earlier by making a resolution to make better use of my new found freedom. I decided to kick off the day by taking apart the old Raleigh which had stood there in the dust and rain for the last 12 years. The hands on session began very well till I reached the brake cables. I didn't have the right tools at that point in time (If I had looked 0.25 percent harder, I would have found the damn wire cutters under my coveralls...) so I was basically pulling and sawing away rather recklessly at the cables. As I was trying to remove the cable that was attached to the rear derailuer, I guessed I pulled it a tinge too hard, snapped the damn cable and sent a fragment of it THROUGH my thumb. Trust me... it hurt like hell.

I proceeded to leave a note on Facebook, informing the world of my terrible plight, and rushed off with my mum in tow to CGH to get the stupid thumb attended too. The nurses seem pretty amused at how I got my injury (or perhaps at my injury...). Its probably (in my opinion), refreshing to see a true and honest A&E case in the A&E ward after going through tons of NSFs with phantom fevers, construction workers with invisible injuries etc... A supporting observation would be that I was the only one in the A&E ward with an open wound!

Anyway, the wait to be attended was expected and for a short period of time, I was worried that I might die of a tetanus infection whilst waiting for someone to attend to me. My turn soon came and after a preliminary examination and a "before" x-ray, the doctor soon proceeded to yank the damn wire out of my poor miserable aching thumb. After 3 yanks, the wire slid right out and that's where the pain jumped a notch up (I have a rather low pain threshold... FYI). The feeling of having the wire slide out THROUGH ones thumb... priceless... After a secondary examination and another X-ray to make sure nothing got left inside, I proceeded to get my tetanus toxoid vaccination. After much deliberation on which arm or buttcheek (kidding) to jab, we finally got the jab done and I was soon homeward bound :)

The rest of the day proceeded rather uneventfully and ended with a nice seafood dinner with Mum and Dad at ECP. With this little report on my poor thumb out of the way, I can now retire peacefully to bed in preparation for tomorrow's ride:) Till the next entry...