When I decided to start this blog, I spent a couple days trying to decide what my first post should be about. Price differences at Target, Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer & CARRS/Safeway? The best gas prices in the MatSu Valley? Coupons? Once A Month Cooking? Experimenting with different 'gas saving' habits? Preventative dental care vs. root canals etc? Hmm. Lots of great ideas. What to do first? How about saving money by Safety?
"How did you stumble upon such a great idea?" you ask. Well, let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time, there was an Alaskan Gal who loved cooking and entertaining. Since her brother who lived way up north was going to be in town for Thanksgiving, she decided to have her family over for an after Thanksgiving get together on Saturday at 2 p.m. She made arrangements for her sister who lives out of state to call while everybody was at her house. Made sure that her family knew that she would be serving her delicious Smoked Salmon Chowder at 2:30 and would have fresh homemade Sourdough bread to serve with the chowder. The deck of cards was brought upstairs as well as several board games. The house was straightened up and the kid's room cleaned as that is where the younger kids would be playing.
Now this Alaskan Gal is also a Kitchen Consultant for a company that helps to Discover the Chef in You. That morning she had some errands to do regarding her business. There was some concern about time crunch issues, but everything was rolling along just fine. Alaskan Girl finished her errands in Anchorage, stopped by CARRS in Eagle River and made it home by 1:00 p.m. One of her younger brother's girlfriend showed up a tad early but that's ok. The girlfriend looked at some clothes Alaskan Girl's kids had outgrown, and hung out on the couch with the new baby. The chowder was right on schedule, kids happily playing upstairs, the smell of baking bread filling the air.
Then disaster struck.
Now, remember, Alaskan Girl has experience with kitchen items, has been cooking and baking for over 30 years and always stresses safety during her parties/shows especially when near hot items and sharp objects. Well, Alaskan Girl was chopping the celery for the chowder and glanced over at the recipe to make sure she had everything ready to start cooking. Right when she took her eyes off the knife and celery, she thought 'I really should be looking at the knife action I have going on here.' She looked back right as she felt the knife slice thru her index finger on the left hand.
Hmmm. That's gonna hurt.
Then, reality hit. I CUT MY FINGER!!!!!!!! Alaskan Girl quickly grabbed a handy kitchen towel and turned around to ask her oldest daughter to please go get dad.
'Do you need some help with something Mom?' she asked.
'PLEASE, just go get dad.'
'Are you ok Mom?' she asks as she sees the towel wrapped around my finger. 'Did you cut yourself?'
'PLEASE, GET DAD.'
Right then the husband walks into the kitchen and asks jokingly, 'Did you cut yourself hun?'
The silence from Alaskan Girl spoke volumes. In fact, it was an entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica.
Sigh. 'Let me see what you did.' said her husband as he walked over to her. Then he asked R to go get the first aid kit. While looking at the damage I did, I mean Alaskan Girl did, the husband said 'I think this calls for a visit to the ER.'
'Are you crazy? I am not going to go sit at the ER for 4 hours then wait another 3 to have a band-aid put on! I would rather go to AIC (which would take half the time).' Alaskan Girl said. 'Can't we just put a band-aid on and call it good?'
Her husband looked very seriously at her and said 'We don't have anything big enough to cover the cut and the bleeding is not stopping.'
'Alright, we will go.'
Alaskan Girl asked her youngest daughter for a new towel (her oldest had disappeared) while looking for the missing piece of finger on the cutting board. Hmm. It is no where to be seen. Oh well. Off we go to have the finger looked at. Apologies are made to the girlfriend and could you kinda keep an eye on the kids? Great. Thanks.
My favorite clinic, Wasilla Medical Clinic is closed for the holidays. So off to AIC we go. The wait in the lobby was about 45 minutes which was ok as Galaxy Quest was playing on the TV. After she was shown to the broken limbs room, the doctor looked at the wound and said 'Yup, you need stitches.'
The nurse who cleaned the wound, which still had not stopped bleeding, stated 'I don't see how we can stitch it. There is nothing to stitch. I will let the doctor know.'
When the Dr. came back in and looked at the wound and agreed. He explained that since I was self pay, he would wrap up the wound, give me a tetanus shot, prescribe drugs and have me watch for infection. The nurse was quite nice as she gave me a shot and wrapped up the wound. We chatted about wounds, and fielded phone calls from R who explained that everyone was there and she had thrown away the missing piece of finger and had her order pizza since the chowder was not going to be done.
Alaskan Girl had the nurse at the check-out station fax the Rx to CARRS instead of MYDoctors. Why? Closer in location, CARRS is the pharmacy of choice, AK miles, convenience for other items like gauze, first aid tape and food and perhaps most important, Alaskan Girl had a coupon for a $30 gift card if she brought in a new prescription.
Off to CARRS we go. The pharmacy updated the personal info and wound care items were picked up. By this time, everyone had left except Alaskan Girl’s older brother from up north and one of the younger brothers. At home, comfy on the couch, her and her brother’s discussed old war wounds from childhood, politics and other items of interest. When all were gone, Alaskan Girl and her husband were snuggled up on the couch discussing the events of the day. What was the conclusion of the conversation?
AIC visit-$99
CARRS visit-$93
New scar to last a lifetime, being the butt of jokes-Priceless. Well, actually it cost $192.
A lesson learned about safety to last forever.
And they lived happily ever after....The End.
