Pain 3

Today I carried a 120 x 240 x 1 cm OSB board from a pile in the hardware store to the trailer on the car, grabbing it from the middle of both long edges and lifting it over my head. While doing that a splinter poked into the skin of my right palm.

I noticed it only after I had placed the board in the trailer, but there was definitely a long splinter that had buried under the upper layer of my palm and seemed to be completely gone. I had no way to pull it out right away.

The pain was not strong at all, but the knowledge that it would not go away for a long time if I did not remove that piece of wood from my skin kept it at the front of my mind.

Back at the workshop, I immediately got the tweezers and a small knife – I knew I wouldn't be able to grip the splinter anywhere unless I made a small cut along its length.

Additionally I had to compress the skin into a crease to make it stick out more. I was missing one hand. But, luckily, a medical type compression tool was right next to the 3D printer. I didn't even have to close it to clamp my skin tight enough.

The pain of the clamping and the slow pulling on the splinter – definitely the way sharper pain than any of that which the splinter had caused earlier – brought a sort of satisfaction with it.

I knew that the pain would soon be gone and with it most of the injury.