Safety first, after the fact
Gonna be interesting typing this with one hand, but as the other one is the reason for this post, don’t have any choice.
Had just finished forging out a stainless steel hook and went in to buff it out on the wire wheel. Got the outside done and was thinking about a safety article I had read a few weeks age about not using uncovered wheels and what they could do to the body when I got the tip of one side taken out of my hand and then imbeded in the meat at the base of my thumb about an inch deep. Not stopping to think, I pulled it out, cut the grinder off and then looked to see how bad it was. Not good is putting it mildly. Put pressure on it and came to the house, which as Cat is out with her mom, was locked up. Took pressure off it for the time to find the keys and try to find the proper key showed the bleeding to be rather rapid. As I couldn’t find the key for that door, went to other door and bled all over the stoop while opening it. Washed the wound out with tap water ane used a towel to apply pressure while locating bandages and antiseptic. taped the hole up till the bleeding slowed then put the antiseptic on it and put a couple of bandaids across it. Wrapped the towel over the whole thing and went back down and put water on the fire in the forge. Then walked around a while trying to get a handle on the pain. Back in and wrapped the hand with an ace bandage as the shock was wearing off and the muscles around the entry point were now screaming really loud. Made a couple of phone calls trying to get in touch with a friend who is a nurse and trained as a emt but no joy. Left a message for him and tried laying down but that just made it hurt more. So back down the stairs and added a strap to support the arm at waist height and then sat down to type this. Pain is still quite intense, but abating some. Not feeling like passing out now anyway.
No more wire wheel brushing on this stuff without guards in place for me!
Gonna go and see about some lunch so I can take something for pain.
Themocracy
Well, it’s the day after now, and how is the hand? I hope not too bad. Something I didn’t mention yesterday, but I would HIGHLY encourage you to keep the wound open at the top, and let it heal from the bottom up. Use peroxide every day, and give some thought to soaking it once or twice a day in an epsom salt solution. When I had my sliced-open hematoma the docs were adamant that I keep it open and let it heal from the bottom up, to prevent a re-encapsulation of infection, which would probably be anaerobic, like gangrene. And when I got the infection last year in my thumb, soaking it in epsom salt seemed to do as much, comfort-wise, if not more, than the antibiotic did. It was good for cleaning it out too, I could tell. It really DOES “draw the pizen out.”
Anyway, I hope the healing goes well/quickly, and that you can find the guards for the buffer without much trouble.
Tis better. And worse. Most of the pain is gone but mobility is limited a bit. Course I am using all the fingers typing so even that is better I guess. Took your advice and did a epson salts soak. Seems to have helped. Against the advice of the friend who came over yesterday and dressed it, I took the bandage off while ago and showered, then peroxide then soaked in the epson salts then peroxide again and antiseptic and rebandged it with just a flexible fabric bandage. Mobility is coming back without all the gause and tape around the hand. May need something along those lines for sleep to keep moving it from waking me up but for waking hours I had rather move it a bit as I can. Have been told that a month is about the time it will take to heal with care. Guess I will see. Also told that I shouldn’t use it for a week but seems to me that the more movement it gets the less it hurts. So right or wrong I will use the pain to judge the amount to do with it.
Guards for the grinders/wirewheels/buffers will be made, before they are used again. Looked at the one that got me yesterday not long before you came by. Need to make some more tools to help me make them but that is part of doing the blacksmith thing that I like. To quote a smith on one of the sites I belong to: Tools don’t make the blacksmith, the blacksmith makes the tools…
A month seems a reasonable time, excepting infection. After my thumb GOT infected, it was a month or so before it approximated normal again. Still a little bit of sensitivity there now when I press on it (just checked again to be sure) but it is MUCH better (and smaller) now. (FYI–I cut my thumb the middle of July last year, it healed seemingly completely in about two weeks–it was a very shallow cut–and then swelled up about 3/4″ to a full inch in about 2 days. It hurt about like it looked, which was terrible…) The epsom salt soak did wonders, even before it opened up the infected part. And it was instrumental to opening up the infection where it could drain–what a wonderful thing! The pressure before it opened up was immense, and very painful. Remember, folks, when you are bitten by a computer, be SURE to take ALL preventive steps to keep infection away. Computers have VERY poisonous bites, and will sometimes appear to heal completely before suddenly erupting into near-gangrene. Or something. I don’t know, or care, what the heck it was, as long as it never comes back….
Here’s hoping that yours stays free of infection. I, too, am of the school of thought that limited movement (defined as not hurting too much when you do it) is a Good Thing(tm). If you don’t move it, it will stiffen up to the point where you CAN’T move it, for quite a while. However, don’t overdo it, or it will never heal. Just listen to the pain, it will tell you….you’ll hear it.