Who'da thunk that the ER doc would stitch ya up, right thru the fingernail......tablesaw bit me, and I thought I was a perfeshional.....

Damn, that hurt.

Ouch! I ran a small woodworking shop for twenty some years and had to bring a few people to the ER over the years. Never was a fun thing. At least it was never too bad.

Hope you heal up just fine.

Did it hit the bone?

That looks like it got your attention.

Yeah, it hit bone. Took the very tip off the finger bone, but the thumb was good.

One of two things are true. 1) there are lots of nerve endings there, or....2) I'm a puzzy....

Dayam! I hate table saws, and chain saws. They do not cut, they remove material.

Heal well.

Those are going to be reminding you for some time.
Ouch!!

Well at least it is your left hand, you can still pick your nose.

only the right side...

Yeah that's true, hellya kin okie blow the left side.

sure cant fit that in the left nostril.....

I removed about 3/8" of my left index finger. Looked like it was cut off with a cigar clipper;
My fingernail bed never got the message that my finger was shortened, so I now have nail bed growing past the end of my finger. Not a great thing.
Been about 5 years now, and nerves are still kinda tingly numb.
Hope you have a better result.

Well we will have to start calling you "fingers"
or "Buzz"

I rewired my 10" table saw for 220Volts, nothing stops it now, I am very careful around them, father in law got bit good once, of course he also lost half his trigger finger of his right hand as a young guy in Holland, while riding his motorcycle and trying to adjust something and the chain got him.

Ran my right index finger into a bandsaw blade in the wood shop in 7th grade. Had the finger under a piece of wood where I couldn't see it. Never felt a thing but thought to myself how odd it was for a block of pine to be bleeding. When the lightbulb came on I hit the off switch and extracted myself from the saw. I'd cut right through the fingernail and into the bone a little past half way.

Teacher was in the can and being an ignorant kid who loved wood shop more than any other facet of school at the time, I wrapped my finger in a dirty rag and kept my hand in my pocket the rest of the day. I figured I'd be banned from the shop permanently if anyone found out.

Somehow I avoided infection and even my folks didn't know what happened until it was too late for stitches. In fact I don't think my mom found out until I was in my 20's. Darn sure taught me a new respect for power saws.

Hope you heal up in good fashion. I prescribe a weeks worth of arrowhead hunting with a whiskey chaser in the evenings.

Check this cat out, hurt but still throwin' signs and representin', yo. Like a boss! Don't recognize your set though. Who you claimin'? Los Vasginos?



May you heal fast and wind up no worse for the wear, friend. Glad it wasn't worse.

Guess two finger drinks will be more potent now too.

May not help your nostril...but could help the wifee out....

Ouch..........


Careful where you put those fingers.


Glad it wasn't worse.

Flyer

And you were just posting pics of a nail through the hand on the table saw thread the other day over at the Ruger place...

I'm glad you are OK.

I've seen what can happen. My brother went through several surgeries after his run in, and sometimes he says he's about ready to have an index finger lopped off since it's next to useless and mostly in the way.

Am I seeing that right? 2 stitches THROUGH the nail? Naw, you ain't no puzzy. That ones gonna be a throbber for a good while.

Been there done that. Tablesaw plus thumb. Trust me on this when it comes time to have the stitches removed have someone drive you. You will want to be as [bleep] up as possible. When they pulled those stitches through the nail I about passed out. Hard to describe it. Pain,nails on a chalk board, biting into a Popsicle stick, worst static shock you ever had all rolled together plus a few other indescribable sensations. Don't know how I checked the instinctual response to take a swing at the doctor.

Now Don has something to look forward to.....

Really sorry to hear of your mishap Don!

Thots and prayer with you!


DMc

IIRC - at least it's not your trigger finger!
Good time to go play!

Ah yes, the old soak it in cider remedy. Prolly could've gotten away without stitches with that treatment.

Damn you, could have put a warning on this thread.

I imagine that will be throbbing for a couple of days, hope she heals up well.

Sorry that happened to you. Get well soon.

Had a country doc to that to me when I was 10 years old. Let's see, that was 50 years ago. He used a paperclip, heated on a bunson burner to melt the holes in the fingernail. Thank God for novacain! I watched him perform the task with fascination.

ouch! Hope it heals quickly my friend.

Ouch! A great pic for morning wake up!!!! . Take care of that!!!

Take today off you deserve it!!

Hope it doesn't hurt too long.

Mike

being a cabinetmaker for 30 years,I have had several reminders to keep away from the business end of the equipment,most , but not all on the left hand.

Summabitch! That smarts. Get healed up soon.

OUCH!

Betcha that got your attention.

Damn Don! But this here is the only way to look at it:



PS, you can get to the left nostril, you just have to use the right hand. Haven't you ever heard of the reach-around?

At least you still have them my friend. I have a friend that cut his thumb strait down the top and through the nail with a box cutter. He had stitches right through the middle of his thumb nail.

I'd say that will be very sore for a good while. To bad it wasn't your bird finger, you coulda really told'em what you thought about'em. Huge bird!

Hope it heals back soon.

Youch!

Table saws have always spooked me. Chainsaw no prob but for some reason table saws just make me nervous.



Think I'll stick with 1200lb pissed off mommas instead.

Never sawed a cowboy with a smartphone around his neck........LOL.


Heal fast and straight.

Hope you feel better soon. Yup, fingers are full of nerve endings. Had a semi driveshaft use my thumb as a cushion between it and a vise many years ago. I can still feel the pain.

OWWWIE! I did that to my right index finger, only angled away from the nail. I was cutting a wedge.

Mine was in '77.

That'll smart for a bit.

Hope it ain't your trigger finger! Heal up, bud.

I'll be damned! I worked in an ER for 14 years and saw/assisted on more stitches than I could count. Never saw the "drill the fingernail and stitch through it" technique. Very good.
I bet you got a big bottle of Vicodin.

my buddy Keith had a habit of using his thumb pressed against the side of the blade to stop it after he'd shut it off. one day the blade grabbed his thumb and tore it up pretty good. he went out to his truck pulled a first aid kit that had sutures and sewed it up him self, must not have been the first time he'd done it.

That happened to me, although it was caused when an aluminum extrusion I was slicing in half jammed in the saw and kicked back. It took about about 3/8" off below the tip of my right middle finger and left the tip hanging on by the nail, also left a gash on my thumb that grooved the bone.

Bleeding copiously, I made a major mistake, I had the boss drive me to Kaiser Hospital, as it was closer, rather than my regular hospital where the ER surgeon knew my name from frequently acting as my seamstress.

At Kaiser they took the Worker's Comp form and laid me down on a workbench. The surgeon looked at it, grabbed a syringe and said, "This is going to burn a little." After he number everything up he began stitching until he came to the part where the local was absent. I protested, "Hey there's no anesthesia there!"

"If you were in the Marines, they wouldn't even give you any anesthesia for this." He replied.

"But, damn, I ain't in the Marines"! I protested as he stuck the needle through again.

"That was the last stitch anyway". Doc replied.

When the company got the bill from Kaiser they showed it to me, they had been charged for an X-ray. I told them they never took an X-ray, hell you could see everything inside. But the clerk said I probably didn't know what an X-ray machine looks like, so rather than argue I just gave up.

Now comes time for the stitches to be removed. I hotfoot it down Kaiser again, where another doctor dumps my hand into a bowl of soapy water and removes the first suture. The he stops and spends the next 45 minutes on the phone walking another surgeon through an appendectomy. Crap, you'd think they'd done at least one appendectomy before passing their internship. He hangs up, removes another two sutures and tells me to go home and soak all the dried blood off the finger and come back in if I find any more sutures to remove.

A few days later and the finger is infected, and sure enough there are two more sutures left behind. This time I go to the other hospital and see the good doctor. He chuckles about Kaiser, removes the remaining sutures and gives me some antibiotics for the infection. He didn't even have to call some one to walk him through it.

Moral of the story, stay away from table saws, former Marine doctors, and hospitals named after German emperors and sandwich rolls. Next time: How they treat a burn from molten welding slag sliding down your ear canal.

Ouch!

In a kydex sheath no less.

Yowch! That is nasty. Hope ya heal up soon Don.. Nash about cut the side of his thumb off this winter with a tail zipper, the nail slowed it down though. It had a positive side though, as it got me to skin about all his coyotes while it healed up.

holy chit, no your not a pussy....put a staple from an industrial stapler through the meat and nail of a finger when i got to moving to fast stapling books...never had i been so happy that i had frost bit my fingers some years before killing MOST the nerves in my finger tips....still hurt like a SOB....

Don't be a member of the "Nub Club".

Holy crap Don - that's a two edged injury - hurts like hell, but lucky to keep the top of your finger. I know a lot of guys missing that first joint. Hope it heals well!

Here's something you might want to invest in Don..

By the look on your face, the local hadn't worn off yet. Damn.

huntsman;
Good morning to you sir, I've got to say that I'm truly sorry to see that happened to you.

Life is "funny" in that until I ran my own left hand through a table saw 13 odd years back I could look at photos like yours and they didn't have any effect on me.

Now however, with the benefit of that personal experience - well they do....

Sorry about that again Don and here's to fast healing for you.

Dwayne

OWWWW! Ow, ow, ow, ow!

Two questions: 1- what was the first word you yelled? 2 - did you cry?

I guess I'm just not fully attuned to the Campfire even now.

If it were me, I wouldn't have even thought to take close-ups of the cleaned wound before it was sewed up.

Don, have to say that looks painful. Hope you heal well.

Glad it was not worse but it sure looks bad enough. Made me cringe when I saw the pictures. I have been stitched through the nail but not for anything that bad.

There's more nerve endings in your index fingertip than there are in your dick. Yeah, it hurts!!

Table saws are a sonofabitch. I've seen more traumatic finger amputations due to table saws than any other 3 tools combined (radial arm saws were worse, but they're not so common any more). I got to the point where my own table saw had become a bench with my MEC shotshell reloader mounted on it.

Glad you didn't lose your fingers, Don!

P.S. Take the pain-killers.

uh I'm voting #1 and I don't even need to phone a friend

most of us have really mashed or burnt a finger tip, we've all lived through it, but I'd say there's very few of us that weren't aware of the plethora of nerves housed in the ends of our digits while doing so.


hope you hair over fast Don, that sucks, but glad you still got all your digits

No, but some women are going to be very happy?

Ouch, Don. That's nasty. We might have to nickname you kerf or pushstick.

I've been fortunate that nothing like that has happened to me, yet. I started working for a family friend at 13, building patio furniture from treated lumber and building decks. Lots of planing, ripping and cross cutting, routering and dadoing of wood.

The bosses son, who was a couple years older than me, worked there sometimes too and was rabbeting out some mating sections for a rocking chair and got the idea to chuck a router bit up in the drill press and crank the speed up to remove the material faster than making dozens of half depth saw cuts and finishing with a chisel.

It worked really well, too. He was making a clean job of it until the router bit caught a knot in the wood and dragged the wood and hand through the bit. Mangled the chit out of his first 3 fingers, it did. A bunch of surgeries, some stainless pins a couple months later and he was back to work, a smarter and more cautious young man.

Hope it heals up quickly and cleanly for you.

he did have the camera around his neck on a string.

You'd be amazed at how many people now take pictures of their mangled body parts before, during, and after I sew them up. I think it's pretty cool, actually. Educating the community on how to not do stupid schidt is how I look at it.

funny thing, that.... I don't know how to use the fartsmone camera. In fact, I don't know anything about the phone, except to talk and text and email. I carry a point and shoot.....

That hurts looking at it. I am glad to see you are still fully digitized. I am guessing that they gave you a script for something that warns you to not get pregnant or operate heavy machinery.

I have to pop over to the predator forum and see what you shot today.

So far that never happened to me , even been a carpenter for 34 yrs. I shot myself twice though. One time with a spike in the forearm and a 2" staple in the wrist. I just pulled both right out. Both times I said it doesn't even hurt. Then 5 minutes later my whole arm was sore as can be. Never been cut from a blade except one time a skill saw kicked back and it cut my knee pads, stopping it before it hit skin.

Don:

That's a pretty lame excuse. What were you really doing?

KC

They are both true!
At least it wasn't your trigger finger!

Don, you gonna make it to the campfire gathering this year?

Table saw, the most dangerous tool on a jobsite. Been bit once (worse than yours by a fair bit), I don't plan on that again... happy your outcome was a digit-intact one.

Don,

Best wishes for your healing and a strong recovery.

They don't even have to be plugged in. I slipped on a wet stair with mine and broke 3 bones in my back.

Know a guy that was loading one out of a job trailer, and hadn't dropped the blade. He slipped and put his palm/wrist into the blade, damn close to hitting his radial artery, which could have been a light's out affair.

coundn't beat the meat for a month.

Doesn't anybody own one of those table saws that stop when you put a hotdog on the blade?

I saw that advertised years ago on TV and when I went to Lowes to buy one they didn't have any.

One good thing, though. I can use my table saw to cut hotdogs.

Hope you are keeping that hand higher than your head.

After Katrina i was doing some framing for my Grandfather's house and the trigger messed up on the nail gun,it double tapped and put 2 16 penny nails in my left ring and index fingers.

There was a red cross station not far from the house so i went there to get them pulled out.
They have never seen it before and i thought one of the gals there was going out for the count.
They asked me if it hurt much and i told them i had about 45 minutes before i would feel like crying out and saying some colorful words.
Went to the or and the doc cleaned it up and all was fine except that while waiting for the x-rays to come back the nails got cold.
he came in and i was blowing on my hand and he thought it was weird.After i told him about the cold he understood.
He did ask if he could take some pictures of them to show around but i did not mind.

But what really made me mad was him cutting the brand new elkskin glove off.
Those cost good money.

Heal up.

Ouch stx, that's not a near miss, that's a dang near got them all!

done that, too....





if you look close, the little piece of skin from the exit, is still stuck to the point.

Dangit Don knock that chit off!

uhh, ok....

Doooood!!!

He got lippy with the cleaning lady

from what Ive been told,the table saw is not the most dangerous tool in the shop.
the most dangerous is the jointer,because it doesn't look dangerous.the spinning blades don't look like much,unlike a saw,with the blade exposed.
Place I worked a few years ago,the owner took off the first two joints of his trigger,and middle finger on the right hand with one.
He decided he was done with working in the shop after that.

what did you do to get that?
road rash,maybe?

grout
tile

Abrasion or chemical?

Abrasion

My condolences. I got my left thumb in one a couple of years back, but it has healed up nicely. Scar tissue lacks some feeling but it is slowly coming back. Good luck on the healing. miles

you mean that took a while to do?
you are one dedicated individual.

Dude, that hurt me and I was just looking at it! Get well!

Damn Don dont you know you have to actually lose part of a finger to become a shop teacher. Or at least that is what I always thought as my shop teachers were always missing part of a finger.

Best shop tool mishap I ever saw was a big old boy in shop class thought he could keep the spindle sander from spinning. He latched onto it and said turn her on I can hold it. We did he didnt damn near threw him all the way across the shop. Our shop teacher who was missing part of his left pointer finger was not as amused as we were.

Don, don't do that twice is my advise.

Ripped off my left ring finger some years back, that chitt made my eyes water a bit. My call is you probably aren't a puzzy.

D

Workin' with a dull blade, Huntsman?



I did something similar when I was working in a cabinet shop in my youth, but it only cut across the pad of my thumb at an angle. Killed the nerves on one side of the tip of my thumb, and the feeling took a good twenty years to come back.

I'm religiously careful about the table saw blade since then, but there's other ways for it to get you.

When I upgraded my home shop to a professional grade cabinet saw, I wasn't aware of how the higher speed of that blade could pull small pieces back and launch 'em. I was working on a decorative piece that was about the size of a pack of cigs and had pushed it (with my push stick) past the blade. It was just behind and no longer in contact with the blade, but the piece was light enough that the air movement sucked it back into the blade and it launched with enough force that when it hit me in the pocket of the shoulder it made a 3-corner tear about an inch both directions and a good 1/4 inch deep. Brought me to my knees, it did. Had a bruise by the next day that spread all the way down to the inside of my elbow.

I wear a face guard now when cutting small pieces like that.

Take care you don't get infected, Don!

So Don, are you gonna be able to play the guitar when that heals up?

That's true. I had a woodworking mentor who was missing his right thumb from that very thing. The shaper runs a close second. Jointers take fingers off from the ends up - shapers take 'em off from the side over. It can happen amazingly quick.

Pinky fingers make better booger hooks anyway.

With which hand do you...uh...




P

And pee where you aim.

Dayom that looks bad.

What did you say when that happened, Hunt. Well, nevermind.

Heres hoping you heal well and soon.

Don,

Sorry about the accident... but glad to see you are on the mend...

I am sure the local varmints appreciate the reprieve...

Heal up quickly...

Speaking of shop teachers, back when I was in high school the wood shop teacher was giving a new class of 9th graders their introductory safety lecture to these new kids.

He was stressing how dangerous the table saw was, saying stuff like "Never do this..." and suddenly there was blood and fingers flying around.

By all accounts, the 9th graders' responses were about equally split between nearly passing out, and asking "What a safety demonstration -- looks real! How did he do that?!"

You guessed, it the teacher actually cut himself up pretty badly right in front of the class. Blood and fingers flying! He wrapped a shop rag around his hand and headed for the nurse.

After that, all the fingers on his one hand were the same nice even length.

I forget his last name, but his nickname among students was "Bob the Knob". Kids are cruel...

John

i remember my ffa teacher walking into the room with a bone in his forearm sticking out after the saw kicked back on him, he was white as ghost.

Damn, Don.

Sorry that happened. Take care.

I learned to not wear gloves when using the table saw. Should have been common sense, but I did not think of that. The blade caught the cuff of the leather glove and snatched my thumb into the blade from the back side. Ruined a good pair of gloves too. miles

I hate buying gloves. It's cheaper to grow your own....

Please don't get Glock butt.

That do look like it stung a little.

Mine went a bit deeper.



6-5-06 11:45am

DeWALT

Seems like just yesterday I was staring at my thumb on the ground between my feet thinking, "we're gonna be late for dinner".

Another case of overpenatration.

Don,

Sorry to hear about the accident. Glad they were able to save the digits. I wasn't so lucky.

Been there, done that. Same finger as yours. It isn't fun, either.


Reminds me of the old song, "I fought the saw, and the saw won, I fought the saw and, the saw won".

the cost of modern medicine amazed me again.....

2 months wages for 15 minutes worth of stitches....

Ya should have seen it before Obama got it reduced. ;-{>8

Damn, thats gotta hurt almost as much as the finger! Here in Canada it would have cost me nothing. Of course, I probably would have had to wait in the ER overnight and have it lopped off at the knuckle with a rusty hatchet, but its free!

Yeah. I cried both times.....

In college, after Dad sold his garage, I had a part time job in a custom door & window shop. One day the supervisor walked up to me and said, "I got a new machine for you to run. Follow me."

We walk over to a jointer, 'bout an 8 inch model, IIRC.

"You know Jesse, the warehouse foreman?"

Me: "yes"

"Notice he's missing two fingers?"

"uhhh, yessss?"

"this is where he lost them!"

So I got a lesson in using a pusher block, so if the blade grabbed the workpiece, my fingers wouldn't fall into the blade.

Never have had an urge to buy a jointer...

Kenai, AK. Tablesaw on the 2nd story at a cabinet shop I worked in sliced off a 1/4" of oak and promptly sent it through the interior and exterior wall, where it remained lodged the entire time of my employ. Someone tried to slice off 1/4" trim between the blade and the fence. Good thing they weren't standing behind the saw.

On the walls were all the boards caught and flung in the tablesaw. The wall of shame. Nice place to work, unless you wanted to stay alive.

N
Precisely why I am thankful that in retirement my company will continue covering 80% of my family of five health care costs until Medicare calls when they will provide a supplement insurance. Those days are long gone...

Bet that hurt a little. Keep it clean and dry. Best wishes.

What shop is that?

How are you holding up now?

hopin you hair over quick Don


I don't heal as fast as I used to

but then I'm getting to be an old cuss

sorry it happened to you, but like others glad it wasn't any worse than what it was


always amazes me when you see someone with a black fingernail or thumbnail or one that's fallen off


yeah we all have suffered through it, but alla those nerve ending do indeed remind us there's a bit of puzzy in most all of us.

it sucks but sure feels better to release the blood pressure with a red hot paper clip.

Richmond, VA? I got the impression you hung your hat in CO.

I do. Evidently they bill thru that outfit.....

IB, the booboo is all better now. Just sensitive to cold.

Don, That must have hurt! worst i have ever done is hit my thumb with a hammer, and lost the thumb nail, hope you heal up soon. Rio7

Hospitals, docs, nurses, suture companies, etc have to pay insurance and lawyers.

That said, id tell them to GTH and that you dont have insurance. Tell them to get real and you will talk. Freaking mexican dimocraps would get a pass.

I'm pretty sure you've been paying in advance.

Don, I'd have sewn that up for half that much!

Remember the doc from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?

"Whiskey! Quick!"

Whiskey is indicated in a case like that. Not only as a topical disinfectant, but to treat the patient systemically so as to avoid internal infections as well.

Doctor would need some too...to steady his sewing hand

Don don't drink, so twice as much for the doctor!

Huntsman, glad your finger is doing fine, but damn, that bill is lousy.

Not second guessing going to the ER - afterall, you got your hand in the saw. But fwiw, i'd do (and many others can/would) do that repair in the outpatient office, as a walk-in emergency, probably run about $700 + xray costs around $150. Which is to say, a HUGE part of your bill is hospital facility fee and simply supporting the costs of running an ER (since in the big picture, the ER is prepared to handle far more than a wacked finger, and that's of course expensive to maintain). Anyway, it may be worth the time to approach both the hospital and insurer both about negotiating the bill - happens all the time, you might luck out.

Good advice from sandcritter.

I know, a bit OT here, but I hadn't seen this thread in some time.

Clicked and it went to page one. And the pictures.

My knees got that weak feeling in them. I never get that on EMS calls, or Fire calls for wrecks and such, even if the person dies while working on them and it happens all the time... blood everywhere, hey hold this in them till we can get it dressed and so on...

Can't figure why those photos give me the weird sensations... yet I'm fine with all of it in the field.

Glad you are healing. Bills suck. Especially when you are paying for all the illegals and lazy SOBs at the same time.

Send em what you think is fair, and then 5 bucks a month after... IIRC they can't say anything if you are paying something.

I surely have, to the point where I I feel like I should start injuring myself just to get something for my money. Either that or they should give me something every few years I don't use their services.

I learned my lesson about the ER.

My doc freaked out and sent me to the ER. They took my vitals and I was there for a five minute convo with the doc and walked out. That's it.

Got a bill for about 2 grand. I chit you not. This happened right after my employer cut our insurance plan and all visits/meds are now subject to a 5k deductible.

Pled my case for a couple months but no joy.

The azzhole is no longer my doc.

Reminds me of the old "thumbs up for the war amps"

Still healing up from a brush with a skill saw and 30 stitches in two fingers. ER visit was expensive also, but not much else open on sunday night medically wise around here..

Good luck with the healing process

OK, Keith. Here is the pics of how I healed up.

Treat Custom Cabinets. Heard it burned down sometime after I left in '86.

Geez, I'm getting old and forgetful. Treat Custom Cabinets was in Soldotna, not Kenai.