Learn From My Stupidity

[DanStokes]

Yesterday I was merrily cutting aluminum angle on the chop saw, a job I've done many times before. I needed a couple more cuts and decided to cut down from the corner of the angle. This was a VERY bad idea! The next thing I know ME is driving me to the emergency doc and then to the ER for stitches. Seems that the emergency doc won't sew up a finger if there is bone damage.



See the little bits of bone floating around in there?

And around midnight (the ER was crazy busy):

As I waited - and waited - and waited.....I figured out what happened. Cutting down from the corner meant that the aluminum was getting weaker and once it was weak enough it collapsed thereby binding the work in the blade which threw the aluminum into the fence and back at me. So this was blunt force trauma inflicted by a high velocity hunk of aluminum.

Bottom line - DON'T DO THIS. I'll be out of commission for a while but all will be OK in the end. A bit painful but no significant lasting damage.

Dan

[Russell]

Bummer, get well soon!

[Barry Donovan]

ouch.
glad its at the end, not somewhere in the middle

the bone damage and blood, that applies to internal injuries too.
I sat around with a mutilated foot as big as a soccer ball.. blood moving in crazy ways inside..could not do anything but check colors.
if nothing blocks up all good.

[Beagle]

Ouch. Dang. The worst part will be bone fragments, they don't always dissolve. Every once in a while (gets less and less with years, but still every great once in a while) I move my hand just right (wrong) and some jaggedy bone particle from when I was 18 says Hi there! Remember me?

Hope you don't have that problem, that looks like a lot of ouch. Heal up quick!

[DanStokes]

Bummer, get well soon!

Thanks! I go into an ortho (bone) doc on Wednesday for a follow-up but the PA who sewed me up expects everything to be OK in the end. Surprisingly, it isn't TOO painful.

Dan

[DanStokes]

Ouch. Dang. The worst part will be bone fragments, they don't always dissolve. Every once in a while (gets less and less with years, but still every great once in a while) I move my hand just right (wrong) and some jaggedy bone particle from when I was 18 says Hi there! Remember me?

Hope you don't have that problem, that looks like a lot of ouch. Heal up quick!

The PA says that they can do more damage than good by digging out the bone bits so they leave them. I guess there's a danger of nerve damage which would NOT be a good thing.

Dan

[pdub]

a job I've done many times before.
Dan

In the paper mill "ER," that's said about 99% of the time when starting the interview about what happened.

Glad you got patched Dan! The upside is that now you have a fully deployed bird finger for a while.

[Beagle]

The PA says that they can do more damage than good by digging out the bone bits so they leave them. I guess there's a danger of nerve damage which would NOT be a good thing.

Dan

sounds familiar. I agree with them, it's better to have the bone fragment tell you to "back off" than to not feel your fingertip!!! Father time has already been ugly to my sense of touch, I wouldn't want help from the good doctors.

[JRoberts]

I broke my middle finger once and caught a lot of teasing, but then I was in the 8th grade. All joking aside, take care and don't push things to much or to soon.
Take care, Joe

[SuperBuickGuy]

at least now people will hear you when you comment on their traffic skills.

[Dan Barlow]

Looks alot like ( in the bandage )my oldest sons fingers the night I gave him a table saw . I felt terrible.... he felt grateful . Not for the saw but that it only took the skin off the tips of two fingers . Glad you'll heal up as good as new or close to it .

[Captain]

YEOWAAA !!!!!
Hope you are not left handed. My
scars have better stories than the tattoos
I have !!
Get Better at Poor Decisions,
Get Well

[silver_bullet]

Speakin from similar experience(s)... I found it best to sleep on my side with my hand/forearm vertical against the headboard....reduces the throbbing! get well soon!
I have tried to amputate 4 fingers, and have partially amputated left thumb...

[TheSilverBuick]

You'll never play piano again

[DanStokes]

You'll never play piano again

Never did - that's ME's job and she does it well. The docs say I'll be good as new - eventually.

Dan