Jun 04 2007
The Tender Act Of Splinter Removal
I was visiting my mom the other day and she was worrying at her right index finger.
“I have a splinter in my finger…would you help me remove it?”
I looked at my mom’s small hands. Hands that use to play piano and now tap on a computer keyboard. Hands with fingers slightly gnarled by arthritis, the nails grubby from working in the garden.
“Sure.” I said. “Why don’t you get me some rubbing alcohol and a sewing needle?”
“I’d do it myself if it were my left finger. I can’t work the needle with my left hand.”
Mom bustles out of the room getting the supplies I mentioned while I look at her computer.
I tell her to swab her finger with the alcohol – I figure she can better prepare herself for any stinging if she does it herself. I hear her sharp intake of breath followed by “Ow!Ow-Ow-Ow!”
After she’s cleaned her finger, I peer at it. I can’t really see anything and she has to point out where the splinter is. Aaaah. Ok.
I hold her right index finger in my hands and gently press it between the fingers of my left hand as I prepare to ease out the splinter with the needle in my right.
My mom’s eyes are scrunched up and her head is held back a little. Her mouth is pinched.
I poke the slender sewing needle under the splinter but I can barely see it. I am not even sure if I’m working the right spot. Mom’s eyes are still closed and I ask her if she can still feel the splinter.
She opens her eyes and rubs her right finger. “Ow-ow-ow! Yes, it’s still there!”
I had poked something out but couldn’t remove it with just the needle so I ask her to get a tweezer, which she does.
My mom is once again in position – eyes scrunched up, lips pinched, head held back. I use the tweezers to pull at the miniscule protrusion. It comes out easily.
I ask my mom if she still feels the splinter. She opens up her eyes and relaxes her posture. She rubs her right index finger, her expression wide and wondering.
“It’s…gone. You were so gentle. I barely felt anything…thank you.”
She looked so sweet
I thought about how there is something so inherently tender about removing a splinter from someone’s finger. You have to hold their finger both gently and firmly. You are aware of the pain you must inflict.
I thought about splinters and how something so small can inflict so much discomfort. I remembered how gently my mom removed my splinters.
The simple act of removing a splinter seems one of the most tender.
I was never one for splinters. I’ve never had one that I couldn’t get out myself. The worst are the metal splinters. Now those were painful.
Another small infliction I don’t like would be paper cuts. Why does something that doesn’t cut as deep as a knife hurt so much?
Urban Thought: Oh, just the THOUGHT of paper cuts makes me flinch. It’s like the finger equivalent of nails-across-the-chalkboard.
That exchange sounded like what I get when I pull a splinter out of my daughter.
HMTKSteve: Does she do the “ow-ow-ow” thing?
Not only does she make the noises but she also has to inspect every tool I use and worry about how much it will hurt.
She then complains the whole time I am doing it, “You’re doing it wrong! Where’s mommy? She does it right.”
HMTKSteve: I can just imagine it.
She’s probably seeing those delicate instruments of pain (needle, tweezers) in your large and callused (all those PCs you build) hands and it just looks SO WRONG to her. I can’t remember if my Dad ever removed my splinters. He probably did. I think Mom was more a nurse than Dad but that is more due to the fact that she was a stay-at-home mom.
I don’t think I was prone to injuring myself in the evening. Watching “Happy Days” wounded me in ways that didn’t show.
I actually do the splinter removal better than my wife does. My daughter just enjoys giving me a hard time. It’s how she shows her “love” to me.
CIP: My daughter likes the white cheddar Cheez-Its so I bought a box of the new Cheddar-Jack ones for myself. After trying them she declared that she no longers like the white cheddar ones and took my box and hid it on me so I could not eat them anymore!
HMTKSteve: Your daughter is going to be trrrrouble when she starts dating! All those confused men!
She sounds cute. Where did she learn this teasing way of showing her affection?