Almost lost my hand today

[MacTractor]

Too funny! I wasn't wearing my cape so I ended up hurting my hand. Man, if I had the cape on that tree would have been sorry.

I too have held the mattress!

Cheers,

This is called male super-hero thinking. I do it when carrying a mattress on the roof of my car. I always put my arm out the window and help hold the mattress down, like I could stop something the size of a sheet of plywood from flying off the roof of the car at 50mph with one arm. As Jerry Seinfeld says: Batman, Spiderman and Superman aren't fantasies for men, they're options.

 

[BigD23]

All it takes is a second...You've got to be careful out there.

Don

 

[savageactor7]

Sorry to hear about your near miss and hope you recover fully. Had a similar situation happen to me using the brush hog but outside of being scared for a second no personal injury.

 

[BruceWard]

I had the top of a 4" tree come inside the ROPS on my B21 and reached over with my left hand to keep it out of my face. For some reason I wasnt thinking about what would happen when I started driving forward again while holding the tree. I thought I might have broken my hand but it was ok. Glad you are ok. I think we both learned not to do that again!

 

[rdsaustintx]

Well,

It looks a little better this morning. I think I'm going to take the advice of others and my wife and head into the doctors today. I've broken many bones in my life doing other stupid things, so I'm pretty sure it is not broken.

Mac, hope your hand is OK; you might wanna see a specialist. Hands have strange bones and incredibly complicated geometry for all the finger joints.

Broken hands don't necessarily look broken. There are bones you can break which don't heal. I cracked a couple in my right hand and it will never be the same, frozen fingertip, numbness, strumming tendons and lost grip strength. Doctor said surgical intervention would probably make it worse. Been 2.5 years now and it really isn't any better.

Amazing how we take all these little miracles for granted...

Russell in Texas

 

[rbargeron]

Mac - It is really fine that you posted about this - even though you were still in pain at the time. One of our best instincts here is we look out for each other. (Russell's post above is another example) Thank you for having the impulse that if it could happen to you it could happen to anyone here and we all should heed your caution. Hope you have a speedy recovery and somebody in your life makes you some cookies

 

[Reg]

Maybe those thick heavy insulated work gloves gave you some false sense of security ?
I know when I have a burn pile I don't get singed if I work bare handed, but I have some seriously scorched gloves (-:

 

[MacTractor]

I would think that without the gloves, my hand would have been lacerated. I was wearing them not for the protection, but because it was cold out

The swelling came down quite a bit today. It is not broken but the bones are definitley bruised. I did damage some veins on the top of my hand. It is expected that they will heal without any lasting problems. I am just really lucky.

I appreciate the responses and like others have mentioned, I posted this to offer some wise advise as I would hope that others will think twice about reaching out to objects while on the tractor.

Funny, my wife reminded me today that even though my tractor is little, it is still a piece of heavy machinery and can mame you the same as a larger one. I just didn't think of it that way before this. I thought of it as a big lawn tractor with a BH and FEL, which it is not.

Lesson learned, now on to the next project!

Maybe those thick heavy insulated work gloves gave you some false sense of security ?
I know when I have a burn pile I don't get singed if I work bare handed, but I have some seriously scorched gloves (-: