You gotta LOVE some customers!

Create a Post
Verdaccio

Verdaccio

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Posts
757
Loc
Berthoud, Colorado
I just cut the absolute #### out of my left index finger. Bisected the tip, down to the bone. I was standing there, bleeding profusely into a paper towel and trying to figure out how to bandage the thing to keep it from bleeding all over everywhere.

In walks a customer with a piece. AUGH!!!

I politely explain that I would love to help, but that I just cut my finger badly and needed to tend to it.

She says "Oh, I'm a nurse, bring it over here!" We get my first aid kit and in 5 minutes she has rigged me up a neat pressure bandage that keeps it closed and still leaves me with most of the use of my finger.

You have to love both customers who are so willing to help, and the providence that brings a nurse to your door just as you have injured yourself. :)
 
discount on pricing for her frame?

keep knocking wood...payback is heck

sorry 'bout the finger btw...you can now do the framer's secret handshake
 
Was she a previous customer or someone new? It seems rare that someone would take the risk to go out on a limb like that for a stranger in today's litigious society. Good for her. Did you see a doctor about it later for some stitches? Hope it heals up quickly for you.
:kaffeetrinker_2: Rick
 
See a doctor if you can

Did the same thing to myself many years ago with a boxcutter. The pain was exquisite, and Rick is right - you probably should see a doctor, sooner the better. It needs to be cleaned and irrigated. Good blood flow is essential to the healing process, too. Mine took several stitches to close and she (the Doc) said I might end up losing part of it anyway. Worst part of the procedure was the lydocaine injection into the open wound. The Dr. was young, attractive and single and I tried to impress her with my stoicism... up until she gave me the needle. I wept like a little girl. Happy ending, though - it healed nicely with just a hint of a scar. Good luck, hope it heals up well for you.
 
Michael.... Hope you frame that Purple Heart you just earned. Welcome to the club!
 
She thought that I could get away without going to the emergency room. She said that they would likely just put a pressure bandage like she did...except they would charge me $500! It is deep, but not overly long - it really did bisect the tip. MJ - it did hurt like ####!

Brand new customer too! :)

My wife and I changed the bandage tonight. Not much feeling in the tip of the finger, and it only wept a bit of blood, so I am optimistic. It will require a bandage for at least a week I think to be safe.

Thanks for the good thoughts and the "tips". :)
 
You should leave the bandage, gauze and tape only, not bandaids, on for a week at a time and keep it dry and clean. After a week, clean the finger with water and a Q tip but don't soak it. After 3 or 4 weeks you can soak it in 50/50 hydrogen peroxide/water to bubble away the "debris". Put the water/peroxide in a small clear glass, put your finger in it and soak until the bubbling almost stops. Keep it up until it is almost healed before you start to use bandaids. Bandaids keep too much moisture in at first.

Hope you have a tetnaus shot. Cutting the bone is no laughing matter, it's way different than just a cut finger. You might want to see your doc to ask if you need antibiotics. I cut off the tip of my thumb and nail and had 13 stitches to hold it on while it grew back. Took 6 months.

I never felt the cut. It only hurt for about a day after it was stitched up. I'll bet your pain was caused by cutting to the bone. Yucky stuff.
 
Jo's right... if you haven't had a tetanus shot in ten years (used to be seven), then you need to call your doc. When I cut my thumb, I had nerve damage and lack of feeling for quite awhile. But now all is well. Nerves will grow back, but it's a slow process.

Keep it high and dry!
 
" It will require a bandage for at least a week"

and DON'T go banging it around! not good for the finger NOR your blood pressure
 
I cut the end of my middle finger, left hand - off in '84. Recently had my prints taken for a Fed HazMat ID. The young lady was watching her computer screen across from me and said "Oh my, that one (the heavily scarred one) had to hurt!' (It did). Good luck with your recovery.
 
I serve on the county commission and a couple of years ago, a fellow commissioner was piloting a plane looking for an felon on the run. When they located the felon, he fired a shot at the airplane and hit the pilot in the forehead. It was a pretty nasty gash right across the forehead. The surgeon who worked on him in the hospital instructed the other doctor to leave the wound open and let it heal from the inside out (It was a gash probably 5" long and 3/4" wide) instead of stitching it shut. He said it was a "dirty" would and this method would force out any debris that wasn't removed by irrigation. Now it is healed, you can hardly tell there was ever any damage. It's pretty incredible what the human body can do.
 
I once sliced a huge gash on top of my pointy-finger...glass slipped.....blood shot to the ceiling, but NOT on the artwork!! Masking tape and a surgical glove and a bit of superglue held it together and protect the rest of the artwork I had to finish that night....during Christmas week!... until the next day. Dr. said it was too late for stitches, but wrapped it up with that big popsicle stick.

Yep, the Framers' Secret Handshake.....this scar's where I did "this", and that one's when "that" happened, and "Man, am I luck I still have "that finger intact". My husband-the-baker has "Bakers' Stripes" all up and down his forearms...baking sheets slip and ZZZZT! There goes some tissue! So...what's a little skin, anyway?

Hope you're "feeling" better soon!
 
Wow...I had not expected such a wealth of experiences with this. I suppose that as we all work with glass and -very- sharp objects, I should have. :)

When we began this business I told my wife to expect that someday she would get a call from me to come down to the store RIGHT NOW or meet me at the hospital RIGHT NOW as the "Big Glass Accident" (BGA) TM, all rights reserved, MGeorges, 2008 had occurred.

The finger is doing better, looks nasty still and the tip has no feeling at all, but I have managed to keep it from reopening and the weeping (of blood, not me :P ) has mostly stopped.
 
Finger war stories....AWESOME!!!

I was doing remodel work one time, and I was prying up the old plywood off of a floor. I was using a crow bar to do this. I was trying to pull the board off, and my hand slipped off the crowbar. The tapered end decided to cut my middle finger across it. Didn't even feel it, until I saw a steady drip of blood.

Should have gotten it stitched but didn't. The next day, my "finger meat" started pushing out. Just band-aid it I thought. It worked, but now I have a cool lumpy scar on my finger pad.

That's just the "tip" of the iceberg. I have ripped my forehead open so many times....it's amazing how the body heals that stuff.

dave.
 
Create a Post
Back
Top