22 replies to this topic

[iDemonix]

Friday morning went to work, was pushing some wood through a ripsaw when the wood snagged on the blade, my reaction was to grab it and I put my thumb straight through the saw.

Lots of screaming and a trip in the ambulance later, I find out I can keep the thumb, yay! Had to wait until 7pm for a 2 hour surgery session where it was revealed I cut through a nerve and a tendon which have been repaired to the best they could. Hopefully will get full movement back with physio, but will prob get 80% feeling back at best.



No more biking or mini's for me for a long time. Gutted.

[blue blood]

Well at least your giving us a thumbs up in your picture instead of picking them up :)

Sorry that was terrible but seriously that sucks so much. If there were one thing on my body I wouldn't want to damage it would be my hands as i'd be out of work!! Hope you have a quick recovery and get all your feeling back in your hands.

Regards Blue

[carboy001]

Gutting mate, feel for you?

But how come both hands bandaged?

Get well soon's anyway's mate.

And I simply cannot avoid using this smiley

I'M SO SORRY!!!!

Cheers
Chris

Edited by carboy001, 08 April 2012 - 07:46 AM.

[iDemonix]

Haha, left hand is bandaged as drips went in it.

Typing with just the left hand is sofa king slow.

[Dan]

Ah sorry to hear this. I had bits of two fingers off once, and a nerve separated in the same hand another time. Good luck with recovery, nerve damage is freaky. The closer the damage is to the end of the nerve the more chance it will heal properly because there is less chance for it to get it wrong. Since it's just a finger you'll probably be alright, when my finger was off from the last knuckle the nerve came back fully as normal. When the nerve was cut in my wrist though it got a little bit confused growing back, but it's not too bad. I have a couple of areas of confused feeling and my little finger is slow, it's all a little numb but that's it. 80% is what they always tell you to expect but everyone is different. I think I got something like 92% recovery from the nerve damage. It does take a long time to settle into its healed state and when you first start your excercises it will feel really bad but will soon start improving so don't worry yet. You get odd effects as the nerve heals, my whole hand used to feel wet if you touched a certain spot and I still have bits that feel like you are touching a different finger. Good luck with you physio and everything, I guess your first appointment will be after Easter now. There is nothing in the world as nice as when they take your splint off once a week to clean you up and do excercises, because at first you aren't allowed to take it off to wash yourself at home so it gets really nasty inside there.

[mini93]

These automatic reactions can be such a pain (for want of a better word), have a friend who suffered massive damage to both hands when he basicly fell into a newspaper roller, of course 1st reactions is to throw your hands out, unfortunatly not such an easy recovery from something like that. So best of luck in your recovery there.

was talking at work the other day, we all agreed would much rather loose a leg than an arm.

[iDemonix]

Ty guys.

Dan: how does physio work? Remove cast, painful exercise, reapply cast? Repeat weekly?

Cheers,
Dan

[iDemonix]

Might finally try find a copy of the yellow bible to read whilst recovering

[Dan]

Dan: how does physio work? Remove cast, painful exercise, reapply cast? Repeat weekly?

You are only in the cast because you haven't had your first session. That will go as soon as you get there. You don't have broken bones, or not serious ones at least, so you don't need support just immobilisation. Unless they are doing something different because you cut through your thumb bone, in my case the only cast I had went the next morning. Broken fingers heal well on their own, they did nothing for my breaks. Just the nerves and tendons. You will probably get a nice, NHS coloured plastic splint. I now have something of a collection. They take the plaster cast off and get you to hold your injury still with the other hand (take them seriously when they say not to flex it at all while it's not immobilised) then they mould the plastic to fit you and strap it on. They will adjust it now and then during the next few weeks, and you might get a whole new one in a few weeks if they need to start getting you moving or hold the would differently, but basicaly this splint is with you for a couple of months and never comes off except in the physio room. If you need it adjusted, go to the hand unit. Don't try it yourself even though it looks simple, they will be angry and you might make your injury worse again. Sometimes if you are a sensible type they will eventually let you take it off yourself for cleaning, but that's up to them and not you!
Your initial painful excercises are going to be limited to what you can do inside the splint, and it's just to keep it moving. Once a week? Oh no son, the painful excercises have to be done several times an hour if you are going to keep your hand working properly. It's simple suff to start with but you won't believe how difficult it is to get your hand to obey you even with these simple tasks. The real pain comes later, when the splint is off and they start doing proper range of movement and strength excercises. Don't think about it, just do it. It's really important to do exactly what the hand physio and then later the OT tell you. It will hurt, way more than the injury did, but only briefly and you will get your hand back if you stick with it.
Scar massage, don't neglect it. Fingers are small and a little bit of scar tissue inside there will gum it all up. Do the massage they tell you about and do it regularly, so the scars in the various tissues won't form in to one lump then and everything will move better in the long run. The ultrasound machine will hurt where they press it into you, but let them do it.
When you get there they will show you a big chart all about how your hand works, and what you've done, and how they have fixed it, and why not to do it again. Believe me it's a LOT more embarrassing the second time aound, with the same physios. You will sweat more in a 20 minute hand physio session than an hour at the gym and it will be tiring but it has to be done.

Basically, for the next few weeks don't mess with their work. Don't stretch or stress or bend your wound. Do exactly what they say and keep up the excercises and massage. It does work, it is worth it and you can get a good recovery. I still type with both hands.

 IMG_07371.jpg   1.34MB   6 downloads

Some of my lovely splints. I had more for fingers only, don't know where they are. And several big blue foam slings. Sleeping in these puppies is not hassle free.

 IMG_07381.jpg   1.09MB   15 downloads

Still fits!

[iDemonix]

Ugh These next couple of months are going to be terrible

[joshspragg]

thats horrible worst i've done is cut a quarter way through my thumb with a saw and i couldnt do much til it healed.
at least you still got thumbs tho. always a positive

[iDemonix]

thats horrible worst i've done is cut a quarter way through my thumb with a saw and i couldnt do much til it healed.
at least you still got thumbs tho. always a positive

Yeah true, thumbs up eh?

[Dan]

At least you live in a country where

A : It can and will be fixed,

and

B : You won't be paying it off for the rest of your life (well you will, but no more than you would anyway).

[The Matt]

Join my MUT (Mucked Up Thumbs) club!

Glad they've saved it, hope the physio goes OK.

I squished the end off my left thumb, they didn't save all of the bit I'd squished, but I only lost about 1/2" or so of it. Instead of saving all of it, they managed sort of fold it all around the bone and make it heal back together. Then they also managed to stitch the nail bed closer together than they should've done, which resulted in me having a permanent claw on my left thumb, which looks horrible, but I guess it's better than a stump.

I was 9 when I did mine.....was asked to move a piano from the assembly halls into the music room at school and one of the lads at the back kinda slipped and shoulder-barged the piano as I was trying to steer it into a door way, it went like this:

Oops, bang, pop, "Miss Rogers, I hurt my thumb"..... "Oh, ******* hell Matthew. Oh, sorry for swearing class." Then.....neenaaw neenaaw neenaw, wait, injection, wait, sew, wait, unsew, wait, re-sew, wait, faint, get sent home, refuse to look at thumb for 2 years, wait until 18, receive big compo pay out, wait.....still have complex about it at 34!

[1984mini25]

Feel left out now seeing as i've only broken (crushed) 2 of my fingers on my left hand working in a **** hole of a garage. Ended up crushing the bones in both fingers and slicing through the nerves and tendons in both. I'll never forget the moment of it happening, realising I'd still had all my fingers, then suddenly finding I couldn't move them or my hand, then the fingers of the latex glove filling pretty rabidly with blood and then the pain finally kicked in.

All they did after the stupidly long 4 hour wait in a&e by witch time I'd gone past the point of turning green, was to stich up the huge gash running the lenght of my finger and rap a dressing round both fingers.

3 years on and i'm still pretty useless being left handed, plus with my fingers stretched out straights the tip of my middle finger is pointing upward. And using the grinder isn't much fun anymore either, as for a good half hour after I can sort of still feel those 2 fingers vibrating and shaking.

Edited by 1984mini25, 09 April 2012 - 11:33 AM.