Log splitter injury (no pics)

[GPintheMitten]

Did your doctor tell you to elevate it? You do need blood flow.

 

[ruffdog]

Pain is good .....at least it means you still have a finger. It'll get better.

 

[s219]

Did your doctor tell you to elevate it? You do need blood flow.

Yeah, they remind me every time to keep it elevated. I just think I have determined it's not good to do that continuously. There is what looks like bruising at the base of the finger, which they said is a good sign that I was keeping it elevated and the injury was draining in the right direction (or something along those lines).

 

[s219]

Pain is good .....at least it means you still have a finger. It'll get better.

I agree -- I'd worry if it was numbness.

 

[ultrarunner]

They generally don't want it hanging low... at or above heart level is what I often hear.

As with most things... moderation is good... not too much at either extreme.

 

[PhysAssist]

Thanks for the kind words and advice all, I appreciate it.

Finger again looked to be improving at yesterday's checkup. Took out another stitch (leaving 6 of 8) that was pinching the skin. They want to see me again on Monday to make sure blood is flowing OK, so I suppose that is now a bigger risk than infection. I expect this finger will always have circulation and cold sensitivity issues now.

I may have overdone it elevating my hand, as yesterday afternoon my entire arm and hand fell asleep and was uncomfortable. I let it stay down for a couple hours and it improved (color got better too). So today I am moderating the elevation.

Pain is OK in mornings, but by evening I really feel it. I took a painkiller to help me sleep last night, since I wanted to get up early this morning and get into work for 1/2 day. Can't say the painkiller helped the pain or helped me sleep, but I sure did feel cozy and happy in bed. I guess they sort of block the part of your mind that cares about the pain.

I don't know when I will be out of the woods medically, or when I will be back outside in the woods doing chores, but my mind is thinking about how much more careful I will be around the splitter. I have proven I was not careful enough, so I'm going to have to add some operational procedure for dummies to make sure this sort of needless injury doesn't happen again. I often find that treating myself like a known dummy is a sure way to avoid repeat problems....

10000X on that last sentence, but add in "or new ones..." at the end
T

 

[tman1020]

I'm glad that you're making progress healing up and thank you for sharing. My two boys and I were just out using the splitter today and I noticed that we were getting a little too comfortable with it. Maybe not getting our hands away or getting in a little too much of a hurry. I mean really that RAM does not seem like it moves very fast. Very easy to get complacent. I'm going to share your story with them right now.

 

[s219]

Saw doc and physical therapist today. Finger is healing as well as can be expected. I continue to feel very fortunate it wasn't much worse.

They figure another 6 or so weeks for the bone to heal, though the tip was broke into a few pieces so how it heals is an unknown. But what was a large visible displacement between pieces on the previous X-ray has now closed up the gap. Apparently tip fractures heal up well. Vascular function appears pretty good and the color has been looking better every day. They said to expect swelling for another 3-4 months, and it will take 6+ months for the nail to grow past all the damage and start to look normal.

The physical therapist has me doing some exercises every hour to start restoring flexibility and function to my hand (all the fingers have stiffened up and become hard to move). It causes a little pain, but I can really see the benefit. She molded a nice little "cap" splint to protect the fingertip during the day. The most amazing thing to me is how much the swelling ebbs and flows throughout the day. The splint will be tight one hour and the next it's loose.

Here's a pic of the fingertip from this evening. It looked a heck of a lot worse just a week ago, and two weeks ago it was a swollen mess that was impossible for me to look at without breaking into a cold sweat.



1-2 times a day I remove the splint and bandaging to wash the finger with soapy water and follow up with a dip in ethyl alcohol. The alcohol helps dry out any moisture that may have gotten under the nail and it will kill any bacteria that could cause infection.

I continue taking ibuprofen, but only pop 200-400mg as needed to handle any pain that crops up. Main discomfort comes from exposure to cold, so my wife is sewing up a big fleece mitt I can stick my hand into when I go outside. Right now I am using an old sock. Previously I was tucking my hand inside my jacket, but that caused a lot of wrist pain towards the end of the day.

I am back at doing what outdoor chores I can do one-handed. Stuff takes longer of course, so I have pretty simple goals each day.

 

[GPintheMitten]

It actually looks pretty good. It will take time. I'm still recovering from cutting my thumb with the table saw last November. The nail is about half back. Still no feeling in the top of the thumb. But at least I can button my shirts and sleaves now.

Good luck on continued recovery. Take it slow.

 

[PhysAssist]

It actually looks pretty good. It will take time. I'm still recovering from cutting my thumb with the table saw last November. The nail is about half back. Still no feeling in the top of the thumb. But at least I can button my shirts and sleeves now.

Good luck on continued recovery. Take it slow.

As best I can recall, when I chopped mostly through my left index fingertip and nail with a cane cutter/machete it was about 6/2009 [please don't ask what I was thinking], but I missed [or at least didn't disrupt] the bone, and I can still use that finger to grab really hot bowls and plates without pain, but I think that most of the light touch sensation was back by about 2013 or so, and it hasn't really improved to speak of since then.

 

[ruffdog]

s219 "op", Yeah, it's looking good. With mine, the squished tip actually affected the joints back into my hand even though they were not injured. It took a good year to work all that stiffness out of the hand....strange. I have been through a couple of Winters now and that finger still gets cold FAST. If I'm out in real cold weather, the mitten ALWAYS goes on. Even mid 30's temps still get it all puffed up and frozen. (Keep your eye out for a good pair of mittens) Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[ruffdog]

As best I can recall, when I chopped mostly through my left index fingertip and nail with a cane cutter/machete it was about 6/2009 [please don't ask what I was thinking], but I missed [or at least didn't disrupt] the bone, and I can still use that finger to grab really hot bowls and plates without pain, but I think that most of the light touch sensation was back by about 2013 or so, and it hasn't really improved to speak of since then.

Ha! I also have a finger that was cut to the bone when I was shearing x-mas trees. It wasn't the tip but 1 joint further back on my pointer finger. It is still sort of numb but it took 20 years to get as good as it will get.

 

[PhysAssist]

Ha! I also have a finger that was cut to the bone when I was shearing x-mas trees. It wasn't the tip but 1 joint further back on my pointer finger. It is still sort of numb but it took 20 years to get as good as it will get.

Ha, backatcha,

I bet it's still mortal cold in winter too, if it's at all like mine.

I neglected to say that about 5 or 6 years before that, I was re-wiring a suicide cable for our generator to well pump connection (since replaced with a saner option) DURING an outage, & tried to amputate the tip of that same finger with a brand new razor knife blade.

You know how you rotate the knife around the wire to cut through the insulation?

Well, somehow the tip of my finger got in there too...

Yup, right through the nail to the bone, but missed the tendon.

That made the machete injury the insult added to the original injury.

The other interesting thing is that for the next 10+ years (after the 2nd laceration), I kept getting a tiny, but really tender nodule at the near end of the healed cut(s) along with early arthritis in the middle joint.

Eventually, when I finally got a dermatologist to take a look at it, he said that when they repaired the cuts, which were really oblique, so that the one edge was too thin to hold sutures, both times, the ER docs had pulled the skin around to get more meat to sew through, and the skin ended up stretched too tightly, causing the near end of the cuts to bunch up making the nodule, and torquing the joint with the end result being the arthritis.

The nodule eventually faded away, but that joint still complains, especially in the cold, and when I make a fist, the fingertip turns in under the middle fingertip.

Still and all, it beats being called Stubby

The fingers on my uncle Myron's right hand tapered diagonally from the distal/end joint of his right index finger in a straight line to the middle joint of his pinky finger, as a result of a minor lapse of judgement while cutting up limb wood with an old buzz saw (the kind run off a tractor PTO with a wide canvas belt).

He REALLY used to cuss on cold morrnings-I guess phantom limbs don't like the cold much either...

Sorry to blather on, but now for the non-hijacking thread related content:

Hey S219,

That finger is looking really good, especially for how short a time it has been! (Though, I'm sure it has felt like ages....)

Way to go!

But don't start overdoing just yet- or in the words of Han Solo: "Don't get cocky kid!!"

Thomas

 

[s219]

Yeah, I am amazed how fast it is healing -- which for a non-medical person like me is based on how the pain level and swelling has gone down, and how much better it looks. The body is pretty amazing at recovery sometimes.

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

The physical therapist has me doing some exercises every hour to start restoring flexibility and function to my hand (all the fingers have stiffened up and become hard to move).
.

I took a ladder ride 20 years ago and shattered the radial head in my right elbow into 5 or 6 pieces. A couple of surgeries and LOTS of Physical Therapy restored 98% of my functionality in that joint. About 10 years ago I tore a tendon from the upper arm bone in that same arm. Another surgery and a LOT of PT later, I have full functionality. Both times the surgeons were surprised at the extent of my recovery. I attribute it to my being dedicated to the Physical Therapy. It is tiring, painful, and boring, but is necessary for a full recovery.

It worked for me.

 

[JRobyn]

Hey Old Guy, welcome to TBN from Jackson County!

:welcome:

 

[PhysAssist]

I took a ladder ride 20 years ago and shattered the radial head in my right elbow into 5 or 6 pieces. A couple of surgeries and LOTS of Physical Therapy restored 98% of my functionality in that joint. About 10 years ago I tore a tendon from the upper arm bone in that same arm. Another surgery and a LOT of PT later, I have full functionality. Both times the surgeons were surprised at the extent of my recovery. I attribute it to my being dedicated to the Physical Therapy. It is tiring, painful, and boring, but is necessary for a full recovery.

It worked for me.

2++ on this post- PT is all of the above + essential- AS Is the doing the exercises at home too- the limited time you're there at PT is just to teach you what to do, and make sure that you're doing it right, the actual work gets done at home.

My goal at PT is always to exceed the % of recovery predictions of whoever did the predicting. [For my own benefit- also to protect against future injury.]

 

[Industrial Toys]

Sadly, the long term effects can come down to your luck at getting a good doctor at ER. I squashed a finger, cutting off the extreme tip a couple of years ago. I had built an implement with an unforseen pinch hazzard.

The doctor was mindfull of my queesiness, was thoughtfull of his course of action for my fingers future and was an expert. Maybe, most of all, he just really cared. How could a guy get so unlucky with the accident and be lucky enough to get such a doctor?

It was actually the first time, I have ever had freezing administered properly, so I felt no pain with the stitches.

I owe this man a debt of gratitude, and the injury has healed almost, to as good as new!

 

[Old Guy in Tenn]

2++ on this post- PT is all of the above + essential- AS Is the doing the exercises at home too- the limited time you're there at PT is just to teach you what to do, and make sure that you're doing it right, the actual work gets done at home.

My goal at PT is always to exceed the % of recovery predictions of whoever did the predicting. [For my own benefit- also to protect against future injury.]

Doctors declared my elbow to have 100% motion restored. I call it just 98% as it does not hyper-extend as far as the other.

Yep. Do the exercises all the time, not just when at PT. I spent a couple of months with an elastic (what PT folks called their big rubber bands) tied to the passenger arm rest in my truck. Did exercise while driving, holding the elastic while rotating arm to my stomach (and back). Would not be as effective for me today, however, as arm would hit my stomach much sooner : - )

 

[PhysAssist]

Doctors declared my elbow to have 100% motion restored. I call it just 98% as it does not hyper-extend as far as the other.

Yep. Do the exercises all the time, not just when at PT. I spent a couple of months with an elastic (what PT folks called their big rubber bands) tied to the passenger arm rest in my truck. Did exercise while driving, holding the elastic while rotating arm to my stomach (and back). Would not be as effective for me today, however, as arm would hit my stomach much sooner : - )

You and me both brother- and the recovery period of enforced inactivity didn't help with that much either.

Hard to be forced to sit around and not eat more- especially given all those food related shows on the idiot box.