Warning, Xacto knives are sharp!

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10-19-2009, 02:26 PM
Jiggerachi

Warning, Xacto knives are sharp!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0-13155512.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...i/P1070634.jpg

In a dumbass moment last saturday, working on a new sinktop for my wife I decided to carve a notch off of one of the corners . Something happened, the wood gave or something causing the knive to slip...well through my left hand. Luckly my brother in law was there to drive me to the hospital and I spent the day in the ER.

its over 1/2 inch deep, I cut an artery and most of the muscle, you could actually see the tendon in the cut, so they thought I cut the tendon. I had to go see a hand surgeon and have explorative and reconstructive surgery last week. They found that I barely missed the tendon and a main nerve, lucky, i could have lost a finger. Now I only lost a week of work and a few weeks use of my left hand. I still have full (painfull) use and feelinf of all fingers. This pic is the temp stitches. I now have two layers of stitches, probable over 25 of them.

I have a huge cast now and my arm is in a sling. Its amazing how tough everyday life is with one hand. I have a lot to do to the miata but it looks like im out for awhile, i can barely drive...all over one dumb slip of a knife. wierdest thing, the knife was so sharp i felt no resistance and no pain, like cutting a pumpkin. Now I have lots of vicotin, but not really much pain at all.

Carefull with those Xacto knives folks!
10-19-2009, 02:39 PM
ken o

Speedy recovery.

My old shop teacher would cut chick legs on the band saw as a demo to show it doesn't know your thumb from a chicken leg or chuck of wood. Do they even offer shop class?
10-19-2009, 03:04 PM
Rogue

Damn, Dood! :faint:
10-19-2009, 03:47 PM
sammm

Ouch Jigger....heal up soon.
10-19-2009, 04:34 PM
Miatamaniac92

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken o

Speedy recovery.

My old shop teacher would cut chick legs on the band saw as a demo to show it doesn't know your thumb from a chicken leg or chuck of wood. Do they even offer shop class?

Not really, wish I would've been able to take welding in HS. They did offer meat cutting class though, that would be handy during Deer Season.

Chris
10-19-2009, 05:22 PM
Radio-Active

Hope you get well soon. BTW, Vicoden made me itch like crazy after I woke back up from the drug induced coma.
10-19-2009, 06:31 PM
cone-cerned

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken o

Speedy recovery.

My old shop teacher would cut chick legs on the band saw as a demo to show it doesn't know your thumb from a chicken leg or chuck of wood. Do they even offer shop class?

I still have an incomplete in Jr. High wood shop. I think it's because we never could find the teacher's finger.

Get well soon.
10-19-2009, 07:57 PM
Maverick

Ouch. Hope it heals well. I still have a tiny piece of plastic in my left thumb from when I was being a dumbass and sliced through the knuckle with a serrated blade.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken o

Do they even offer shop class?

No, it's mostly computer labs now. My senior year of HS they ripped out the wood shop and the metal shop and built a "digital multimedia" computer lab for audio/video editing and CAD/CGI programming. Same thing happened to the Jr High the year before. The district scrapped the equipment. Band saws, jigsaws, lathes, drill presses, arc welders & generators... all of it, gone. :(
10-19-2009, 08:37 PM
Nexus Flux

Dang man, get better soon
10-20-2009, 06:14 AM
HudsonHawk

Ouch, that's not good. Get better soon. Xacto definately sharp.

My wife was cleaning one of my my new kitchen knives (Wustof) and sliced through the end of her finger and into the nail without realizing it happened.
10-20-2009, 06:18 AM
bnordin

Don't you just hate that! Get better and create a really good war story to tell the kids.
10-20-2009, 08:05 AM
cArAzzIE

yeeeeouch! a coworker stabbed her hand with a knife (using it like an ice pik) back in June and she is STILL going through physical therapy because she severed a nerve or something...hope everything heals right and fast!

And I took ALL the shop classes - I LOVED shop - electric shop was my favorite and wood shop was my next favorite. Never got to welding.
10-20-2009, 09:19 AM
channelmaniac

Reminds me of the time when I tried to make my thumb into a forked appendage! :D

It also made me think of this:

http://www.gamegecko.com/fivefingers.php

::Banana::
11-01-2009, 01:50 PM
Jiggerachi

I realized I never posted a follow up.

I got the stitches out thursday, man that hurt like a mofo. I had one piece of thread but about 20 loops. The Dr cut it in about 3 places and just pulled the string out through the loops. There was scabs attatched to the string so those pulled through the skin too...boy was that painful.

Anyway I have full motion and feeling back, though it's still really sore and that hand is fairly weak. If I pull the wrong way on my thumb or finger my hand feels like it's on fire for a few minutes followed by an hour or two of really warm or ice cold feeling. Not good. If I use it too much house cleaning or whetever it aches for a few hours so I gotta learn to be careful with it. Other than that all should be well in the next few weeks. The Dr said it'll probably ache with weather changes for awhile after it's totally healed and will be sore for a few more months still, but it would be very difficult to accidently blow it back open at this point. Im surprized at how fast your muscles and skin heal with proper care (stitches and such).

Anyway here are the gross photos after the stitches were taken out, and a couple days later after I cut all teh nasty dead skin off and had ointment on it for a few days. Not bad now at all and looks to be a pretty cool scar!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0-29155535.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...0-29161758.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...1-01133348.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...1-01134237.jpg
11-01-2009, 04:39 PM
cam76034

By chance, was Dr. Ted Peters your surgeon?
11-02-2009, 08:48 AM
Jiggerachi

No, it was Dr Jerry Lugger.
11-02-2009, 09:02 AM
creek

Now you can tell everybody how you wrestled a knife away from a mugger. I have a pair of Kevlar mechanics gloves. Maybe this will convince me to wear them. Good luck with your recovery.
11-02-2009, 09:24 AM
Jiggerachi

I started telling people it was a dog attack, that get's a pretty good response. The mugger is pretty good too.

That's a good idea on the kevlar gloves. I think this'll keep me from being cheap next time in looking at the gloves at home depot. They'd have to be good ones as im not sure anything below kevlar would have stoped that knife.
11-06-2009, 11:36 AM
CarCar

A Dr. Lugger sewed 2 of my finger tips back on in '84 in HEB. I wonder if it could be the same one.

Happy to see you had a positive outcome.
11-09-2009, 09:23 AM
Jiggerachi

I bet it was the same Dr Lugger. He's apparently a pro at stitching fingers back together, and the hospital I was at used to be HEB before it was bought out by Texas Health or whatever it is now. Some of the assistants at the hospital either had finger tips sewed back on by him or someone they knew did so I guess he's a pro at sewing fingers back on.