Thumbs up? no, not really

[rancid badger]

If ever there was a salutary tale, on the subject of not using edged tools when you're tired and particularly, using the correct tool for the job, well..........how about this;

I came off nightshift this morning, went to bed and as I went, asked my wife to get me up at 12 noon, as I had a couple of jobs I wanted to get finished in the garden, before retiring to the "lab" to continue with some leather work I've got on the go.

I took my time when I was called from slumber, had a cuppa,a quick wash and set to with the garden stuff. I was still groggy but the sunshine and fresh air seemed to be doing me the world of good.

I decided I needed a couple of short pegs making and rather than pop into the garage to collect my knife, I picked up one of my old hatchets, which was handy and set about the making of said pegs.

I've absolutely no idea how I did what I did next but something slipped and the result was this:
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x125/stalch/P2120011copyresizedthumboff.jp g

I felt the blade hit the bone in my thumb and knew instinctively, that it was a nasty "bite" this time:aargh4:

I went back into the kitchen, totally ignoring my first aid kit, which was right next to me!:togo:

I grabbed a load of kitchen towel paper and quickly wrapped the finger and thumb and applied a lot of pressure.

Then I danced around a bit, swearing and cursing my stupidity, and stupidity it most certainly was. Then the shock hit me, very much harder than I recall ever before.

I began to sweat heavily and felt extremely ill:( I started to feel very dizzy too and remembered the sensation years ago, when I broke an ankle on exercise:stretcher:

I'm fairly certain I passed out, at one point, sitting in the living room,fighting off the dizziness and nausea. My wife and son were both with me and didn't notice any obvious faint but i definitely lost a minute or so somewhere.


Anyway, I eventually took a good look at it and confirmed what I already knew; I needed to seek medical attention, so there being no other drivers in the household yet, we phoned my brother across in Hexham to see if he could help out.

He arrived in surprisingly short order and we went first to the new, local walk in centre ( really, a waste of time, should have gone with instinct and went straight to a&e but never mind:o)
Where after only a short wait,was immediately told to go straight on, to the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle.

Again, I was seen and dealt with very rapidly and within an hour and a half, had been triaged, x-rayed and seen by a plastic surgeon, who has booked me in for urgent surgery, tomorrow morning.

I've severed the tip of the thumb bone, though I haven't actually lost anything yet. The cut through the thumb nail goes through a good 8mm, with a about 3mm left keeping the tip on the bottom.

There wasn't a huge amount of blood but the pain was and still is, intense.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x125/stalch/P2120012.jpg

They are going to open up both wounds, scrub them out, remove the thumb nail, possibly remove the bit of bone that's floating about now and then stitch everything back together again.

An 8am appointment with no finish time specified;)

Why did I do what I did? dunno:confused:
Why wasn't I practising what I preach, ref kevlar gloves and using the right tool for the job? one word: STUPID

So that's me out of order for a week or two.

Please try to remember; take care with your edged tools, even if you have been using them for years and years and years.

It can happen to any of us :surrender:

best wishes and stay safe lads and lasses:o

Steve

[resnikov]

WOW considering what you did to your hand, major kudos for writing it up so well.

Hope everything turns out ok.

[rancid badger]

Hah! I'm blasted on codeine phosphate and I've been using my right hand and left middle finger only! amazing what you can do though, if you set your mind to it:)

To cap it all I'm a left hander! so what the hxll i was doing with the axe in my right hand, I just can't figure out:confused:

atb

Steve

[trekkingnut]

ach i did that whilst splitting logs last year.... was sooooo silly! axe was way to big for the job in hand.... tsk... school boy error!

[v-ness]

Ohh geesh- thats a nasty cut that.
Just shows you how quickly it can all go pete tong :stretcher:
All the best for tomorrow and hope it heals up quick!!

Ness :)

[Mesquite]

Arghhh... damn you were lucky Steve.

I'm surprised you took the time to pose for pics as well. Hope things go well tomorrow for you.

[ArkAngel]

Major league impressive mate!

Sounds like you handled it well.

Hope everything goes well for you tomorrow, let us know how you get on.

[FreddyFish]

Ouch.......

[rancid badger]

Arghhh... damn you were lucky Steve.

I'm surprised you took the time to pose for pics as well. Hope things go well tomorrow for you.

To be honest, I can't really recall doing the asking but apparently I insisted that Thomas,( my son) took a few pictures, while waiting for our lad to arrive:o

Steve

[Realbark]

Hope you go alright tommorow. A & E first stop EVERYTIME - i have some experience of knife wounds and the walk-ins are a waste of space.

[naefearjustbeer]

Ouch you have done it good and proper, That beats my attempt of sawing my thumb off last year!
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/38284_10150233328645307_735775 306_13475579_2305973_n.jpg

[RonW]

Boah... that makes my stomag turn into a ball.....

[_mark_]

Hope it goes well tomorrow! Plastic surgeons are miracle workers they really are.

[trekkingnut]

i do have to say that out of the whole story, the walk in part amazes more than anything else.... you were in pain so ill let YOU off... but the person who drove you there... tut tut.... A&E for any major bleeds!!!

[rancid badger]

Thanks for all the kind words:)

To be fair, there wasn't much blood, though I knew it was broken.:o
If nothing else, I got a sneak preview of the brand new leisure centre, which is all part of the walk in unit and it was me that insisted we try there first.

I have to say; it got me thinking of "what ifs" and I will definitely be going through "QRP's" in future, even if only in my mind.

It's amazing how a moment or two's loss of concentration, can buxxer you up, not to mention those around you:sadwavey:

I'll be missing the protest rally down at Chopwell Wood, unless of course I'm lucky and get sorted nice and early tomorrow morning. In some way's, this hurts even more than the stupidity of injuring myself like this in the first place.:dunno:
The pain though, is frankly; blxxdy amazing:rolleyes:

Thanks again and I'll keep you informed of progress.

best wishes

Steve

[decorum]

Here's hoping for a quick and uneventful recovery for you.

[Ivan Owen]

Well for all it's worth you've helped me out with career choicing.

Ambulance driver is now crossed off the list.

I expect my let thumb and forefinger to re-emerge from my armpit some time tmorow mornin.

good luck for tomorrow.

[John Fenna]

"If a jobs worth doing - it is worth doing well"?
Good luck my friend - I hope you will be fully active again soon!

[CBJ]

Yeah thats a bad un,

good luck with the surgery mate, and have a speedy recovery

Craig

[Gill]

Nasty accident Steve, i know exactly what your going through been there more times than i should ! i hope it goes well and its not out of action too long .

[Genty]

Good work on posting this salutary tale; I can't imagine anyone reading this will be thinking - "It'll never happen to me" now.

It's funny how everyone has their weakness when it comes to gore - I can look at most things fairly objectively but split or damaged nails, especially 'cut through' nails just make my stomach turn. I'm not surprised you felt queezey!

Remember: "chicks dig scars...but hate empty eye sockets." Nicks and grazes come with the territort but lets not loose digits!


Hope you have a fast recovery, Rancid.

[silentbob]

Wow - That's nasty, and as a fellow left hander I'm impressed you've still been able to write it up and post it on here. I hope the surgery goes well.
My 9 year old son glanced over my shoulder at this as I was reading it, he is used to me using axes, saws and knives with my Scout troop. He simply said, "Ow! Be careful Dad, and tell the Scouts." Funnily enough I'm planning to put a section on use of "sharps" on our Scout website soon and wanted an image of a cautionary nature but not overly gory - and this fits the bill perfectly. So, at the risk of it seeming a strange request, would you mind if I put the first photo on our website (it will of course be credited to you)?

[morch]

Well I had a bit of a lie in this morning, got up at 10-15. Made the coffee and logged on to see this........ Any one want some freshly brewed coffee? Not what I wanted to see.

Hope all goes with the surgery and you recover quickly Steve

atb

Dave

[toilet digger]

ooh thats impressive, hope the surgery goes well tomorrow fella.
remember the nausea and dizziness well, when i got my leg snapped playing rugby a few years back.
never underestimate the restorative powers of a tipple or ten!
be lucky:yikes:

[stekker]

It was very brave to show and describe us what happened to you.
As you said you are used to work with your hatchet,but when you're tired or groggy don't work with dangerous tools.
I hope you will recover very soon.

Theo

[lucan]

Damn that made me feel ill just looking,

Jeez,

Get well soon yeah.

[toilet digger]

just showed the pics to my little girls as they have started using axes/knives when we're out.

[warthog1981]

I hope you heal fast and well .
I got caught out a few years back when I did myself a mischief to :)

[luckylee]

ahh steve mate i really feel for you, if i could help anyway i would mate, i hope you get better my friend.
take care and i hope you have a speedy recovery.

[rancid badger]

Well, I survived the surgery! really fascinating stuff.

I asked if they could do it with a local anaesthetic, and although they didn't seem too keen at first, they agreed and I spent a really interesting 45 minutes or so in theatre.

the worst bit was the needle going in, to freeze everything, though after the first two, it numbed nicely.

they opened up my thumb, removed the chopped off bit of nail, as well as trimming it back a bit from the original wound to allow them to stitch it back up.

they found I had taken the tip off the bone, but left it there to either fuse or be absorbed? anyway, then they cleaned it right out and stitched it back together with, I think, 10 tiny little stitches.

then they opened up my forefinger, and did the same with that, 15 stitches in all.

now it's going mad, it feels like something that IK Brunel, might have built and then sailed across the ocean blue!, throbbing like a really throbby throbbing thing!

one last twist, was that it was the "neuro surgery" team who did the job, as they had spare theatre time, due to a mercifully quiet weekend for them.

many many thanks to the staff of both the walk in centre at
Blaydon, and the staff of the R.V.I., A&E, Ward 47 and the "Neuro Team", all very solid professionals but very pleasant and caring too goodjob

that's enough of this one finger typing for now.

thanks again, for the kind and sympathetic words:)

cheers

Steve

[nuggets]

Drama queen !! :rolleyes: have you seen the movie ................ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.u k/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/books_group/article534005.ece




snigger - get well soon mate !!;):D:D

[Barn Owl]

Good thread Steve.

Glad your on the mend.

[Kepis]

Youch, glad your on the mend Steve.

I decapitated my left index finger last year, it was one of those moments when you think "this is going to end badly" and it did about five seconds later, when the side of the tip of my finger was laying on the shed floor, like you a good swear up for being so stupid.

Glad your sorted as best as you can be for now though.

atb

[unorthadox]

well i think we have all learned that the closest tool may be 'handy' but not the ideal tool :D

[rancid badger]

thanks yet again.

I've had to admit defeat and accept I can't go to work with it the way it is. I've been talking to my gaffer and my 'oppo' and while both sympathetic under the surface, both couldn't believe what I've done and of course took the pee, remorselessly!

never mind, such is life

all the best

"Mr.Fingers & Thumbs" ( Steve)

[Spikey DaPikey]

Glad its all been fixed !

[Shewie]

Ooh that's a beauty Steve, I think I'd have passed out with that one.

Glad you're okay though mate.

http://www.schlachthausfreund.de/en/metal-mesh/protec.php

[gsfgaz]

Glad the surgery went well Steve , and your on the mend bud ...

[morch]

Pleased it all went well Steve.

atb

Dave

[al21]

Ouch! That's a quality case of stanley knife thumb and no mistake! Glad surgery went well and you're on the mend fella!

Al

[grumit]

That looks really painful beets mine hands down .did the classic used a hatchet while stressed momentary lapse in concentration axe bounced on a knot in the wood I was chopping for kindling and hit my finger not much blood loads of pain and six stitches followed shortly by secondary infection and a week of work hope all gets better soon

[Melonfish]

Glad everything went well steve! hope you mend quick m8!

[Fletching]

Steve, did they give you a Tetanus jab, or have you had one recently?

...sometimes get's overlooked when passed straight to surgery.

Steve

[rancid badger]

Yes I got the jab! made the "mistake" of not remembering when I'd last had one:o

really never felt a thing, till Monday! aching quite a bit then but fine now.

The wounds however, are really sore! proper "damaged bone" ache, with big cut and ripped off nail, for added flavour:rolleyes:

cheers

Steve

[Sniper]

Looks a nasty one there Steve, hope it mends fast for you mate. But oh! all fingers and thumbs? jeeez. Lol

[dwardo]

Nice one for posting all the gory detail and pictures, it may just save some of us from having to learn an old lesson without the blood.
Certainly going to take extra care with the draw knife later ;)

[WeThePeoplexfbm]

did it hurt?>

i cut the fleeing in my finger the top of numb -_-

[ol smokey]

Sorry to hear of your mishap, if I may call it that. I see that you have now been sorted out. Just hope that all heals up soon and you get back to normal, though I imagine that it will still be very sore for some time.I felt rather sorry for myself when I nearly severed the tip of my index finger, but it was nothing like as bad as yours, I managed to stick it back with Elastoplast without letting it get contaminated in any way, and it has healed up well and even the scar can not be seen now. It is amazing how easily it can happen. I think that it happened due to tiredness on my part too, plus familiarity breeds contempt. Others be warned ! ! !

[Nonsuch]

Nasty. Hope it heals OK and you get good sensation back.

Can anyone recommend which Kevlar gloves to get ?
I can't imagine they would turn a hatchet blade would they ? Still sound like a good idea

NS

[ScotchDave]

Nasty. Hope it heals OK and you get good sensation back.

Can anyone recommend which Kevlar gloves to get ?
I can't imagine they would turn a hatchet blade would they ? Still sound like a good idea

NS

The gloves wouldn't turn the hatchet blade but because they're so hard to cut through the injuries inflicted are more bruising then cutting. In other words instead of getting cut deeply you get hit with a very thin lump of metal. At least that's what I always understood.

Dave

[rancid badger]

The pain I felt on Saturday was enough to cause me to black out for about 30-40 seconds or so.

So yes it hurt.:D

cheers all

Steve

PS: I normally use "Ninja's" by "Showa", these would not have stopped the axe cutting me but might have lessened the severity of the injury.

I use the gloves almost all the time at work, they are ideal for glancing cuts or sharp edges but useless really for forced blows with a sharp edge. You need something much more sturdy to take an axe blow.

[mrcharly]

"I came off nightshift . . "

There's your 'cause of accident'. Nightshift buggers up your ability to think clearly, or tell if you are exhausted.

Impressive cuts, kudos to having it repaired under local.

[rancid badger]

"I came off nightshift . . "

There's your 'cause of accident'. Nightshift buggers up your ability to think clearly, or tell if you are exhausted.

Impressive cuts, kudos to having it repaired under local.

I'd had my "normal" 5 hours sleep though!:viking: and felt pretty good in the sunshine etc.;)

Seriously though; you're absolutely right, shifts kill people, very very, slowly.

I read somewhere, that working shifts for prolonged periods, takes up to 10 years off your life expectancy.

I've worked them for 29 years now, with no prospect of breaking free, so I reckon that's me stuffed!

cest la vie:rolleyes:

On the plus side, the finger is looking good, though the self absorbing stitches, haven't yet!

The thumb is still very painful, with a quite severe "toothache" or broken bone sensation still going up through my wrist and up my arm into the shoulder.

I've spoken to various medical professionals and none of them seem particularly interested, not sure whether this is a good or bad thing to be honest:confused:

cheers

R.B.

[SimonM]

Just seen this...all I can say is OUCH. Might have to show the Scouts the pictures tho:yikes:

Hope you heal fast.

Simon

[bojit]

That looked a sore one , but i hope that you have learned a lesson from it .
Keep your axe sharp and next time you will get all the way through with one hit !:)

Being a joiner my hands are half hand half scar,
hope it heals up ok and you don't have any longterm problems .

Craig.................

[Turnip]

I know how you feel, I managed to put my Favourite user straight through my left index finger a couple of years back, to this day im still not sure how it happened fully. At the time though i was more concerned about the knife until I notices the fast flowing red stuff! lol! anyway to my point, when the stitches have gone and its healed up i would get some vitamin E cream or coco butter to rub onto the scars, mine were very tender so a nurse friend told me to rub a little into the skin once a day, it helps keep the scar tissue flexible but also helps you get use to the sensation where the nerves are damaged!
Hope your sorted soon mate!

Cheers

Jon

[Totumpole]

Just found the thread and that looks nasty!!! Hope things have continued to go well. How is it healing up now?

Colin