5 Years Ago...

[cnelk]

Its been 5 years ago that I cut my hand at work. Actually, it was the day before Thanksgiving.


A contractor was removing a large piece of sheet metal from a wall and I happened to be standing too close when it popped.


Yep. The edge hit me on the top of my right hand...


Off to the hospital I went for surgery...

 

[cnelk]

As most know, nothing happens fast in a hospital if its non-life threatening!


I waited about 7 hours before I 'went under' and not knowing the full extent of the cut/damage done to my hand


Im right handed too...

 

[cnelk]

The surgery took 2-3 hrs if I remember correctly.


The surgeon said I severed 8 tendons - 7 that operate fingers and 1 that operates my thumb.
Luckily there each digit has more than 1 tendon!


Post-op pic 5 days later... I started hehab for 3-4 months

 

[cnelk]

I remember having a full of emotions... Man that my 'trigger finger' hand!


I was fitted for a couple of splints - one to keep my fingers stable so my tendons could heal but still move [dynamic splint], another one for nighttime [static splint]

 

[cnelk]

To add insult to my injury, I had ordered a new bow and I got a call that it came in.  :'(


All I could do was look at it for 2 months!


Therapy was every other day and I was progressing, but it was slow.


I really wanted to shoot my new bow, I had regained some movement back in my fingers....


So I rigged up a sling to my release and drew my new bow using my elbow for pulling!


Sweet!

 

[cnelk]

That was a mjor milestone as I was going bat $hit crazy because I couldnt drive, or do much at all, but therapy was going well.

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The hand was healing but it started to create scar tissue build up and now it caused carpal tunnel syndrome...[/font]

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Back to surgery I went...[/font]

 

[cnelk]

By this time it was 4 months after the injury. Spring was coming!


I completed 3 more months of therapy and only lost 20% of finger dexterity.


2 things I learned from this:


1- It can always be worse


2- Toilet paper is really thin when using your other hand




My reason for posting this is no matter what happens in life, you gotta roll with it. Sometimes its worse than other times.


But dont let setbacks stop you from doing things you enjoy!


I still bowhunt, gun hunt and fish as much as I used to, and there are times that my fingers dont work as they should

 

[DTP]

That is wild, Brad.
Did you have some choice words for the contractor after it happened?

Great outlook and message though... I'm not going to lie, I laughed out loud at the toilet paper comment.

 

[BrentLaBere]

Great message and good advise about the TP! haha
Glad youre still able to do the things you love. Thats quite the unfortunate injury.