Two and a half hours ago, I was in the hospital. The doctor removed the cast from my left arm, forced the two nails out of my hand with his bare hand, and told me I was free to go. :D
I don't wish to go into too much detail this time. I went to the hospital in the afternoon, entered the emergency building, called Manfredo and waited for him in the main hall (I call it the lobby). When I was entering, I overheard a guard saying that 6 bullet-shot patients were just about to arrive. Sure enough, while I was waiting, an ambulance siren was heard outside, and moments later, several firemen and policemen were bringing in several bloody people. The first one to come in was able to walk and was holding on to a shirt under his face. If not for the obvious circumstances, I wouldn't have known if his shirt was white stained with red or the other way around. It was soaked with blood, and it dripped red liquid from time to time. All the other shot people were brought in on a wheelbed. One of them had so much blood spread all over him, it almost seemed that red was his natural skin color. Cameras and reporters followed the blood-covered people as they were brought into the emergency building, transferred to a hospital wheelbed, and pushed through some doors labeled "Shock Room", while all the people in the lobby looked on.
I turned my head away, in a feeble but honest attempt to show some respect for the wounded. A while later, a tired-looking Manfredo arrived and fixed the necessary paperwork to get my hand X-rayed. I got in line for the X-ray machine, just after the guy who was soaking his t-shirt with his own blood. I didn't give him a close look, but Manfredo told me that this guy had a bullet hole right on his cheek... the bullet possibly went out the other cheek. Awful. (Sidenote: Have you noticed that awesome and awful are etymologically very similar, except that the former suggests the meaning "that which inspires some awe", while the latter suggests "that which inspires full awe"? Too bad they don't mean what they suggest).
So then I got my hand X-rayed, then I sat down with Manfredo and chatted with him for a while, and then my hand surgeon came. He looked at my X-rays, decided my bones had rejoined well enough, and got to work. He uncasted my arm and told me to take a deep breath. While I breathed, he pulled both nails from my hand with his own arm strength. It didn't hurt at all, practically. :O I recorded and photographed some of it, though not during the actual nail extraction :(.
A little nasty, isn't it? Well, remember that at least you're not the one with the actual holes, pain, and ugly scars on your hand. Now I'm in rehab period. I was told to move my fingers and hand normally, to use them as much as I could. It's going to be somewhat hard, since 4 weeks inside a cast have left my hand weak, hurt, and immobile. But I'll do it. I already got an orange to squeeze.
I also had my abacus class in the morning. I was told today that we have 3 weeks of vacation from abacus class - Kira gave me 4 "Map" books to work with during all this time. She also gave me a special mental calculus remedial book - I hope it helps me focus on the numbers as little abacus beads in their respective columns better. I also promised to practice my number calligraphy. So this will be an abacus workout period.
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