A word about safety and fingers

Must say I've been very fortunate and have never broke more than a finger and never sustained a bad infection from any of them. The closest call I've ever had was when I was building water treatment plants. Went to hook a shackel and cable up to a cat 330 excavator, the shackel I tried at first didn't fit so the operator leaned down to get one off the floor of the cab and didn't disengage the hydrolics, pushed one of the levers with his arm and the bucket rotated up hitting my head and threw me 20 foot across the site. My hard hat saved the day even though the headgear cut into my forehead and I only sustained a concussion and not a cracked skull. Scared the hell out of me. Needless to say, I check theses days before approaching a machine and don't rely on the operator to remember.
 
Glad you still have all your digits. I've had plenty of close calls myself over the years, but have miraculously sustained only relatively minor injuries, thus far. Hopefully my guarding angel isn't getting too worn out by now... ;)

9x out of 10, impatience is what gets me. Rushing through a job or process, or working while tired because I want to get done TODAY. That's when I stop thinking about the "what ifs" or setting safety aside because I think I know better. No job is worth getting hurt over, and having to tend to wounds always takes longer than if I'd just set it down and came back later.
 
Early on, I got whacked bad a couple of times by 36 grit belts, but lately, most of my hadn't and finger cuts have come from final hand sanding/blending on knives with really shallow convex edges where I thin them with EDM stones after setting the edge and then hand sand away the stone scratches, Kitchen knives and big bowies are the worst as the edge can hang off of my sanding "fixture, which is a piece of scrap 1 1/2 wide 1075 bar stock in a Moran vice wrapped in duct tape. .
 
ZOVOX is the go to med for MRSA. two other kinds left me with an elbow swollen to the point of bursting. I finally went to an infection disease guy and he saved my arm. MRSA is a bad mother jammer. killed many young strong people after it gets in their blood. Lots of it floating around in clinics and hospitals. glad you came out of that ok.
 
I had it in my knee a year or so ago. 9 days in the hospital, 2 months before I could get through a full day without elevating and ice... almost 5 months till it wasn't bothering me anymore. I still feel weird kneeling on it with any weight. I am VERY aware of infections, now. I was only a day away from losing my leg at one point. Scary stuff.

Even the tiniest scratch can be a gateway. Stay on top of your injuries, boys!
 
I ran a Sawzaw blade through the back of my thumb before the blade show this year.

20160428_144752_HDR.jpg~original


20160428_144758_HDR.jpg~original


^ it doesn't look like it because it's not bleeding, but that's a tiny exit wound.

It was a relatively minor injury, but it easily could have been worse. When the blade exited out the front of my thumb it bottomed out against the sheet metal I was cutting rather than going through, preventing a much larger exit wound and possibly even sawing down some of the length of the bone. That was just luck.

It was hot as hell, I was sawing a hole through the wall for an AC unit and the sheet metal (steel) was binding on the blade. I got pissed off, I was hot and in a hurry, I got careless and the end result of that really stung. This was on April 28th, getting ready for the Blade Show, and not a great time to be out of commission.

I don't get hurt in the shop very often. But something they mostly have in common is I'm tired, uncomfortable or pissed off about something, and I'm not exercising good judgment. Completely predictable if one tunes into oneself and recognizes being that way.
 
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