RIP Finger

[GeneralKayoss]

Not exactly arboricultural but this happened to me about 2 1/2 years ago. Using a table router with a 1/2" spiral bearing bit. I was cutting small rails off of a pattern out of 3/4" Starboard (a heavy dense marine plastic). They were roughly 12" long x 1" wide. A combination of things went wrong here, I accidently used the wrong spiral bit, I grabbed the one we usually use on acrylic, with less taper. My pattern also didn't have any knobs or handles on it and was only 1/2" plywood... you can see where this is going. Anyways, trimming a few pieces I noticed the bit was very grabby, wanting to get overly aggressive trying to snatch the part. I thought "I'll do one more and check this bit and make sure it's the right one" I was pretty sure it wasn't at that point already. It was the next one that got me. Guess I had a little too much meat left in one place and it grabbed the part and flung it, dragging my finger right into the bit. I had 15 years experience in a woodshop and using routers at this point - never get comfortable and let your guard down. Needless to say but I'm a lot bigger on safety now! Here were the results:

 

[farmguywithasaw]

Not a good post before breakfast

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Not a good post before breakfast

Or before dinner either...
A graphic warning would have been nice.

Did your fingernail grow back?

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Or before dinner either...
A graphic warning would have been nice.

Did your fingernail grow back?

Oh no, 10 days later I had to have it cut off again in surgery

They amputated basically the entire fingernail area.

 

[EchoRomeoCharlie]

This literally made my index finger physically hurt...

Sucks dude. Machines ain't nice to flesh.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

This literally made my index finger physically hurt...

Sucks dude. Machines ain't nice to flesh.

I mean, it did hurt pretty bad. The worst part of the entire ordeal was them trying to get it to stop bleeding. They had to resort to shoving cotton swabs coated in some sort of silver blood clotting stuff inside the tiny severed artery in my finger. That stuff burned the absolute **** out of me. It burned so bad it made the bones in my arm all the way up to my shoulder hurt. It's probably at about 80% today. I have to use my middle finger and thumb to pick up or grip small objects now lacking a fingertip, but it's still useful enough. It still has some stiffness to it all this time later.

 

[pdqdl]

OOOH! Silver nitrate burns like hell. I can't believe any medic put that stuff on an injury: a compression bandage would have been a whole lot better for healing purposes.
That's the stuff they use to make dog toenails quit bleeding.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537873/​

Their summary paraphrased: We don't know.​

"Clinical and economic studies comparing topical silver nitrate to other cauterizing agents and hemostats are needed to evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of topical silver nitrate, and to guide its use in the management of hemostasis."​

You'll be ok, though. I've seen worse.

 

[GeneralKayoss]

OOOH! Silver nitrate burns like hell. I can't believe any medic put that stuff on an injury: a compression bandage would have been a whole lot better for healing purposes.
That's the stuff they use to make dog toenails quit bleeding.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537873/​

Their summary paraphrased: We don't know.​

"Clinical and economic studies comparing topical silver nitrate to other cauterizing agents and hemostats are needed to evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of topical silver nitrate, and to guide its use in the management of hemostasis."​

You'll be ok, though. I've seen worse.

View attachment 1178511

Wow! Is that yours? How did it happen?

 

[pdqdl]

Not unlike your own difficulties, I wasn't paying enough attention to the moving parts.
A wood planer caught the tip of my thumb and quickly sucked my hand in until it stalled the machine. pdqdl parts were flying all over the room for just a moment, and there was nothing left to sew back together, either. What you see is what was left after it made a snack out of my hand.

I really don't mind the missing fingers, though. I've got other injuries I'd much rather have fixed before I got my fingers restored. You should get to where you don't even notice that chunk gone from your finger.

The hardest thing for me about the missing thumb and finger was admitting to everyone who got curious that I was too damned stupid to remain attached to all my fingers. That bothered me for quite a few years, but I finally got over it.

I think I was running a chainsaw again about 9 days later. The first tree I climbed 6 weeks after my injury turned out to be the biggest tree I've ever climbed and removed. I'll tell you right now, that was a pretty stressful way to discover whether or not I could still do the job. It turns out I never missed those fingers very much when I was 75' up, and was already well adapted to getting by without 'em.

I've got a guy working for me who is missing all four fingertips on one hand. It doesn't seem to bother him much, either.

 

[pdqdl]

Just an aside: I stopped the bleeding myself with a bit of pressure on my wrist, right where you take your pulse. They never put any silver nitrate on my fingers, and I know there was more damage.

Any silver nitrate reaction with mucous tissue is just agony. I'll have no doubt it hurt all the way up to your shoulder! That hurt way worse than when you did the injury, didn't it?

 

[GeneralKayoss]

Not unlike your own difficulties, I wasn't paying enough attention to the moving parts.
A wood planer caught the tip of my thumb and quickly sucked my hand in until it stalled the machine. pdqdl parts were flying all over the room for just a moment, and there was nothing left to sew back together, either. What you see is what was left after it made a snack out of my hand.

I really don't mind the missing fingers, though. I've got other injuries I'd much rather have fixed before I got my fingers restored. You should get to where you don't even notice that chunk gone from your finger.

The hardest thing for me about the missing thumb and finger was admitting to everyone who got curious that I was too damned stupid to remain attached to all my fingers. That bothered me for quite a few years, but I finally got over it.

I think I was running a chainsaw again about 9 days later. The first tree I climbed 6 weeks after my injury turned out to be the biggest tree I've ever climbed and removed. I'll tell you right now, that was a pretty stressful way to discover whether or not I could still do the job. It turns out I never missed those fingers very much when I was 75' up, and was already well adapted to getting by without 'em.

I've got a guy working for me who is missing all four fingertips on one hand. It doesn't seem to bother him much, either.

Oh man, after reading that, mine feels like nothing. It was basically the smallest amputation possible, still have all my knuckles. The fingernail area gone back to the cuticle. The lack of a fingertip and fingernail is an annoyance. When trying to grab or hold something precisely I have to use middle finger and thumb, and the pointer is just in the dang way lol. I can imagine the adapting you had to do missing the entire thumb.

Just an aside: I stopped the bleeding myself with a bit of pressure on my wrist, right where you take your pulse. They never put any silver nitrate on my fingers, and I know there was more damage.

Any silver nitrate reaction with mucous tissue is just agony. I'll have no doubt it hurt all the way up to your shoulder! That hurt way worse than when you did the injury, didn't it?

I grabbed my finger and I bet I jumped as high as Michael Jordan after that router bit me. Then ran and grabbed a clean rag and wrapped it up as tight as I could. Only 1 person in the shop with me at the time so we jumped in his truck and headed for the hospital 15 mins away. Then the torture began. Silver nitrate was definitely worse than the injury itself. I didn't even really feel a tremendous amount of pain until that point, not joking about it hurting all the way to my shoulder, a deep down burning sensation, all the way into your bones. I can't imagine what yours felt like, so many nerves in the fingers and hands. Then it was over a week before they could schedule me for surgery. So then I had to go have it amputated and go through the entire ordeal again. Minus the silver nitrate and consciousness.

 

[pdqdl]

My little scratch didn't ever really hurt much. You'd think otherwise, but I've bumped my elbow and had it hurt worse, initially. Recovery was a bit sore, but saying goodbye to my thumb & finger really wasn't that traumatic for me. I never even took a day off work.

Now re-learning how to do everything with my primary paw was no fun. That took a lot more effort. I would really have been traumatized a lot more, I suppose, except that I have previously broken my right collarbone two times, and broken my right elbow two times. Along the way, I have already learned how to function without my right hand, so the simple things like shaving, taking a leak, or eating dinner I had already trained to do with my left hand.

Like I suggested, your little nub installation wasn't any fun, but it won't become a life-changing event unless you allow it to become important. I ended up being very surprised at how well I got along without my two fingers. I predict that 6 months from now, you won't notice it until you bump the end of your finger, and 2 years from now, you probably won't even think about it except occasionally.

If, on the other hand, you allow the injury to become the center of your unhappiness, that little scratch might ruin your life. So think positively!

 

[ZinTrees]

kinda similar, kinda not

I managed to get a severe burn on my left hand a bunch of years ago, stupid little 2 year old Zinny decided it'd be fun to reach up and grab a hot iron right off the ironing board, with total disregard for the handle vs not handly end

still have the scar from it, right across where my fingers meet the palm of my hand and up my index finger, haven't been able to straighten my left index or sit my hand flat on a table since





there was also that time, I think about 4 years ago, dropped a cuttoff disk on an angle grinder right into my knee cap on accident, almost went to bone, didn't bleed a drop or even hurt really, pain is a weird thing, my smallest injuries usually hurt the worst (although I bet that burn hurt, don't remember if it did"

 

[GeneralKayoss]

My little scratch didn't ever really hurt much. You'd think otherwise, but I've bumped my elbow and had it hurt worse, initially. Recovery was a bit sore, but saying goodbye to my thumb & finger really wasn't that traumatic for me. I never even took a day off work.

Now re-learning how to do everything with my primary paw was no fun. That took a lot more effort. I would really have been traumatized a lot more, I suppose, except that I have previously broken my right collarbone two times, and broken my right elbow two times. Along the way, I have already learned how to function without my right hand, so the simple things like shaving, taking a leak, or eating dinner I had already trained to do with my left hand.

Like I suggested, your little nub installation wasn't any fun, but it won't become a life-changing event unless you allow it to become important. I ended up being very surprised at how well I got along without my two fingers. I predict that 6 months from now, you won't notice it until you bump the end of your finger, and 2 years from now, you probably won't even think about it except occasionally.

If, on the other hand, you allow the injury to become the center of your unhappiness, that little scratch might ruin your life. So think positively!

I don't even think about it most of the time. For the first year or two I would kind of try to hide it but now I don't care. Most people don't even notice it unless I point it out myself. I'm glad you were able to adapt and make the best of it! Improvise, adapt, overcome. I've been pretty lucky through life and have avoided any major injuries and broken bones. That was probably the worst physical injury I've had in my 40 years other than some stitches. And kidney stones, but that's a monster for another day.