WARNING: Pic of a real injured hand..... do not click on pic if you might be offended !
Ninefinger, you and i aren't terribly different...... except i have about nine and 3/4 fingers. I've been lucky and have had severe injuries to both index fingers and my left thumb (all in seperate incidents) but only lost a portion of my index in the last incident. First one was my right thumb as a teenager..... battle with a utility knife. Five hours of micro surgery to repair muscle,tendons,and nerves.... and long recovery, and i'd call my thumb 70% as good as it was before. Luckily, the bone kept the thumb attached to my hand. In my early 20s i delivered and installed pre-cast concrete products (steps, septic tanks,well tile,etc). While installing a 3000lb set of steps, they came down on my hand and i was trapped. When i got myself to the hospital, it looked like an M-80 went of in my finger. How they put it back together i'll never know. More recently i owned a towing service.... was unloading a disabled vehicle off my ramp truck and due to an idiot mechanics foolish move, got my hand mashed between a chain and the frame of the car.... with the weight of the car on it. My fault really.... i should never have let anyone come near my truck while unloading. Like i said.... i've been lucky, you and WCH are more challenged by your injuries than i am. I can still use one of those two handed gas cans! We, who work with our hands risk them.... its just part of life. I tried working in an office at one point in my life, and never had a worse job than that. It just wasn't for me. You know what the worst part of losing part of my finger???? Having to call my (then fiance') wife to have her leave work to drive me to the hospital. My mistake put her through alot..... the drive to get me had to be the worst ride of her life. The orthopedic surgeon they called in asked for my glove (where the rest of my finger was). Apparently he had thoughts of re-attaching it, but silly me i had no cooler full of ice to put it in on the ride to the hospital (i did bring the glove with me though). I had to take a pic for memory's sake the first time they allowed me to change my bandages myself.... first couple times had to be done at the surgeon's office to protect against infection. I think it was a week to two weeks after the incident.
I can assure you nothing about your now-altered hand would bother me. I think you and WCH both have great attitudes..... keep as positive as possible !
