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Got careless

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Eric Krewson:
I hate to tell this on myself; I was cutting a bow bending form on my bandsaw, I reached in from behind the blade to pullout a slice that stuck in the blade slot. As I pulled the slice, out it flipped, got caught in the blade and pulled my thumb into the blade. The blade took the tip of my thumb off in the blink of an eye, just the tip, above my fingernail.

When this happens one initially stands there dumbfounded thinking "how could that have happened"? Well, it happened because of carelessness, not paying attention and having done the same thing thousands of times without bad results.

So, the blood was gushing, I took off to the house to the bathroom where I keep all of my supplies for treating injuries like this.
I tore open a packet of blood clotting powder and covered the open flesh, the blood kept coming. Next, I put a band-aid over the wound and cinched it down tight, this plus the clotting powder stopped the bleeding.

Later that evening I took off the initial bandage, cleaned the wound with peroxide, covered it with antibiotic cream and rebandaged it. I didn't feel like a trip to a DR. was necessary.

I have done this before while slicing cucumbers with a mandolin slicer. That time I took off the whole left tip of my pinky finger and part of my fingernail, I did go to the walk-in clinic on that goof-up because I couldn't get the bleeding to stop by any means. They cauterized the wound with a red hot burning giant match head looking device, no numbing first, it was an EXPERIENCE in pain that I wouldn't want to repeat.

I have taken the tips of my fingers and knuckles off a number of times when I got them into a 36-grit belt on my belt sander, not as bad as my current injury but it still took weeks to grow my fingertips back. I suspect this injury will take upward of a month to heal.

Dang, this was my first constructive day out in my shop in months, I was having a blast, the air conditioner was humming and the 95-degree temperature outside didn't matter. I refurbished an old bow that gotten out of tiller, I dropped the poundage to "old man" poundage, and refinished it, it shot like a dream after my overhaul. I had made a bamboo backed osage bow to donate to charity that had been on the wall for a year or so. When I took it down, I noticed the glued-on handle had popped loose on the ends. While I was in the shop, I cut off the old handle and glued on a new piece of osage to make a new handle, I was on a roll.

UPDATE!

A brilliant RN friend said she had badly cut her finger on her mandolin slicer and used Manuka honey to cure the wound. She said the wound healed faster than any other cut she had experienced.

I looked up the stuff and decided to give it a try, it sounded promising. I am sensitive to low PH things like strawberries and lemon juice, they make my tongue sting. I found out that this honey had a low PH as well and was very uncomfortable on my wound so I did treatments of 4 to 6 hours at a time and washed it off when I couldn't take the stinging any more.

Here is where I am at today, 10 days out, remember the whole end of my thumb was gone, the flat place in my thumbnail is where the blade went in. I am a believer.

Pat B:
Ouch! I think about things like this all the time while I'm working with power tools. Fortunately I still have all my digits. Hope it heals completely soon.

PaulN/KS:
Sorry to hear of your mishap Eric. Glad to see that it wasn't much worse and that you are healing up nicely.
I once ground about an 1/8 of an inch off the tip of my thumb on a pedestal grinder when the ship pitched instead of rolled.
Not fun...

GlisGlis:
When doing manual labour I always tell myself i have to keep the alert senses high but soon or later I end up in some distraction.
Couple years ago I was cutting wood with a friend. He cut a big branch and the entire landed tree had a spring movement.
My friend slipped and run the tip of the chainsaw over my forearm. There was blood everywhere but luckily after many steches there where no major issues for my arm and hand.
It's likely that my friend suffered more than me. He felt so guilty and sorry for weeks and even at distance of years he keep checking if I'm ok.
I could honestly tell i'd rather hurt myself than other

bjrogg:
Glad it was just the tip Eric. And it looks like it healed well.

The thumb is the digit you miss most if you loss it. My dad lost his to the first knuckle. He just had a little stub of a thumb. He still used it a lot. Swore at it a lot too. The thumb is what makes our hands so useful. Without it you really have a hard time picking up and holding things

Bjrogg

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