Being careful can be good...
Discussion
Dunno if I posted this or not, but I had a little accident the other week that resulted in a night in A&E followed by a day on the wards with the ill people and a slightly harrowing 60 minutes of surgery (well, I was an operating theatre virgin, so going in for the first time under local was literally an eye opener)...
For those that know mountain bikes, I stopped a spinning front wheel by acidentally putting my finger in the spinning brake disc spokes. I cut the DIP (Distal InterPhalangeal if you care!) knuckle to the bone on my left middle finger, completely severing the extensor tendon. Surgeons operated on it within 24 hours under local anasthesia (digital block that involves pumping the root of the finger with Lidocaine in 4 places to send the nerves on the piss) to find and suture the ends of the tendon back together, and then put half a dozen stitches in the skin to close the wound. The picture was taken 12 days post-op just ater the stitches were removed. It was my dominant hand too.
I was in plaster for 12 days halfway up my forearm, and one month on I still have to wear a finger splint 24/7. Its being mobilised tomorrow at physio. Pain awaits.
Its possible to do similar if you push a car around by holding the spokes of the front wheels and your knuckles hit the brake calipers. My bro nearly did it.
I guess the reason Im posting this is just as a reminder. Be a bit careful! you might save 2 mins by being shoddy, but a second of carelessness put me in hospital with the sickly ones and I wont be back to full dexterity for possibly a year. Ever tried:
Tying shoelaces, doing up cufflinks, spreading butter on bread, brushing your teeth, taking a dump(!), etcetcetc with your dominant hand in plaster?!?
All for a cut finger...
Ed.
For those that know mountain bikes, I stopped a spinning front wheel by acidentally putting my finger in the spinning brake disc spokes. I cut the DIP (Distal InterPhalangeal if you care!) knuckle to the bone on my left middle finger, completely severing the extensor tendon. Surgeons operated on it within 24 hours under local anasthesia (digital block that involves pumping the root of the finger with Lidocaine in 4 places to send the nerves on the piss) to find and suture the ends of the tendon back together, and then put half a dozen stitches in the skin to close the wound. The picture was taken 12 days post-op just ater the stitches were removed. It was my dominant hand too.
I was in plaster for 12 days halfway up my forearm, and one month on I still have to wear a finger splint 24/7. Its being mobilised tomorrow at physio. Pain awaits.
Its possible to do similar if you push a car around by holding the spokes of the front wheels and your knuckles hit the brake calipers. My bro nearly did it.
I guess the reason Im posting this is just as a reminder. Be a bit careful! you might save 2 mins by being shoddy, but a second of carelessness put me in hospital with the sickly ones and I wont be back to full dexterity for possibly a year. Ever tried:
Tying shoelaces, doing up cufflinks, spreading butter on bread, brushing your teeth, taking a dump(!), etcetcetc with your dominant hand in plaster?!?
All for a cut finger...
Ed.
Did the exact same thing with my pushbike when I was 14. 
Worse was the 6 inch anti-tetanus jab they stick in your bum.
Can't compare with my workmate wacking my hand with a 14lb sledgehammer though, and busting/squashing 3 of my fingers.
Or the length of rebar an inch into my shin, or the crushed vertebra from diving into the shallow end, or the forty foot tumble down a sheer drop in a quarry, or the 600 volts up my right arm from the welder.
Add to that... broken nose, broken arm x 3, broken scapula, leg and other fingers.
'Construction sites are dangerous'.
Hope you're on the mend anyway.
Worse was the 6 inch anti-tetanus jab they stick in your bum.
Can't compare with my workmate wacking my hand with a 14lb sledgehammer though, and busting/squashing 3 of my fingers.
Or the length of rebar an inch into my shin, or the crushed vertebra from diving into the shallow end, or the forty foot tumble down a sheer drop in a quarry, or the 600 volts up my right arm from the welder.
Add to that... broken nose, broken arm x 3, broken scapula, leg and other fingers.
'Construction sites are dangerous'.
Hope you're on the mend anyway.
Crikey, that must've involved a lot of blood and swearing!!!
(Touchwood) I've never had much trouble in the way of trauma. I've got quite a few health problems due to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but have never broken a bone or cut myself seriously enough to require anything more than those paper-butterfly-stitch-plaster things.
Mind you I expect the lack of broken bones is due in large part to my joints being so lax cos of the EDS; things tend to dislocate and just move around a lot instead of staying where they are and breaking. (think 'double-jointed' but in the extreme)
(Touchwood) I've never had much trouble in the way of trauma. I've got quite a few health problems due to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but have never broken a bone or cut myself seriously enough to require anything more than those paper-butterfly-stitch-plaster things.
Mind you I expect the lack of broken bones is due in large part to my joints being so lax cos of the EDS; things tend to dislocate and just move around a lot instead of staying where they are and breaking. (think 'double-jointed' but in the extreme)
Edited by _Absinthe_ on Thursday 1st April 01:27
Graham
Construction sites are no longer dangerous!
We wrap you up in cotton wool, give you a hi vis hard hat and boots which make you invincible and then tie you up in 3 trees worth of paperwork so you can do any work anyway!!
Stu
(construction manager)
Hope you are well on the mend Ed!
Construction sites are no longer dangerous!
We wrap you up in cotton wool, give you a hi vis hard hat and boots which make you invincible and then tie you up in 3 trees worth of paperwork so you can do any work anyway!!
Stu
(construction manager)
Hope you are well on the mend Ed!
Edited by hallsie on Thursday 1st April 10:16
hallsie said:
Graham
Construction sites are no longer dangerous!
We wrap you up in cotton wool, give you a hi vis hard hat and boots which make you invincible and then tie you up in 3 trees worth of paperwork so you can do any work anyway!!
Stu
(construction manager)
Hope you are well on the mend Ed!
Hahaha! Tell me about it. Construction sites are no longer dangerous!
We wrap you up in cotton wool, give you a hi vis hard hat and boots which make you invincible and then tie you up in 3 trees worth of paperwork so you can do any work anyway!!
Stu
(construction manager)
Hope you are well on the mend Ed!
Edited by hallsie on Thursday 1st April 10:16
I'm just wandering the country surveying things now though.
The manual work was all overseas, mainly tunnelling.
Me and my boy in Hongkong...no broken bones present that day.
Did some driving too...on the new airport.
Edited by grahamw48 on Thursday 1st April 11:03
Ouch. I'm told by a nursy friend that the local anaesthetic on a finger is known as a 'ring block' and can be more painful than the procedure they use it for!
Look on the bright side: my uncle jumped over a barbed wire fence, hooked his wedding ring on a barb and pulled his finger off. Didn't even 'de-glove' which apparently is the usual accident (where the flesh rolls off the bones), his came completely away from his hand. Apparently he just kept on running...
Look on the bright side: my uncle jumped over a barbed wire fence, hooked his wedding ring on a barb and pulled his finger off. Didn't even 'de-glove' which apparently is the usual accident (where the flesh rolls off the bones), his came completely away from his hand. Apparently he just kept on running...
Wedgie,
regarding that ring block - yep, it was incredibly unpleasant. I'm not sure, but I thought the syringe had 10cc in it, which is a lot for the root one one finger. It only started to come round a full 12 hours later. On the up side I had a cracking night's sleep with it out cold!
regarding that ring block - yep, it was incredibly unpleasant. I'm not sure, but I thought the syringe had 10cc in it, which is a lot for the root one one finger. It only started to come round a full 12 hours later. On the up side I had a cracking night's sleep with it out cold!
im feel your pain ed and know the feeling of being unable to do jobs like laces teeth and dumping.
i broke both wrists and a thumb about 15 years ago pissed and spent 8 weeks cast from knuckles to elbow one very hot summer still get a bit of jip now. one pissed bravado i wont do again in a hurry.
kitchen exstension = tvr 390se sold
house move = lotus elise sold
still hopeing to get back in a tvr soon
i broke both wrists and a thumb about 15 years ago pissed and spent 8 weeks cast from knuckles to elbow one very hot summer still get a bit of jip now. one pissed bravado i wont do again in a hurry.
kitchen exstension = tvr 390se sold
house move = lotus elise sold
still hopeing to get back in a tvr soon
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