WARNING: Do NOT try this at home

I have to tell you before you read this that I am a reasonably intelligent individual. You may find that hard to believe after hearing my story.

Two weeks ago I had a little sewing accident. John was on call at the hospital, so my sister and I were sewing while our kids played. Julie left around 10:30 and I went back to my machine to try to finish the blanket I was working on. I had been having trouble with my bobbin for the last hour that we'd been working, so I was very frustrated and rushing to get the last seam sewn. In my hurry, I managed to sew through my left index finger. No joke. The needle went through my fingernail just above the cuticle and broke off inside of my finger tip. I was in shock at first, and it took me a minute to figure out what had happened. It took about 10 minutes before the pain kicked in - and boy did it kick in! I called John, who was just leaving to come home, to see if I should go have it x-rayed. We decided not to, and he came home and shot lidocaine into my finger so that I could sleep.

I felt pretty good about not doing anything, mostly because my sister Julie had done the same thing about a year ago, and she did go to the ER. They took an X-ray, then cut open her finger and tried to find the needle. They repeated the process several times and were never able to find the darned thing. Eventually, it worked its way out of her finger. So I figured I'd skip the pain - and the ER bill - and let nature take its course.

For two weeks I haven't been able to touch anything with that finger because the needle was digging into my skin from inside. When the pain started getting worse, I went to see John at work and finally got it X-rayed. Here's what we saw:

The needle went through my bone. Obviously it wasn't going to come out on its own, and I didn't like the idea of getting stabbed if I ever touched anything, so I asked John to perform surgery for me. We created the most sterile environment possible on a kitchen table, then John numbed me up and went to work. The needle wasn't close enough to the surface, so he had to cut into my finger. Let me tell you, it's not easy to pull a needle out of bone! It was so difficult and took so long that we almost gave up. But he got it! Tanner held a flashlight for John through the entire surgery, and I never looked at it once.

Now, thanks to my doctor hubby, I have three stitches in my finger tip and I'm needle free! If only it would stop throbbing...