Lessons From My Body

I'm going about this all wrong. I should be paying more attention to my arm.

Late on Tuesday night I managed to scald myself badly by pouring boiling water over my right wrist. (We won't concern ourselves with the details, suffice to say a cat, a hot water bottle and a zombie were involved.)
At first it didn't hurt at all. I did what you're supposed to in these situations and ran it under the tap for 20 minutes (the hiss of the water drowning out the screams of the dams - no showers for me for a week) and afterwards it felt cold and numb.

"How lucky to have escaped so lightly," I thought.
"This is a nasty wound indeed and yet I feel no pain at all."

The Banana was unconvinced.
"Wake me up," she said, "when you decide you need some burn cream."

It stayed numb until I went to bed, and then it started to hurt like several kinds of bitch. I tried stuffing it under the pillow, resting it on my stomach, putting it behind my head, hanging it out the side of the sheet and jamming it into my armpit, all to no avail. In the end I just had to lie there and wait for the burning to subside enough to let me sleep.

I woke substantially grumpier than usual but pleasantly surprised to find I was still alive. The burn didn't look that bad, no worse than having very carelessly applied a particularly unfortunate shade of fake tan. The skin was tender, stiff and sore to the touch, so I moved my watch onto the other wrist and found a gentle moisturiser to soothe it. I washed my hair with one hand to keep it away from hot water, the thing that caused the damage in the first place.

I am watching the wound get worse before it gets better. Now it's over the initial shock my wrist is angry and raw, but I am treating it gently. Every time I look down I remember that I have hurt myself, but I know from experience that the colour will fade as the skin gradually heals. I will forgive the cat and let him out of the garage, and in the end I may have a small scar to remind me - not to stay away from my hot water bottle but just to be more careful filling it.