I hurted myself.....

[savagesicslayer]

last wednesday I accidently crushed my right thumb in a pallet jacks undercarrage.this sucks for a number of reasons...
1 i'm a righty,that means no drawing,writing,knife holding,sharpening,MAKING!!!!,no x-box
2 it hurts like hell
3 I gotta wear a huge splint for 5 days and then get an evaluation by my doc to see if I don't need corrective surgery.the bone didn't break but I really mashed up the soft tissue.
the bottom line is this sucks.

 

[m1marty]

Right handed, four corner wrist fusion less than two months ago. Things could be alot worse. It does stink not being able to do the things you are used to.

 

[Ron Andersen]

Crap...so sorry to hear. I certainly hope that you will make a perfect or a near perfect recovery.

About 17 years ago, I ran my pinkie and ring fingers from my right hand (I'm right-handed) into the rollers of a medium-sized, two-color offset printing press running off a 5 horse electric motor. It became wedged between a HARD rubber roller (no give) with a thin cotton sleeve and a stainless steel roller. The tolerance between them was measured in the thousands of an inch. The press was running at about 130 revolutions per minute when I got my fingers too close to the rollers (I was actually feeling the water buildup on the water form rollers with my finger tips to see how wet it was) and in a split second (litterally...do the math), my fingers just got pulled in. The two fingers went in all the way up to the big knuckles on my hand and wound up jamming the press (something I was told is hard to do...I don't know about that). Since I was alone and I was stuck, I was screwed. I couldn't get my hand out, no one could hear me screaming (I was alone in a really big building during evening hours), and the phone was outside my reach by about 4 feet (oh so close). I tried to disassemble the press to lift the rollers apart, but couldn't (my fingers were probably putting too much pressure on the rollers to pull out the retaining rod that when through each roller). Finally, after over five minutes of trying to figure out how to resolve my problem, I grabbed the big hand crank on the front of the press and rolled the press by hand back over my fingers. When out, looking down at my fingers, they were only a 1/4" thick!

Once the paramedics came, they said that my fingers/knuckles were completely crushed and that the emergency room doctors probably couldn't save them. After a 45 minute wait in an emergency room waiting area before seeing a doctor :thumbdn: , the emergency room doctor making the first evaluation said the same thing (no saving the fingers because they were only a 1/4" thick and the bones were likely completely crushed). X-rays revealed no broken bones! Everyone was shocked! That was great news...but there were tons of soft tissue damage (itself, a bad thing).

It took a year of physical therapy to get the fingers to work most of the way. I couldn't do anything productive with that hand for two weeks and it took over a months to get over 50% productivity. And a couple months to get as closely as possible to normal in a short period of time.

I now have full gripping strength, some nerve damage, and a permanent curl to the fingers preventing them from not completely straightening out (picture provided...taken today). They also occasionally stiffen up.

That night, I had someone looking over my shoulder! It could have been much, much worse.

So I can certainly understand what you're going through.

My best...take care!

 

[Mongo]

Right handed, four corner wrist fusion less than two months ago. Things could be alot worse. It does stink not being able to do the things you are used to.

You're lucky this is in community and not the Cove!

 

[Matches]

I mashed my thumb three years ago and I remember the pain. The worst part was three months later when the nail fell off...I cringe just thinking about it

 

[Trout Tamer]

Dude, that's rotten! You are very fortunate that you didn't have any bone damage, though, else it'd be a much more surgery-intensive recovery. Still, crush injuries are one of the worst you can get and they HURT!!
3.5 years ago, I got my right lower leg and foot both crushed by a boulder that weighed 600-800 pounds... the bones, nerves, tendons, muscles, blood veins, everything was destroyed. My shin is almost healed; after 3 1/2 years, it's still a bit broken! When it first happenned, I was under doctor's orders to be in bed for 20+ hours per day for 8 months straight. That was, shall we say, less than fun. Of course, the continual pain and swelling, not to mention all the external bolts and rods that I had in my leg, kept me from doing anything, anyways... but, over time, I am recovering.

I hope that you have a swift and complication-free recovery, savagesic! Be patient and, if any nay-sayers come along, don't listen to 'em.

 

[musashi]

Only thing I ever did even close was dropping a Bangor slate on me toe!

I was 19 and working for my auld fella, hauling reclaimed slate up onto a new roof. These things were near four feet square and a quarter inch thick, except one bundle I picked up had a half slate in it So it fell out and guillotined my big toe on the left foot. Of course being summer I was wearing Squash Runners which started leaking blood right off the bat. Being squeamish I left the shoe on and worked away for the rest of the day. Getting home I cut the runner off and soaked the horribly hairy sock off my injured tootsies. Only the big toe got hit, right in back of the nail bed where it's inside the skin :yawn:
The actual nail was stuck up like a Ski Jump only attached under the nail bed.
Well the pain of breaking it was nothing like the pain when I got my pliers and tore the rest of it out of there...............I nearly cried I swear to God!

Damn thing still doesn't grow out right fourteen years later and every time it grows in I swear I'll have it removed for good, by a doctor even this time!
Think maybe next summer when I'm off on holiday I'll have it cauterised.

 

[Ken C.]

Worst damage I ever did to my fingers was getting my left ring finger severed by a heavy steel door at the age of 14. Sheared the top part of it off at the first joint. 6 hours in surgey , 1 Ti rod, numerous pain killers, and 3 months healing time produced what you see below. I lost a bit more than an 1/8" of length and I some sensitivity. Occasionally when it is really cold out I can't feel it at all. It hurts really bad today because not more than and hour ago I dropped a 4lb. jar of peanut butter on it. OUCH!!!!

 

[T.K.C.]

Don't you that when you do THAT it HURTS??? Don't DO that!! Seriously, I am very sorry you crushed your thumb!!! You must be in big time pain. Get well soon!