Only pic I had was on my cell phone since I didn't have a real camera at the time, so it doesn't really look nearly as bad as it was...
I don't know how deep it was, but it basically went all the way down through the tip until it hit either the bone or the fingernail. Looking into the gash I would have thought it was almost .250" deep! The huge gap in the fingertip was scarier though... It would have easily accommodated a penny. It had stopped bleeding and healed up a little by the time this picture was taken; a 15 minute drive in 20 degree weather will do that. It also hurt way more at that point than it did when it happened or at any point afterward. Cold + Cuts = Paaaainful
The hospital sealed it up with some Dermabond. It did pretty good, though around thanksgiving I got a chance to place an acoustic bass and a 12-string and just couldn't bass it up, wound up ripping the glue off. Anyway, that was like, Nov. 15th and it didn't really fully heal until a month later, and it still hurts whenever I put pressure on it. That dermabond makes for some pretty scars though, doesn't even look like there's anything on my finger now...
You can kind of see a "scar" there, but for the most part I can't even tell it ever happened. It was far from the worse cut I ever had, but it bled more than any other. Must have hit a vein or something. Plus it was the stupidest cut I've ever got.
Anyway,how it happened: I was sitting around with my Izula on my belt, horizontal, and I was running that finger along the contour of the handle. When I hit the sheath, for some reason I thought, "I wonder if my finger will follow the contour of the handle and hit the guard if I pulled the knife out right now," and just tried it out without really thinking of the consequences. It definitely wasn't painless, felt like one hell of a bite. I shouted out some obscenities, and my friend says, "What?" and before he could look over I'd already got a whole puddle of blood in my hand. It was bleeding so much every time I washed it out, it would just spout blood out before I could really tell if it needed stitches. In the end I figured, "Well, whatever, it won't stop bleeding long enough to tell so I guess I should go to the ER just in case." They put a splint on it so that I wouldn't ram it into anything and split it back open.
Definitely regret it, it was really stupid of me. It's been a month and a half and it still hurts to put pressure on, but it's coming along. I can play guitar with it... It hurts a little bit, but I just need to condition it I think. Not being able to sharpen my knives while it was all splinted up was the worse.
Here are two others that I've had from knives that were fairly bad when I was a little knifenut. About ten or twelve years ago now...
The straight one that's perpendicular to my finger was from carving a stick into a spear point... Mostly because I was bored and wanted to carve something. I was holding the stick straight upward in my hand, and carving down toward my knuckle when it slipped and whacked my finger. Honestly, I think having the steel blade whack into my bone hurt more than the actual cut itself, and it wasn't all that deep since there wasn't much tissue up there, but it wouldn't close up without stitches.... Besides, back then I was 10-12 so it was my parent's choice to get me stitches.
The other one was from a serrated Spyderco knockoff that I had back in the day. I never remembered who makes those, but they basically try to mimc various Spyderco knies with the FRN handles, the blade shapes, and the Spydy hole. Anyway, I was prying open the lock on my front door... Don't ask why, because I don't really remember anymore, or much of how it happened. I remember something slipped and I wound up cutting my knuckle. I remember getting that one stitched up really sucked because they had to cut off a bunch of skin before stitching it.
Heh, all three of these cuts are on the same finger. Poor little guy.
I find it somewhat remarkable now how few of my scars were caused by knives, when thinking about it. I've got quite a few to choose from, some more macho than others. Among the more dangerous things to have cut me: Richocheting bullet, lots of road rash, pencils, some screw drivers, a nail gun, swing sets, odd bits of glass in lakes and on roads, cheaply made bungee ties, any piece of metal I've ever worked on with any machine ever, tire irons, the insides of 50 gallon barrels, bottles both broken and intact, fireworks, stray animals, hang nails...
The only three I can really think of that ever required medical attention are all on that finger.
:thumbup:
. Did you know you bleed bright green at 80 ft? It is true (trust me) because red light is filtered out at that depth. I had to remove my BC, take off my shirt and tie it around my leg to help stave off bleeding and continue my dive.
