Slight Injury

Well I almost made it thru the demolition process without getting hurt. At first I thought it would just be the fact that I bent my thumb back catching one of the cabinets that was being pried off the wall. I happened to do it again in tossing the junk cabinets into the dumpster bag. But then came the real fun…

In order to get everything to fit in the bagster, I needed to bust up a bunch of the cabinets into separate boards. So that meant taking the little sledgehammer and giving them a good smack to get them apart. In doing this, there was one thin support board that was holding one piece together. After I hit it, it broke in two. Since I wanted it completely apart from the board it was attached to, I gave the hammer another swing at it. This time the hammer glanced off it since the board was now only partially connected. The result was my hand (the hand that was holding the sledge) flew into the jagged, splintered end of the support board. I felt the contact at first and didn’t think much of it until I saw the piece of wood that was sticking out of my finger. My hand must have hit a pointed shard of wood at the end of the broken support and went into the joint of my index finger. It hurt for a second but nothing more than banging my finger against something. Then I went to pull the piece out. The amount that was sticking out of my finger was only about an eighth of an inch or so (maybe slightly more). But the amount that was buried in my finger was a good half inch, if not longer. I was surprised that it didn’t go right to the bone. It actually may have because the tip/point of the piece was rolled over. I think I am lucky nothing broke off inside and that the whole piece came out rather smoothly.

At first I was surprised because it wasn’t bleeding and didn’t hurt at all. Then about 15-20 seconds later, it kicked in. First came the stinging pain, then the blood. At first it just trickled out, then it started in a steady, slow stream. So I grabbed a couple of paper towels, wrapped it tight and held it for about 15 minutes. This seemed to stop the bleeding for the most part. After I took the wrap off, it just sort of oozed very slowly. The pain had also pretty much gone away until I tried to move it. But then it came time to clean it out. First I dumped alcohol on it, and then used some q-tips soaked in peroxide. It stung, but I think I got it cleaned up enough to where it won’t be infected. I’d say I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but it hurts to move it.