My brother and I have certainly had our share of bruises, and sore muscles, but nothing too serious in the line of injuries.
We did get to take our first trip to the emergency room at a regatta down in Iowa this past summer. My crew gashed his leg open on piece of hardware on the tramp of my Hobie 20. At first it didn't seem to be too serious. It stopped bleeding, and everthing seemed fine. Then after swimming during a break, he got out of the water, and his leg was bleeding like a geyser. After having several people look it, including an EMT, a nurse, and an eye doctor, it was determined that he should be stitched up.
So, I took him to the ER, and about three hours later (if you're not dying, you get to wait) they had three stitches in his leg. The worst part was that it meant my crew could no longer sail. We had it all figured out how we were going to waterproof his leg, but were told by all of the medical professionals in attendence that we were taking a big risk of infection.
Along with that risk, we were told the horror stories about a friend on Bald Eagle Lake who injured herself with what seemed to be a minor cut. As a result of getting it wet, she sustained a very bad infection that resulted in a two to three day hospital stay hooked up to iv's and the whole bit!
So...the morale is, that though many have gotten away with it, you are risking death or serious injury by letting your injuries get wet!!
Mary, you're lucky that fingernail injury didn't turn into something worse. Especially in saltwater! Yuck!
Cheers!
Tim