Just got my stitches out of my finger, so now I can draw again!

Let's back up a bit. Most of you who don't follow my Twitter will probably want to know what's going on.

Back on the 13th of July, I went down to Malibu with my brother Chance, and our buddies Valk and Vita to have some beachy fun and grab some souvenirs for Vita's father, who is a big time surfer dude. We stopped at a roadside truck that was selling fruits and such, namely these stupidly rich and delicious strawberries and very flavorful coconuts. Chance bought his strawberries and Valk and I drank the coconuts, and I had the brilliant idea of splitting the coconuts open to eat.

The day prior, we had gone to the Del Mar fairgrounds because they were having a gun show there. Chance loves his guns, and I love my swords, and we'd previously gotten some neat swag from a gun show up in Washington, so we poked around for a while. When we went over to this one booth where Chance had previously bought his katana, The Water's Edge, there was a similar katana with a dark blue wrap on the handle, and everyone agreed that I needed that sword. So, all 3 of them pitched in to buy this amazing katana. It's not perfectly authentic; the blade was just machined steel, instead of the traditional folded steel, but the wrap was real, and it was indeed razor sharp. So, I had a new katana, a real one. My first real one, at that. Sadly, I could not think of a name for it at the time, so it remained nameless as I paraded around with it proudly. Some people might recall me wearing it to the PS that day, too!

Back at the beach, cutting open my coconut was fairly simple. I held back, since the coconut was sitting on a rock and I didn't wanna wreck the blade. I sliced it open after several swings and enjoyed the freshest coconut meat I've had since I moved away from Hawaii. Valk also wanted his sliced open, so I happily obliged. I managed to chop that one open in one swing, clean cut. However, as I handled the blade, the sheath, the coconut, and the cloth bag the katana came in, I did something no swordsman should ever do. I held the katana handle under my armpit. The sheath slipped out and I ended up slicing my right hand ring finger tip really, really bad. Vita, Valk and Chance all grabbed all of our stuff in an instant, and Valk sacrificed his sock (which was relatively clean) and I used it to tie a tourniquet to halt a lot of blood loss. We got it cleaned up by the lifeguard who was on duty at the time, nice blonde girl, who was very calm about the whole situation, and after pouring alcohol and wrapping it in a simple gauze wrap and medical tape, we set off immediately for Santa Maria Hospital. While in the waiting room, I thought up the perfect name for the katana. Wolf's Blood. It's an arrogant blade who demands to be treated with the respect that a katana should be treated with, and because I didn't, it bit me as retribution. Chance's katana, The Water's Edge, is a peaceful blade, who doesn't cut anyone who is not deserving. The two katanas match our personalities perfectly. The cut was relatively minor, and could have been much, much worse. I could have sliced that part of my finger clean off, or sliced my finger off, or worse, hit an artery in my wrist. I got off extremely easy, which leads me to believe that while the Wolf's Blood is an arrogant blade, it is not a malevolent blade; it will teach you to respect it, it will punish disrespect, but it is fair in it's punishment. My ring finger is the least important of all my other fingers when it comes to most of my daily activities, especially drawing. So, while my finger is damaged, it is not unusable, and thus my hand is not unusable.

Managed to get everything sorted out at the hospital and they stitched up my finger (5 stitches) and I was good to go. Ever since then, I haven't been able to draw much, since while my ring finger isn't essential to me drawing, my pinkie finger rests against the tip (the part that was lacerated) when I use my tablet, and the pressure makes it either painful or simply very uncomfortable to draw.

However, now that my stitches are out (which was an ordeal in the first place trying to find a clinic that could take me and my insurance, because I have a Hawaii insurance policy, but I don't have my card with me, just a photo of it), it's finally comfortable to draw again! I severed the nerve in the finger (but thankfully not the tendon), so I can't really feel anything outside of pressure on it, so that'll take some getting used to. At least now, though, I can do more things with my right hand again! Lemme tell ya, learning how to use my left hand as often as I use my right hand takes a lot of getting used to. It's still awkward to wipe... >.<

Just thought I'd give ya all an update. Probably gonna be doodling more and posting what appears. Keep being beautiful, everyone!
'Til next time,
~Fenrir