Other. Please go get a tetanus shot, pretty please with sugar on top.

BTW, I am a worry wart...

[X] - Other: Your finger will swell up to the size of a Polish sausage, and you will spend the remainder of your trip dodging sauerkraut.

Dude, get the shot.

[X] Other: You have died of dysentery lockjaw.

(Go get a tetanus shot. The doctors I've been to say 10 years is the longest one can go between shots and be protected, but better safe than sorry.)

Cmonkey, how is it that you have some sort of medical emergency every time you go abroad?

I can't get a tetanus booster; I'm travelling on just enough cash to pay for my cheap hotels and food, and my insurance definitely doesn't work here.

mudpuppie: I do stupid things. Very, very stupid things :-(

Find some triple anti-biotic ointment and use it religiously. Also, clean the wound with peroxide first to make sure that all the rust particles are gone.

You probably already know this.

What were you doing poking around the back of an old Polish refrigerator?

Looking for old Polish Jews who still didn't know the war is over?

Also wash out the wound really good, often. And get a tetanus shot anyway, surely they must have emergency rooms in Poland, talk them into it, fuck insurance. Smile, wave your finger. Get the shot.

Claim poverty if you have to, but get the tetanus shot. You don't want to end up in a hospital in a foreign country.

Even US-made appliances lack finished edges where people normally don't put their hands, I can only imagine what a Communist one might be like.

cmonkey, a lot of time insurance will cover emergency medical costs when you travel. It might be worth checking into.

Tetanus shot, yes, though it will hurt tomorrow. And just what WERE you doing poking around an old Polish refrigerator? Looking for a treasure map?

The fridge is one of those little ones that hotel rooms occasionally have. I had a beer sitting next to it in the plastic wrap that they came in. I picked it up by the wrapper, it slipped out, acquired a small hole somehow, and ended up behind the refrigerator, spraying beer in a fountain around the room.

I know that sounds like it could be a fun, whimsical thing, but it really isn't. I cut my hand when I was trying to get the can before it got the room any more soaked. It was too late, and I was too exhausted, to go out and find Bactine or something, but I'm definitely going to get some today just in case I do something stupid again.

My health insurance doesn't cover travelling, and the cut seems to be healing well, without any swelling or pus, so I think I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that I don't get the ol' lockjaw. If I start getting any symptoms, I'll see if the embassy can be of any assistance.