Monday, November 21, 2011

pINs aND nEEdLeS...   

A little incident happened in our home last week and although I posted it on my personal Facebook page, I have been asked by some of my fellow bearmakers to blog it, in an attempt to save others from going through a similar experience…

I come from a line of women who have always sewn for a living – my great grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother -- hence from a very early age I was introduced to pins, needles and thread.  My predecessors had great respect for these sewing tools, and whenever one was found on the floor, it was as though they had found a nuclear weapon --  immediately picking it up and sticking it into its pincushion home.  If a needle was dropped whilst sewing – well they would not rest until it was found!!!

But I have to admit that I am more than a bit blasé when it comes to these things and now its come back to bite me.  The other day whilst sewing, I threaded my favorite doll sculptor needle and in a blink of an eye it disappeared (I’m blaming the cat).   I searched for it high and low – more because it was my favorite needle than anything else.  In the end I gave up and threaded another.

Two days later my baby boy (who is 21) walked into the room barefoot, I heard a yell and he had found my favorite needle embedded in the sole of his foot.  To make matters worse, as he quickly pulled it out, it broke with more than half remaining inside his foot.

My peaceful morning turned into chaos with a phone call to our doctor followed by a trip to the nearest hospital Emergency Dept.  The x-rays confirmed it all, but as it had gone into the foot vertically it was going to prove a challenge to remove.  The doctor made a small incision and using his tools prodded and probed trying to get it out, but he only succeeded in pushing it in further.  In the end he stitched him up , sent us home and this week we have an appointment with a Plastic Surgeon at another hospital where they will once again attempt to surgically remove it.

My son is on crutches, in quite a bit of pain and discomfort and all I want to do is KICK myself.

Moral of this story:  Please be careful with your needles and pins, they really are lethal weapons!!!

6 comments:

  1. ouch, that would hurt a great deal. I had to be a long needle!. Poor you I bet you felt terrible.
    I hope it mend very soon. Thanks for the tip, always find the needle you drop.
    Hugs for you and your son.
    Kay

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  2. Oh ouch. OMG - I must admit that even with my smallest pins I panic as my kids - 6yrs, 5yrs and 3yrs - walk around with no shoes on in my craft area all the time. Thankfully I haven't lost any as I do search and search and search until the little sucker is found. Hope he can get it removed. What an yucky and painful thing to happen.
    mwah
    Trace

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  3. Oucheeees!
    "See a pin;
    Pick it up.
    All day long you'll have good luck.
    See a pin;
    Let it lie.
    You'll have bad luck by and by."

    (As you now well know!!)

    I once had a sweet border collie who had a bad habit of licking the table in hopes of finding a crumb when no-one was looking. Sometimes I did my sewing at the table. You guessed it - she licked up a needle and thread, which lodged in her throat. We didn't know anything about it until some weeks later when she developed a painful lump on her neck. An expensive trip to the vet's soon found the problem and the very rusty needle, with thread still attached was removed.
    Sometimes we should not question the wisdom of our forebears!

    Hope your son makes a full recovery.

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  4. Wow Ouch !! Know how your son feels as I am usually the one who finds my missing needles with my feet (guess that's justice for being slack). Never as serious as your sons I have always been able to just pull them out.

    I usually work at the table so I can be with the family so my dropped pins go under it. My grandson Connor and I play the game "How many pins has Ama dropped" and he gets under the table to look (better eyesight and more flexible than me). Frighteningly he usually retrieves not only the ones I know I dropped but a couple more I didn't know about.

    After reading about your son I will be more vigilant indeed.

    Hope your Son recovers soon
    Hugs
    Lyn

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  5. This exact thing happened to me when I was about 13 or 14... the needle broke off in my foot... I ended up walking around the city Christmas shopping for a day with it in my foot before I realized half of it was still in there... they gave me laughing gas... I laughed the whole time the nurse was digging into my foot!!

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  6. Thank you for your stories and support ladies. It has been a lesson well learnt!! We're off to the hospital this afternoon for our second attempt at removing it, fingers crossed.

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