Saturday, November 04, 2006

My Left Hand (not a sequel)

It was twelve years ago today that I fought with a woodsplitter and it won. A group of us were cutting and splitting wood to stock up for the winter. We had quite a system - two were cutting the logs with chainsaws, one guy was working the lever on the splitter and hubby and I were loading the splitter. We had been hard at it all morning. It happened so quick I'm not sure exactly what happened. What I remember was keeping my hand on the log until the wedge met the log - we had been doing that to keep it steady. The wedge hit a gnarly piece of red elm and the log popped up placing my hand between the splitter and the wood. I realized what was happening and I yelled. I yelled not because I was in pain, but rather to get the operator to pull back the wedge. I didn't really feel anything - just numb. I grabbed my hand and looked at John and said "Hospital, now!"

Long story short, ended up amputating the middle finger on my left hand. Rather than leaving a big gap, they also removed the knuckle and bone for the finger down to my wrist. It is not very noticable and most people can know me for quite a while before they realize I can only count to 9 with my fingers. I was typing 60 wpm again within a couple of months. Mom jokingly said "I raised my kids and sent them out into the world all in one piece and they come back missin' parts." :-)

5 comments:

richardSandwich said...

All I can think about is the Simpsons.
Sorry. :)

morealyera said...

I've heard about that before - how the body goes numb when something like that happens. I can't imagine how scary it must have been though!

And wow, 60 wpm within a few months? Knowing you, I guess I'm not surprised. ;)


Thanks for sharing your story!

Balou said...

I can't wait until I can tease the little ones in my family by telling them I'm part alien or I'm related to Mickey Mouse. :-)

Neeners said...

Wow. I couldn't even tell which finger was missing! Very impressed with the 60 wpm. I guess the only thing you're really missing is flipping someone off with both hands. :D

Balou said...

LOL! That's a running joke between hubby & I. I still have phantom pains and can feel the finger. I'll hold up my left fist at him and he knows I'm flipping him off with my phantom finger. ;) I can do it, but I'm the only one that knows what I'm doing.