My Workbench

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The End of Ships For a While

Yesterday evening, as I was finishing up working for the day, I had an altercation with my radial arm saw and came very close to losing a finger. I mangled it pretty bad through the glove. It took about 40 minutes to round the wife up (she was working too on another section of the property) and get going into town to an urgent care center. It was late in the day, after 5 PM and we hit two centers before we found a third that was open. It was excruciatingly painful and by now I was in the second hour of holding pressure on it to control the bleeding. by the time it was X-Rayed and the PA showed up I was well into the third hour of pain.
But even more painful were the needles inserted (it took five) to numb the area to allow for stitching. It took eleven stitches, and not pretty ones either. I am extremely lucky there was no bone or tendon damage. I have to wear a splint for 10 days and then return to the center to see if the stitches can be removed. They told me I most likely will never regain feeling in that finger again past the first joint. That will certainly make it difficult to rig a ship for sure.


15 comments:

Stew said...

Oh nooooo! Good gracious that is a lot of stitches! That is a terrible accident. I really do hope it’ll all heal well.

I don’t even know what a radial arm saw is, but if I had one I’d get rid of it. 😀
Too bad that the last thing you worked on was a SoG ship!

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

I'm just glad I finished it the night before or Gunner would have been waiting a long time to get his ships.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Sheesh, thank goodness you didn’t lose the finger but still a tragedy, nonetheless. Hope you recover fully and can return to rigging ships soon. If you need anything, let me know.

BrianW said...

Oh my word! We can't leave you alone for a minute. 😁 Thank goodness it wasn't any worse, and I bet all the readers are praying that you heal back up to normal.

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Gosh thanks for the offer Jonathan. I should be good for the next couple of weeks. Just have to wait until the stitches come out. Daughter number two is in nursing school and she is going to practice changing her old dad's bandage and resplint tomorrow.

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Haha, good to hear from you Brian
Yeah I was fortunate for sure. The adoc was amazed I didn't have more damage the way it was mangled 3/4's of tbe way around the first joint.

JTW said...

Yowzas Vol! I just saw this. That's frightening! I'm very sorry to hear it, but am glad you didn't lose the finger. I hope you'll have a speedy recovery, and that you prove them wrong and regain feeling throughout the whole finger.

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Thanks James, I hope so too. It's good to here from you.

Lasgunpacker said...

Oh wow, that is terrible! Glad to hear that you did not lose the finger, and hopefully you get more sensation than they are currently predicting. (and fortunately nerve surgeries have gotten so much better that they may be able to correct it in the future.)

Daniel Clay said...

Sorry to hear of your accident.

As a fellow gamer who injured their hand in a very similar way last year (left index finger in a blender - detached flexor tendon and nerve) one thing I found very useful was the purchase of one of the GW painting handles, which I was able to grip in my left claw between the thumb and the base of the finger.

I suspect it won't be much help for rigging tiny ships, but a similar item may enable you to continue painting at least.

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Thanks, I hope it heals ok. It has been 15 days now and only half the stitches were able to be removed. It is not healing very fast, still bleeding more than I wish. But I am painting again at least, and even have been able to do some light modification work. But I'm afraid rigging is a long while off.

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Thank you Daniel. I do have a jeweler's vice that I am able to hold in my left hand now with the ship clamped in place for painting. I am very sorry to hear about your accident. I was very fortunate not to sever any tendons, so I still have hopes it will eventually heal, if not 100% then nearly so. It still hurts quite a bit, but not nearly so bad as that first week.

Hungeren said...

I just fount your blog today, and I love it! Sad to see you hurt yourself in that way. I can relate. I cut my right thumb Wayback with a spear thinking it was a good idea to buy one after watching the movie "Zulu" for the 8th time in a row. It heald but it has never been the same for me. Ended my Xbox Halo career but open up my world to tabletop hobby painting and wargaming. Anyway, Get well soon!

A Miniatures Hobby Room said...

Haha, as a matter of fact "Zulu" is one of my all time favorite movies too! Maybe 100 times watching for me 🤩

Paul Howes said...

O', My! because of my own long history of wounds,
i can imagine well that pulsating throbbing!
Get well soon. BB