Looks like summer holiday came early this year

I have to admit I've been looking forward to the holiday for some time now. This year I decided to take four weeks, four entire weeks of relaxing and sleeping in. :)

I wasn't supposed to start my holiday yet though. I was going to work next week also. But, the gods of misfortune had other plans.

I received a load of plasterboards at work today, two palls standing on top of eachother. Had a guy with a forklift there to lift them off the truck for me, but the forklift had only short forks. You can lift those long palls with short ones if you're careful though. Problem is, one was on top of the other as I said, and because of that, when lifting the top one off the end that the fork didn't lift properly was sliding along the the pall underneath. Now, these palls are bound with these thin metal bands. The sliding pall hooked one of these on the one underneath, pulling it off and dragging the band along. It couldn't be there, and without thinking I grabbed it and yanked to pull it free.

It didn't come loose, but something else sure did! I felt I'd cut my right index finger, and when I looked at it I saw this loose skinflap on it, only hanging by a thread near the root of the finger. Looked like I'd only shaved some skin off, but then it started bleeding a whole lot. And when I lifted the flap to see how deep the cut was, I was lifting a lot more than skin. And underneath the flap, I saw a mess of torn muscle tissue. I'd cut along the finger, from the middle to the root, way into the muscle and almost back out again. So this huge chunk of finger was almost completely off.

Nothing for it but to head to the nearest emergency room. Where they stitched it back on and assured me that it should be just fine. But also told me I'm not going to do any more work before that muscle tissue knits. So after hearing when my holiday was starting, they put me on sick leave lasting till the end of next week. So I went back to the workplace, packed up my tools and came home just now.

And I'm looking at that bloody, bandaged, stitched-up mess that was my right index finger and am still not sure whether I should be thinking 'oh, bugger!' or 'woohoo, five weeks holiday!'.

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and am still not sure whether I should be thinking 'oh, bugger!' or 'woohoo, five weeks holiday!'.

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That depends on how much it hurts or annoys you. But I think the whole affair is still ok, as you might have lost your finger, now that would have been a lot worse. You can think 'woohoo as it didn't go badder than this. Does it hurt when you type?

I started to guess something had happened before I even got to the actual bit about the accident and was fully expecting you to say you had chopped off some fingers or something! So it definitely seems you were quite lucky. Could have been a whole lot worse.

I hate anything involving lots of blood so reading that made me a bit queezy and reminded me of a time years ago when i nearly lost some fingers.

I hope it mends well and doesn't cause you any long term problems. How long did the doctor say it would need to heal? Will you need any physiotherapy? or won't they know until later?

It is a bit annoying doing such a thing just before you are due to go on holiday. You cannot really do much with a damaged hand. Well except work on site content! ;) (only joking).

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Originally Posted by Demon Cleaner

That depends on how much it hurts or annoys you. But I think the whole affair is still ok, as you might have lost your finger, now that would have been a lot worse. You can think 'woohoo as it didn't go badder than this. Does it hurt when you type?

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Not really. I don't type with it though, on account of not being able to bend it much because of the bandaging.

It does hurt still, but it hasn't been that long since it happened yet either. I reckon it'll probably be better tomorrow, after having had the night to heal a bit.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

I started to guess something had happened before I even got to the actual bit about the accident and was fully expecting you to say you had chopped off some fingers or something!

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:lol: I know, I noticed it sounded like I was leading up to that when I previewed the post. Was about to reword it, but then thought nah, doesn't hurt to let them be spooked a bit before getting to the point. ;)

I did get quite sick myself immediately after it happened, didn't mention that. Which I thought was strange, I've had cuts before (goes with the territory), fairly deep ones too that have bled pretty good. Never reacted that way before. This is the first time I've had to stitch something together though. Usually the cuts I get are straight and narrow like paper cuts, so they heal pretty well without being tended much. Allthough looking at some of the scars I have one or two of them probably should have been stitched too. This one was more of a shave though, and had torn muscle as well so there was little doubt that it required a bit more than a band-aid. :lol:

It shouldn't take that long to heal, fortunately. The doctor said that loose bit should have started to knit itself back on by the end of next week. So I should see my own doctor then so he can judge how it is healing and maybe even take the stitches out allready at that point. But it will probably be too early for that, he said.

So it's very true that I was lucky after all, it seems. Those thin metal edges can cut really good, so with enough bad luck I could conceivably have lost the finger. But then it'd have to cut through the bone, and I'm not so certain it could've done that only by me pulling my hand along it.

What is certain is that it was a bloody stupid thing to do, and I definitely should have known better. I've received enough minor cuts from those things as it is. But I wasn't thinking at all until after I'd done it, at which point I wasn't thinking 'ohmygodohmygodohmygod'. Instead the first thing I thought was 'you f***ing idiot!' :D

Very sorry to hear about your accident at work, Teho. :( I hope that the finger will be functioning normally after a while, which I think it will be, as I've had the same experience myself, when I nearly lost my left thumb. I wasn't doing construction work though, but cutting meat with a big sharp knife. Everything went along fine until I was going to split several pieces of meet which wore frozen.. Needless to say, I used the knife in a way which is not recommended, as I stabbed it very hard into the meat, and it slid.. My thumb was nearly gone.

Anyway, the point is (this was like a three years ago or four) that my finger is working perfectly now. It has healed, and the only thing different is that the nerves aren't as sensitive as in the right thumb. Therefore I think the chances are that you'll be 100% ok. :) :thumbs:

Thank God that you didn't loose more fingers or that the finger couldn't be fixed.

Hope you'll be well soon, Teho!

Dude, that sounded like a scene straight out of Hostel. I likely would've fainted right there and died through blood loss.

Glad you didn't lose the finger (then again, with today's medical science, they could probably glue a severed body part right back on). The human body's ability to repair itself is a pretty amazing thing, if you think about it!

Enjoy your time off ... might as well do that :)

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Originally Posted by Teho

I did get quite sick myself immediately after it happened, didn't mention that. Which I thought was strange, I've had cuts before (goes with the territory), fairly deep ones too that have bled pretty good. Never reacted that way before. This is the first time I've had to stitch something together though.

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I think it happens because when you do something like that you cannot instantly see the damage and you think you imagine the worst, so it is a big shock.

It happens to me years ago when a jam jar shattered while I was holding it. I got pieces of glass stuck into my hand and it was bleeding a lot and I thought it was much worse than it really was. I had no glass stuck in my hand and it was just badly cut. Didn't even leave any scars.

Looks like you have been lucky, to a degree.
Is it your girlfriend hand?

Damn man, sorry to hear that. Injured hands are nasty! And as said above, if it is that hand, that is a shame. A damn shame.

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if it is that hand, that is a shame.

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And even more if you're single ;)

Yea, then what are you going to do? :unsure:

Actually....

Don't answer that :whistle:

It gets difficult when trying to put your roast into the oven (f.ex.).

Hmmmm.....:eyebrow:

Roast? Oven? Doesn't that ring the bell?

No comment. :zipped:

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Originally Posted by TiredOfLife

Looks like you have been lucky, to a degree.
Is it your girlfriend hand?

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Damn it, beaten to it :mad:

Accidents like that sure do suck, it's the feeling a bit stupid afterwards that really gets me. I not so long ago cut the back of my hand up real good whilst, um, 'opening' up a window :evil:

Actually left a couple of little scars on my hand. I did feel pretty silly. Again, looked a lot worse than it was.

Well, it seems I can comfort (heh) you guys with that even with an injured finger the hand is still able to have a firm grip on things. I almost can't believe you guys. I hurt my finger and what is the first thing you worry about? I'm touched by your concern, I really am. :p

Seriously though, after having had the bandage off and cleaned it the wound doesn't look bad at all now. Doesn't hurt any more either. When I look at it it actually seems silly to have created such a fuss and be put on sick leave for such a little thing. But then it really wasn't so little. I still can't bend the finger much even without the bandage now. Hopefully that'll fix itself in a while.

Yes we are very considerate :yesyes: