Oops, I did it again

[toomanymikes]

Dude, that sounds amazingly bad! On the pluss side you now hold the rightfull title to 'most damaged CA member'. Wait, that sounds bad, possibly worse than what happened to your thumb! Hope it stops hurting soon so you can get back onto your PS3 - I was hoping for some cool death match tournos with you guys over the christmas hols!

[Teho]

I'm a newbie here so please forgive the question but Teho, is cutting off fingers a regular thing??

Actually, more regular than you'd think. Working at construction sites really isn't a safe business, even though people's safety is held in very high regard, at least here in Norway. Particularily here in Norway in fact, we're known for having some of the strictest safety codes there is. But still, a lot of things can go wrong, and you'll find that most workers have been in serious accidents in one form or other. And seeing people with half fingers isn't as uncommon as you'd think. There are two others I work with who's also shortened one or two fingers before (out of ~30 people in my department), and several if not most has had nasty cuts. The really serious accidents don't actually happen that often, of course. But I think it happens more often than people would like to admit.

About wearing gloves, we don't often do that because they'd mostly get in the way with most of the work we do. We do sometimes use thin cotton-gloves when handling things that we can't leave any stains on such as pre-fabricated ceiling and wall segments, but those aren't and were never meant to be protective. Now, I suppose I could've worn a pair of work-gloves while using the tablesaw, but would they really have helped in this case? Think about it, a pair of normal work-gloves are meant to prevent small cuts and splinters, not stop a running circular saw-blade. To do that they'd have to be chainmail or something, and even then I have my doubts. No, in the end it was my own god damn fault for not stopping the saw before removing the bit I'd cut off, which would've been the correct way to do it.

And don't worry toomanymikes, I'll be back on the PS3 soon enough. The joint on the thumb still works, so it should be just fine in the end, only a bit shorter. I'm supposed to have the stitches removed in a week or so, and I guess I can't thumbwrestle with it immediately after that either, so it'll definitely be a few weeks though.

And thanks for all the good wishes, people.

[Harrison]

I would say wearing gloves could have made the accident a whole lot worse. The glove material would have got caught up in the saw teeth and pulled more of your had into the blade, as well as the fibres from the glove going into the wound.

I think the best thing you can do to protect your life is a refresher course in safety!

[Puni/Void]

Hi there, Teho!

I feel really sorry for you, and I hope that you will be better in the near future. Like they say in Norway, "du får ha god bedring, og jeg håper at alt vil ordne seg." It's terrible that you have had to major accidents like that.

Btw.. I noticed on QXL that you are bidding on a 040 card? Have you bought an Amiga 1200?

[J T]

Sweet jiminy! That sounds like a nasty injury to a sensitive area. I don't use serious power tools all that often but when I do I'm pretty careful because to be frank they scare me a bit.

I hope it settles down quickly....

[TiredOfLife]

Seriously mate, there must be other jobs for you.
Either switch or take the time to see what Dragon software for the PC does, you will be needing it.
Hope the pain clears soon.

[Teho]

Other jobs? I don't know. I'm not really qualified for much else. Well, maybe Demon's "job"..

No seriously, it has crossed my mind and not just recently. But I've never given it serious thought. I mean, I'm finally in a very stable place now and those of you who know some of my earlier history ought to know how comfortable that is right now. I don't want to throw that away just yet. But on the other hand, I am your typical geek, and constuction sites are just about the last place I thought I was heading for 15 years ago. It isn't exactly where I feel most at home, I admit.

So yeah, I've known for a long time that I don't intend to grow old in this profession. But a bit older still.

Pain is getting better now. I've not been on the computer at all these past few days because I've been trying to take a little less of the painkillers. So using a mouse and a keyboard hasn't been a comfortable thought lately. It's been a whole lot better today though, and the doctor thinks everything is coming along nicely. I'm seeing him every two days now to change the bandage and so he can check on the progress of the whole thing. So it looks like things would be improving if not for one thing. After having had the second very intriguing visit to the toilet in a short time back on saturday, I looked closer at the description of the antibiotics I'm taking. Side-effects include: diarrhoea. Oh great. What a fun week this will turn out to be.

Btw.. I noticed on QXL that you are bidding on a 040 card? Have you bought an Amiga 1200?

No, I haven't. I just saw the card in an auction that was a few days old and hadn't had any bids on it yet. So I just put in a bid so I'd get it if nobody else wanted it. Someone did, though.

[Harrison]

I'm glad it is starting to feel a bit better. It's going to take some time to completely heal though, but at least once the initial pain has gone you can start to do more things again.

It is hard regarding a career. I know how hard it was before for you and the trouble you had with your old employer, so finally getting into a job you feel comfortable in is good.

The thing is, do many people actually end up in the career they originally dreamed of? I don't think that many people are that lucky. You have to just find something you are good at that earns enough money to be happy living. Although when you start to lose digits I think you would automatically start to question things. It's a hard one though as jobs are not as easy to find these days compared to even 10 years ago. Back then I walked into my first design job practically straight from University without any problems. I doubt that would be the case leaving University these days.

[TiredOfLife]

Your probably right.
We often have temp staff on minimum wage, doing menial jobs, who have degrees in decent subjects.

[Teho]

And there is the end-result. Funny how nice it looks allready after less than three months. Amazing how quickly it's been healing, even considering that it didn't heal so well to begin with.

If you remember in the original post, the doctor who first treated it used the still whole underside of the fingertip to fold over the wound on top and stitching it there, hoping it'd grow nicely there. Well it didn't. That entire part just went black, and when my doctor removed the stitches a couple of weeks later the entire part that had been folded back was just dead. So there was nothing for it but to have another operation and fix things. This time they took the time to prepare better, taking some x-rays of it first so they could decide exactly what to do this time around. Those also revealed several small bone-fragments still in there that you really can't fault them for not seeing during the original emergency procedure.

Anyway, they ended up cutting away everything that hadn't healed, stitching what they could together and left it to heal with an open wound at the end of it. And removed those fragments they found. They discussed transplanting a small patch of skin to cover the wound, but decided in the end it was unnecessary. And this time it did heal properly, and healed fast too. The stitches were removed in early december, and by mid-december the remaining wound was so small I no longer needed to bandage it. And by Christmas it looked like it does now.

But while the actual wound has healed, there are still a lot of damaged nerves in there. I don't really notice it normally any more, but touching the end is still painful and the tip can be aching sometimes. This is what is just going to take time. Eventually those severed nerves will harden and stop being painful, but there's no real telling how long as that differs a lot from case to case. I've been back at work since newyear's, but not working full capacity. Not been out doing any real work, but have been at the office instead helping out there. Which mostly has translated to doing the boring stuff nobody else wants to do, like sorting the archives and such.

Fortunately that's over now, I'll be fully back to work proper starting next week. Hopefully this won't be a problem, and really I don't think it will be as for the most part I use my hand normally now without having to mind the thumb that much.

So, all's well in the end. This time. Next time it'll be the entire hand, or an arm or something. Maybe I really should quit this job..