When you least expect it to. Unsurprisingly.
I was rolling some rather stout pieces of Marine Channel across one of the fitting tables at work in the process of flame cutting some copes into the flanges on Monday morning.
In one of my less than stellar moments, I guess that I tried to catch the largest piece after it slipped out of my hand. I was able to catch it, if by “catch it” you mean stop it from landing flat on the upturned flange of another piece of channel table with a huge crash by not getting the middle finger of my left hand out of the way fast enough.
Physics being what it is, this caused the bone in the tip of my finger to snap and split the tip of my finger open like a cherry tomato. The gory mess that followed is to horrific to post and caused me to spend three hours in the E.R. where I got six stitches and a splint. I get to keep my fingernail though, so I got that going for me.
I’ll be back to work today after spending part of yesterday finding gloves I can use while bandaged and splinted. I go back for a followup on Friday when I should learn just how long this crap will take to heal. I’ve got a little more than three weeks until Boomershoot, so I have a goal, at least.
On the plus side, because every thing needs a plus side, my “Flipping the Bird While Driving” game just went up like 300%. I swear you can see this thing from one side of the interstate to the other.
HMMM, how about one of those giant foam “we’re # 1” hands you see at stadiums? 🙂
Sorry to hear about your injury; I did something similar while removing the flywheel from my truck, only it was my trigger finger. I convinced the ER doc not to finish removing it, but it’s still numb after thirty years & has a hell of a scar.
Merle
Jeez, Phil, take care of yourself man. The description alone was enough to make me cringe.
So – never try to catch a dropped gun or Marine Channel?
Heal up fast.
Not the trigger finger and not your shooting hand IIRC, so I can’t see the problem. 😉
Seriously, get well soon! Hope the swelling does not get to be too much of a problem. I speak from experience.
C’mon. P-ick-tures or it didn’t happen.
Seriously, major bummer. Never lost a finger tip, but a thumbnail and a couple of toenails decided to migrate a tad-bat ahead of schedule (on different occasions), and that was bad enough. Hope you are well enough, soon enough.