I was removing a large Colorado blue spruce this week tangled in some power lines and all kinds of other wires. It was a pain in the ass! I only had two cuts left when my hand modeling career was likely ended haha.
I was cutting the piece between the red marks. I had the jump it over the house loop line you see touching the trunk. If it went backwards it would go through the power lines and break a concrete patio and likely end up in the pool next door.
I made my face cut which was about as picture perfect as they come. I almost took a picture but decided there was too much going on to risk it. I made my back cut and then pushed the roughly 600-800lb with my right hand and stabilized with my left had as my guys pulled the pre installed rope I put in the top of it.
Somehow my finger tips slipped their way into the face cut as it closed.
I looked down and all I could see was blood coming through my gloves.
I got down out of the tree and went straight to the first aid kit in the truck and cut off my glove.
I was extremely relieved to see that my fingers still resembled fingers. Wrapped them up with gauze and some compression wrap then went and finished the job. 3 more hours of hell until we were finished.
Sunday evening after taking a knife to the nails and cleaning them up to see what was really going on now that the bleeding had stopped.
What I thought was a break in the pinky nail was actually the cuticle. The whole pinky nail got ripped out past the cuticle (white area). There is actually a small gap between my cuticle and the nail now.
Time will tell but I feel very fortunate and lucky with how the whole situation turned out so far. Was really expecting not to have finger tips when I cut the glove off.
Count your blessings and your digits. Back in 2007 I got my thumb crushed in a tank hatch while serving in the Army. My thumb no longer works and cold/ damp days serve as a throbbing reminder. Hopefully you get your nail back. Ouch.
Well when i seen topic i thought and expected lost fingers knowing your line of work. Point being could be worse! bet that hurt like a SOB but you still have them. Worse part with finger/hand injuries is when your trying to figure out to how to get it un stuck with only the other hand. So lesson learned, from experiance i have found if you wrap them around a cold cylinder (beer can sized) it will help reduce swelling your likely dealing with today. Heal up and glad its not worse!
Ouch!!! Hope it heals up ok.Brings back bad memories of getting my trigger finger and thumb in my 2×72 grinder with a fresh 36 grit belt, only took a split second to completely grind off both fingernails, miraculously they have finally both grown back.
Glad you're making a recovery! Good on you for sharing the story it will certainly prevent another accident in the future. I think more of you, not less for telling what happened.
Bright side is your skinny fingers never had a chance as a man’s hand model. You need fat, scared up, and slightly hairy ones to model tools.
Now with the injury you just a few more twinkies and gas station pizzas to fill them out. Also, slightly less exercise will help to get there. Lol
All kidding aside, I am glad you had digits after taking off the glove. I’ve had that same glove removal end in emergency surgery. It’s not a pleasant experience.