Cav's Place

Four personal posts in a row isn’t a good start of the year, and a fifth is likely to get added next week, if not also a sixth. But I definitely can’t get myself to write about anything else, didn’t even catch up with what was missing from the year’s first personal update, so this is what I can do to stick to the rule of at least two posts, on two different days, per week. And I do want to catch up with the part about my hand in this post, at least. In fact, though it’s the last one mentioned in the title, I’ll just start with it, to get it out of the way.

I’m talking about that small but worrying injury in my right hand, noticed after getting stuck in that public bathroom stall, and which I pretty much ignored for about a week and a half but then got increasingly concerned about it, since nothing seemed to be changing. It wasn’t getting worse, but a small area around that spot was rather dark red and slightly swollen and something yellowish seemed to be in the middle, under the level of the skin puckering around it, seeming not to allow proper healing.
Didn’t know whether that was a sign of bad healing or of something from that public bathroom door being stuck there, but it was pretty clear that I had to get it out, so I took my nail scissors, put them in medicinal alcohol and passed them through the flame from the stove, and tried to do so, failing on the first day but then managing it after letting hot water run over that spot for a long time, after dad said that should help. Did a little bit more damage while doing that, accidentally cutting myself just a little bit, but what made me wonder whether I had done a good enough job was the fact that the scissors could easily get under the skin in one spot without blood flowing, meaning that there was some empty space there and something could have been left inside, and that was actually where it hurt a bit more when I pressed.
Either way, finally started covering the area after that and for the first two days, when I was just using medicinal alcohol and holding it there with the small bandage, it just looked like a very clean tiny wound but still wasn’t healing. That changed when I went to the December 10 protest and put a regular band aid on, finding that there seemed to be some healing by the time I got back. However, when I showered I noticed that it was likely healing badly, something yellowish seeming to grow there again, and for most of the following week I can’t say I saw signs of improvement. At that point, my first assumption became that I had probably torn off a small wart, though some sort of blister was also a possibility, and it was just going to get worse without the proper treatment, though I was of course still concerned about having scratched myself in that door or even in something like a used needle placed by someone in it, in which case the consequences could be a whole lot worse.
Still, after a few days of trying to put some stuff that should help healing, expired as it was, there and otherwise largely leaving the area alone, the skin seemed relatively healed and mostly level under a first layer, but with a few different layers growing oddly around there. So I picked up the nail scissors again, tried to clean up, and then put some tincture of iodine, also expired, there, at first just putting on a bit and seeing no change except the area being slightly reddish once it got cleaned away.
Since that didn’t seem to work but I wanted to do the most I could, on December 18, before going out to buy some things, I put more tincture on a small piece of gauze folded many times and held there by a bandage… And I sure felt it burning by the time I got back, which sensation got even worse after I tried to wash the area. Whether trying to clean even more or simply waiting, it was just getting worse and I was starting to panic, but looked it up and found that dabbing with alcohol should help clear away iodine, so despite thinking that using alcohol on a place that already stings badly will just make it worse, I started doing that and it actually started getting better. However, it looked quite bad, with the edges of the area affected by iodine red and stinging on contact with heat and the rest of it completely dry, while the edges of the injury were badly swollen, that spot where the scissors could get underneath the skin in particular seeming like it could just be torn off. If before that point I considered an infection the least likely problem, just then it sure looked like there was a bad one there.
That likely wasn’t the case though, because it slowly got better while I just kept occasionally cleaning, applying that same expired stuff to help healing and some marigold cream, and trying to protect the area a bit when I could. And then the dry skin started peeling off, at first just at the edges and eventually pretty much all of it just coming off when I showered the last time last year, which I think was Saturday night, so actually already on December 31 if I did that as late as I often tend to, though I’m not entirely certain anymore. Could still see a tiny mark there, but otherwise it seemed quite fine, the area having healed a whole lot better than before.
You can still see that spot, it’s still a bit red and the skin isn’t quite level where that yellowish bit initially was, but it all looks like skin and it may just be a scar, which was to be expected. However, it’s still definitely possible, and in fact likely, that a wart was there and may still be, especially since that mark seemed slightly smaller right after that dry skin peeled away, and even more so since I notice something that quite obviously is a tiny one a bit away, at the edge of the area that was burned by the tincture of iodine. And I know I had one on my index finger there, which I had checked out quite a number of years ago, getting told it was too small for any other treatment and to just try to burn it away with tincture of iodine. Also, keeping my hand on the mouse so much may make these things more likely, and I may have in fact noticed something on the palm before that injury, but I really can’t remember anymore, so I’ll just have to keep an eye on it and maybe burn away some more. And perhaps even have it all checked out again, eventually… But not just yet.

Moving on, I guess I can say I finished a first game this year, but that’s embarrassing, because it was on the new phone I got, started the day I got it, as I was just trying to see what was available, and actually finished two days ago. The game is Block Breaker 3 Unlimited, but the version that’s on the Nokia 230 sure is a whole lot simpler, and also much shorter, than what I see in what seems to be the original release thread. Still, with six stages and seven levels each, plus a boss level at the end, that’s 43 levels and a total time likely somewhere around two hours. Not that I’d really know that, but there’s a three-minute timer, after which you stop getting bonuses and start getting help to finish the level, and I finished most levels faster than that, some quite a lot faster, but some, especially earlier on, also took me longer, probably even five or six minutes in a few cases, so maybe it more or less evens out around that average time per level.

And on the topic of the phone, picked up the screen protector yesterday, finding that it’s actually made by a Romanian firm, and applied it today. That didn’t go too well though, because the “2” sticker, the one for the protective film on the front, covers the hole for the front camera, and since that’s to be removed after it’s applied, it’s very hard to get it in the right position. Now I assume you should place it first, just pulling that away a little in order to see when you get it right, and then apply those two guide stickers it comes with on the phone, then remove the protective film on the back, place it on by lining it up the exact same way thanks to those stickers, then remove the stickers and the protective film on the front. But I couldn’t quite figure out what to do with those stickers, where I could find room to put them, and also didn’t think to align it before removing the protective film on the back, so I put it on wrong, had to remove it, and then it just started gathering dust, which got caught under it, along with air bubbles. Could eventually, after many attempts, manage to clean both the phone’s screen and the sticky back of the protector reasonably enough, using that “dust absorber” sticker for the protector, so I can still notice just only one tiny bit of dirt still on it over the actual screen, though there are plenty of others, and air bubbles, on the edges. It can’t be said to be perfectly aligned either, but it’s good enough, so I’ll just make do with it as it is.
But while I’m on it, should also mention that when I went to pick it up, the person who was there brought two out, both orders having apparently been delivered even though I had written in the comments of the second that I wanted to cancel the first and then also sent an e-mail about it, when I received a first confirmation for both, and was told that the first was indeed canceled and to ignore any other e-mails I may receive regarding it, and at least the SMS telling me I can come and pick up the item was sent just for the second order. But apparently they still sent both, and the person there said that once the order is confirmed they can only send it back, but now maybe they won’t bring me two copies of League of Dragons too, whenever that will arrive, since they apparently deliver separately if items can only be brought at different dates. Of course, it’s their problem if they do, since I did cancel that first order and have the e-mail to prove that they confirmed that, but it’d still be awkward.

And that’s about it for now. This actually took less time to write than I thought it would, but I’m stopping here anyway, still leaving aside the long walks and the shopping not covered in that first personal post of the year, but maybe I’ll get to those too someday. Also leaving aside two current issues that have to do with my computer. One I’d rather not even think about, but for the other I actually worked out a temporary solution today, though I also admitted what I did right away and hope the honesty won’t come back to bite me. This should be sorted out next week, maybe even early next week, but if my honesty won’t trash my temporary solution I now have a fair amount of time available, so I guess I’ll add it all to a post after it’s no longer a problem, at least not for the moment.