Back on the 6th of this month I was welding in the overhead position and got a 7018 welding rod stuck pretty damn deep in the weldment. I tried wriggling it out, but that wasn’t working. I tried bending it severely from both the left and right side as well, with no improvement in the situation.
Then, instead of doing the smart thing and grabbing up my Lineman’s pliers to cut the rod off, I grabbed it with an upside down right hand and started yanking rather vigorously from side to side. It finally broke off as I shoved from the left, sending my hand up and into the 3/8″ steel plate table my weldment was attached to.
Yes, this is all a run-up to telling y’all I broke my hand at the base of the right metacarpal about 1/2″ from where it attaches to the right carpal bone.
This is only a small hindrance. It turns out that once you know the motions and how 7018 rod works it takes only a few days to train your other hand to make those motions. I’ve been welding with my left hand since the 9th and am doing well enough that I was going to test out on my vertical (3G) and overhead (4G) certifications this week. Until the new x-rays came through on Friday.
Apparently, the long piece of the carpal bone is popped up and won’t reattach. The Urgent Care folks didn’t bother with attempting to realign the bones, preferring to let the hand specialist I saw on Friday to do that. I’ve been in their splint since the 6th and that just kept it from moving from its current position. So now the specialist wants to realign the bones and then pin or screw them together. This will happen Wednesday afternoon.
As he was telling me about the how and what he stated that I wouldn’t be able to weld for at least six weeks. I chuckled and said that wasn’t going to happen. I explained about the time and money I have invested in this program and how I have exactly six weeks left to complete the program and about how I have been welding all that week with my left hand, using my right hand to grasp things while wearing a splint that immobilized my ring and pinky fingers with no pain. He tilted his head a bit, shook it and left it at that.
I go in on Tuesday for a pre-op physical and then Wednesday afternoon for some outpatient surgery.
This is going to suck. Obviously, I type even more slowly that I did before, so posting might sparse out even more than before. Also, I’ll be losing a day and a half of practice and I had a project going in the Fab Shop that was due to be delivered on Friday that won’t be.
Ouch. Sorry to hear that, but glad to hear it’s not catastrophically bad / painful / debilitating. That’s one potential pitfall of moving to a physically demanding job as you get older – you are more likely to injure yourself. Usually people move the other way, starting out with the high-strength / high-injury work when young, them move to a desk job as they get older.
Hey Man sorry to hear about your hand… I have followed your welding trek and you are so close- good luck on the outpatient surgery- and don’t worry about your typing we will figure it out….
Rusty knows all about surgical recovery 🙂
Somewhere down the line you are going to be welding something important that will require exclusive use of your left hand, and amazingly enough, you will be very proficient doing it that way. This is the Jedi training equivalent of honing ambidextrous skills. Sucks now, but I bet this comes in handy someday. Heal fast dude.