Its my turn to join the club! Stiches inside!

A

Azsoldier

Joined
Apr 10, 2006
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193
I was cutting on a branch placed on a stump.

I was using my 16" KH AK. I had my left hand on the branch about 24"
from the area I was cutting.

One milli-second of in-attention.... the blade glanced off the wood, it was a shallow cut, and completed its arc. I was making a cut towards the left.

Wooo. Close one. I had felt a Scuff on my hand below my thumb.

"Lucky I didn't get cut!" I thought and kept hacking for about 2 strokes...

"Wait...." I stop and look at my hand. A small red line had appeared right where I felt the blade barely miss.

I moved my thumb... and the wound gaped open 1/2" wide and 1 inch long!:eek:

Then the blood started. Nice.

No pain.

I went to the ER and got 8 stitches.

Freaking stupid noob mistake. I can't beleive this.:grumpy:
 
No fair...where are the pics?

Dave Rishar once had a glancing blow at my house...with a full size GRS no less. It stabbed his knuckle...nothing more.

The man is Superman in disguise I tell you...


<snif> *He* had pics at least...
 
Damn man, glad it wasn't worse. I'm having images of that guy that falls apart in Resident Evil. :eek:

Well, while we're at it, I'll tell my stupid noob story. Right after I got my first khuk (18" AK) I was out in the woods chopping with it with a friend. He wanted to give it a try, so, after giving him some basic safety tips I had gleaned from the safety thread, I let him. So he chops a bit with it, everything is going fine. Then he decided to try throwing it. :mad: Idiot.

Bastard threw it at a tree fifteen feet away and it freaking bounced straight back at him. Lucky the butt hit him and not the blade or they would've had to reattach his hand. Needless to say he did it over my very, very strong objections, but I honestly couldn't do any more without tackling him. That was the last time he ever so much as held any of my knives. :mad:

We're not friends any more, although that was just one of many straws.
 
Just a matter of time I suppose. Eight stitches aren't that many considering what tally is possible with a misdirected cut on a body part.
 
Hey, you still have a thumb, be grateful for that. And look on the bright side... if it cut with no pain like that, you must have a really good edge on it. :)
 
I've tried holding the wood I'm cutting with the other hand. I pay a lot of attention. I cut a lot of wood- (comparatively- not in 'real' terms) and each time I nervously move my hand from the wood and either quit or try another way to get to the wood.

It always scared me, no matter how far away my hand was.

Also, sometimes I'm standing with a leg that theoreticaly might get a glancing blow if everything went wrong. I move it.

With a khuk, there is no too careful.



munk
 
Munk - "There is no too careful."

Your damn right. I learned a lesson today. Its hurting a lil now.

I knew it would when the doc gave me a script for vicodin.

"But it doesn't hurt..."

"It will... (laughs evily)"

The worst pain was the Lidocaine shots. MY GAWD!!! FIRE!!!!!

My skin is pretty thick too, the doc had a lil trouble getting the needle through.
 
Azsoldier said:
The worst pain was the Lidocaine shots. MY GAWD!!! FIRE!!!!!
Click to expand...

I'll agree with that! When I was around six I was bitten by an afghan hound on my face. His tooth went clear through my lip and it was bouncing off my chin. No pain, but blood and boy did my grandmother scream when she saw me. Anyway, no pain until we get to the hospital and the nice Dr. says this might sting a little, but it'll make you numb. PAIN, BURNING, FEAR!!!! That night a little six year old swore if he ever needed stitches again he would forego the Lidocaine shots.

Flash forward 27 years and a collision between lava rock and my face in Hawaii after falling 6 feet and stopping the fall with my face. Yep, no pain, lots of blood, and a trip to the hospital. Remembering my previous ordeal, I tell the Dr. "Yeah, just stitch me up, I don't want any Novocain, etc." He looks at me funny and we argue a bit. He finally agrees to see how I react. The nurse is freaking out a little. She tried to tell the Dr. he couldn't proceed without giving me something. He just looks at her and says the patient prefers to not have any.

Long story short 130+ stitches later(yes, I hit hard and tried to do maximum damage) I felt fine. No pain, but it felt weird feeling the needle go through, but never hurt. Looked like crap and couldn't go in the water or sun for three weeks to keep the chances of scarring and infection down.

Did I mention that it was my 1st time to Hawaii and it was my birthday and I'd only been there a couple hours? Sigh:grumpy:

Well, anyway, glad you are ok.
 
Ted, damn! Just... damn. That's amazing. Hell though, most people go on vacation and get a few pictures. You get a story that pretty much blows any other "I'm a badass" story out of the water. I can see it now. A dimly lit bar with some lowlife trying to pick a fight. All you have to say is, "See that scar? I got hit in the face by a volcano and got 130 stitches without painkiller. You sure you want to mess with me, punk?" :D

On the other hand, that does suck. Hope your future vacations went better. :(
 
Might be worth mentioning ... good ax technique when limbing a downed tree is to stand on the opposite side of the trunk, so a glancing blow won't end up in your leg. It's good khuk technique too.
 
Several months back, I was peeling tape off a khukuri handle with my right hand when the blade slid out of the scabbard and caught my left thumb. I did not feel any pain, but quickly noticed that blood was beginning to flow fairly steadily from the small flap of skin/flesh left by the steel. It did not require any stitches, but drove home the need for attention and care when handling these instruments of separation.

Eric
 
Ouch man! You want a khuk horror story...ask Heber.
My idiot khuk story, Sharpening my 18" WWII on a butcher's steel in the summer of '02. Wasn't paying attention and the thing glanced down the steel and struck me on my left thumb. I've cut myself two or three times there, but that one should have gotten sewn up;) Bandaids and duct tape sealed it up enough to just leave a little smile shape cut. Sometimes when i'm feeling blue I take a sharpie and draw little eyes on my thumb so that I have a buddy.
My excuse for not watching what I was doing...I was watching one of those day time talk shows about "Who's my baby's daddy":o :rolleyes:

Jake
 
Great stories! I hope readers will take them seriously and understand that these things happen to intellegent people, and are waiting to happen to them.

I advise caution in closing larger wounds at home with superglue. There is some art associated with cleaning wounds and closing them so they drain properly and heal in the proper manner. In many cases unskilled "sealing it up" can lead to adverse outcomes.
 
Well, at least we now know where all those stories about a khuk not being sheathed until it drew blood came from. :rolleyes:
 
Steely_Gunz said:
...My excuse for not watching what I was doing...I was watching one of those day time talk shows about "Who's my baby's daddy":o :rolleyes:

Jake
Click to expand...

And...you thought you recognized the gal?
 
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