Staples

The staples came out of my head yesterday - 36 of them, 9 per hole. Removal was relatively painless, except for 3 that had scabbed over and were deeply embedded as a consequence, resulting in a lot of pain, but not insurmountable.

The nifty little tool used for their removal has a lower arm that slides under them, one by one, and the upper arm bends the middle downward against a V shaped indentation in the lower arm, allowing the ends to automatically rise and disengage the skin. 

I now have a couple of dressings on the wound for a couple of days before they can be exposed to the air and I can proceed with life as normal.

When in hospital I was given one of these for the first day of recuperation.

A recycled, papier-mâché urine bottle, as I was unable to rise from my bed. One doesn't immediately think of papier-mâché as being waterproof and, after having done what was necessary, I was constantly checking the underside of said urine bottles to check they weren't about to collapse into a mush on my bedside table. Surprisingly, they didn't, even after several hours of being left. 

Apparently they're treated with a waterproofing agent, which remains effective for a predetermined time - sufficient for normal hospital use. When collected, they're emptied and then macerated. They allegedly result in fat less cross-contamination than metal bottles.