This Time it was my Turn at the ER

This one will be hard to explain without sounding like an idiot. But any blog worth its salt can’t be all self-promotion all the time. Every once in a while you have to admit to incompetence. So, this afternoon I spent an hour or so in the emergency room with a three-pronged hook submerged in my forearm…

It’s not really a long story. I was on the dock casting one of my favorite lures when on my backswing it got entangled in Lucy’s collar. When I turned to unhook her it released on its own and flung itself at warp speed right into my left forearm. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt at the time so I couldn’t see how deeply it was hooked. I sat down and began trying to yank it out like I’ve done many times before, only this time it wouldn’t budge. Instead, each time I yanked it seemed to hurt more and plunge deeper. At this point I managed to walk to the cabin where I thought it might be wise to cut the sleeve of my shirt off so I could see what I was up against. That’s when I learned that the hook had embedded itself rather deeply and the tip of the hook was coming out of the skin a quarter of an inch to the side. This explains why it wouldn’t come out. At this point I thought it might be wise to call Pam’s cellphone to let her know about my predicament. She was in Belfast buying our dinner at Hannaford’s. I completely botched the explanation on the phone—something I’m quite good at, she told me later—but soon she was driving me to the Pen Bay Emergency Room, where one of the doctors actually volunteered to take my case because she was dying to see how somebody could hook themselves with a fishing lure that required a doctor to remove. Dr. Lu was quite impressed with the wound and showed up armed with wire-cutters and a pair of pliers. 

My first words to her were, “Doc, do you think you can save this lure? It’s one of my favorites” She smiled broadly, numbed my arm and sat about clipping the hook in two then sliding the jagged edge out. After a tetanus shot and an antibiotic prescription I was on my way back to the lake, the Dunnevant family’s second adventure at Pen Bay in less than a year.

Unfortunately I ruined a perfectly good long sleeve shirt and that lure is going to need some work.

Lake life is not for the feint of heart.