Careful With That Axe, Eugene...

[Flying Crane]

I couldn't resist naming this thread after a Pink Floyd song.

anyway, my wife has been taking a class at the local community college in wood working and furniture making. A couple weeks ago, she had a misshap involving the table saw and her finger.

Oh, yeah. It's pretty ugly.

Long story short, she had surgery and they didn't need to amputate anything, but she pulverized a couple of the finger segments pretty nicely. The finger has been salvaged, but it will be a bit shorter than it once was. She's been on a lot of drugs for pain ever since, and it will be a bit of an ongoing process before this episode is behind her. There may be additional surgeries, depending on how things shape up.

The fingers and hands have a lot of nerve endings, allowing us do all kinds of precise and sensitive work with them. This also means when they get injured, it hurts like a mother-****er. She has described the pain as feeling like her finger is being crushed by a vise, and set on fire at the same time.

Anyway, just wanted to remind y'all, be careful with those powertools, 'cause accidents can happen in the blink of an eye. And when using certain things like table saws, band saws, and the like, don't use them alone. Make sure someone else is there to call 911 if necessary.

 

[OnlyAnEgg]

I just watched a biopic on Syd Barrett last night

Thanks for the reminder crane and a speedy recovery to the mrs. crane.

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

The title of this thread reminded me of my fathers' last words to me on the night he died.

"Careful, son: That gun is loaded!"

Crane -- the rebound off the opiates can make the pain all brand new. Let her know (if her doc doesn't) that she may need to wean.

D.

 

[Sukerkin]

My sympathies to Mrs Crane .

I know that women are better at handling long-term pain than we do-or-die male types but that sort of injury is nothing to be ashamed of shedding a few tears for.

I cracked all my molars clenching my teeth together so as not to scream when the pain of my arm injury hit home {and pulled a handful of my hair out with my other hand } so I send her a vitual internet hug of comfort, for I know from experience how such things are.

 

[MA-Caver]

All I can say is she living one of my worst nightmares. I've been around table saws before and chop saws when I was working as a machinist a few years back. I've come close by a hair's breath of having the same thing, power saws are not fun things by no means ... no sirree.
The closest accident I came to was working with a chop saw and cutting lengths of 1 inch square steel pipe. The blade of the saw caught on a wee little burr and grabbed the pipe length which was now down to six inches (cutting from 10") and brought it around and forced it through the saw guard on top of the blade... just inches from my face. I had reacted in time to jerk my head aside before any pieces of the guard took my eye or face out. The SPLANG! noise was so great that my boss heard it in his office up stairs from the shop.
He came down and saw the damage then looked at me and told me to sit down. Apparently I was white... very white. He then took a playful sniff in my direction to see if I might have loosen myself but I didn't.

Prayers for a quick recovery to Mrs Crane as well. It could've been much worse of course she really got lucky when you think about it. Hopefully it won't deter her from using the machine again.
I agree with Kembudo-Kai Kempoka that she'll probably need to be weaned off those groovy pain killers.

:asian: Glad she's alright.

(nice title to the thread by the way... I can still hear the screams and the whoosh-chop of the axe from the song... of course I -- for obvious reasons-- prefer the song "Several species of small furry animals gathered in a cave grooving with a Pict". :uhyeah: Ummagumma a very under rated album)

 

[exile]

Very sorry to hear about your wife's horrible trauma, Michael. I hope she gets through this first, worst phase of it quickly and can start regaining normal use and sensation at a record clip. There are just so many ways we can do these terrible injuries to ourselves that it's scary to think about...

 

[jks9199]

I couldn't resist naming this thread after a Pink Floyd song.

anyway, my wife has been taking a class at the local community college in wood working and furniture making. A couple weeks ago, she had a misshap involving the table saw and her finger.

Oh, yeah. It's pretty ugly.

Long story short, she had surgery and they didn't need to amputate anything, but she pulverized a couple of the finger segments pretty nicely. The finger has been salvaged, but it will be a bit shorter than it once was. She's been on a lot of drugs for pain ever since, and it will be a bit of an ongoing process before this episode is behind her. There may be additional surgeries, depending on how things shape up.

The fingers and hands have a lot of nerve endings, allowing us do all kinds of precise and sensitive work with them. This also means when they get injured, it hurts like a mother-****er. She has described the pain as feeling like her finger is being crushed by a vise, and set on fire at the same time.

Anyway, just wanted to remind y'all, be careful with those powertools, 'cause accidents can happen in the blink of an eye. And when using certain things like table saws, band saws, and the like, don't use them alone. Make sure someone else is there to call 911 if necessary.

She get her and in the way of some kickback?

Sorry that she was hurt, and I hope she's feeling better. And not afraid of the tools!

 

[elder999]

The wife is a woodworler, and I work with metal (knives)-since she's a "safety manager," and one who's very conscious about it, she's always careful, and makes sure that I am ("Mrs. Conscience," I call her sometimes)-and there are still close calls.....

You have my hopes and prayers for her speedy recovery.

 

[Ahriman]

I don't think it'd comfort her to say that she is still lucky... So I rather send her my best wishes, I know way too well how much hand damage can hurt. Careful with those painkillers, and don't be too friendly to Mr. Leland Gaunt. *
...
Power tools are fun, but I consider androctonus australensis a fun animal as well. I have very close calls on a weekly basis, the last was a 500g heavy piece of steel at orange heat at one end and having a spike at the other end hitting me in the head - with the straight portion between the ends. Lucky for me that my skull is about 10mm thicker at the forehead than normal. Don't follow my example, or you may end up being posted here as well.
* for those who don't know, a character in Stephen K's Needful Things

 

[Flying Crane]

Thanks for the kind words and bits of advice, everyone, it's much appreciated.

She seems to be doing better each day, and her pain meds are down, but still needs to maintain a certain minimum baseline in order to get thru the day. Some days are worse than others, tho. Meantime, she is unable to work and will probably start pulling disability pay for a time. Her hand is pretty much out of commission for the time being. It was her left middle finger, and she's a southpaw as luck would have it.

She's also bumming because this means her kenpo training is also on hold for now. I'm encouraging her to just walk thru techs and forms slowly and gently, to keep it sharp in her head, without any exertion and no contact. I think she'll try that a bit soon, when she feels up to it. But she's got a couple of pins sticking out of the end of the finger, any little bumps to the hand are pretty sensitive, so she's protecting it like it's made of glass.

 

[exile]

Thanks for the kind words and bits of advice, everyone, it's much appreciated.

She seems to be doing better each day, and her pain meds are down, but still needs to maintain a certain minimum baseline in order to get thru the day. Some days are worse than others, tho. Meantime, she is unable to work and will probably start pulling disability pay for a time. Her hand is pretty much out of commission for the time being. It was her left middle finger, and she's a southpaw as luck would have it.

She's also bumming because this means her kenpo training is also on hold for now. I'm encouraging her to just walk thru techs and forms slowly and gently, to keep it sharp in her head, without any exertion and no contact. I think she'll try that a bit soon, when she feels up to it. But she's got a couple of pins sticking out of the end of the finger, any little bumps to the hand are pretty sensitive, so she's protecting it like it's made of glass.

I remember a very, very bad weightlifting accident I had a few years back, which was retroactively diagnosed by my sports medicine clinic here as a self-healed fractured scapula accompanied by several full-thickness tears through the muscle of my left shoulder, including the rotator cuff. I used to wake up in the night in unbearable agony, get this gel-pack pad I had and put it in the microwave for three or four minutes, and then put it on my shoulder and press it hard against the site until the pain went away. That relief lasted for about an hour, and if I was lucky I'd be able to fall asleep again before the effect wore off. I was in Vancouver for the summer, as it happened, so I couldn't get any medical attention for it for something like three months, and it took a long, long time to stop hurting—I thought at one point that it was never going to stop. And I realized during that episode exactly how long pain can go on for—for longer than we think it endurable; but we manage to outlast it somehow. I really feel for your wife, thinking about how long she may have to cope with serious pain and discomfort, and remember how relentless it can be, day after day, with no prospect of relief. I'm glad she has pain meds, but you really have to keep them at arm's length. If I'd been able to get any during that phase, I'm sure I'd have wound up taking more than I should have...

There's nothing to do but soldier on, but that's no comfort, I know. It does pass, and it will, but you never really believe it's going to....

 

[Sukerkin]

I just wanted to second Bob's point there.

When I had my bike accident the pain from the injuries was unimaginable. Even after the operation to Bionicise me, it was still orders of magnitude worse than anything I'd gone through before. The pain-killers they gave me only seemed to work for about ten minutes before it was back at full force again but, in the end, you learn to endure it.

The nights were the worst tho' as, even all strapped up in a sling I still managed to knock, twist or otherwise bother the injured arm ... with predictable consequences when it comes to sleep .

I didn't take the pain-killers for very long after the operation as the doctors were concerned about addiction problems even back then {or maybe they just didn't like bikers :lol:}. At the time I could see the sense of it but sometimes wished I had some on-hand when the pain levels got high.

Rambling towards the point again, sorry. What I'm getting at is that the body is actually better at handling pain it's own way than it is at shucking off chemical dependance that has come about through medication.

In my case this was true to the extent that I started 'secretly' excercising the arm a lot earlier than I should've done. The result of that is that the incisions didn't heal and when they cut the stitches the whole thing opened up again (which is why I have a better view than most of what my internal mechanical augmentations actually look like ).

So as well as sensibly watching the meds, Mrs. FC is doing the right thing by waiting a while before starting the rehabilitation process.

The converse can be true too tho' i.e. delaying the process too long. I treated my arm like glass for 15 years or so, which was probably excessive and was in constant pain day and night with it. It was starting Iai that, after a year or two, built up the arm muscles (that remain) enough to bind everything together and thus stop the pain (mostly). Bone injuries always hurt to an extent, however long ago they happened. I treat mine as a free rain predictor :lol:.

As with all things, it's a balancing act but one that I'm sure that your lady and yourself will manage with your usual good sense and aplomb.