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My reloading accident [gross pics warning]

DUDE! ouch. I chopped off my right pinky top removing a drive shaft at work a few years ago. Pain? you betcha. If the pain isn't numbing, and they gave you perks, grind it up and put it into a glass of water before you take it. 5 minutes pain gone. every 3 hrs I was doing that just to keep the pain away.
 
Well,
2 days ago I removed 11 steri-strips and exposed quite a lot of blackened, dried blood.
I got sick of smelling the finger all day long and was wondering whether it was turning green yet.
There is still 1 strip on there holding the temporary nail over the nail bed. Overall the finger doesn't look half bad. Some strange skin patterns and it still smells funky but what can I do.

Feels better too.

I soaked my finger in sterile saline for 20 min before attempting to peel off the strips.
The strips started out pretty much black from the dried blood but after peeling, the blood seemed to coagulate to itself and separated from the strips making them look pretty darn clean. Removing the strips took almost 1.5 hours. I don't dare to think how quick it would have taken had I waited to do it at my appointment this Friday.

The one realization I have come to: Surgery and surgeons can really cause a lot of unnecessary damage. I picked these strips off my finger carefully and slowly. I caused very little pain to myself and thus didn't lead to any more swelling. I'm almost positive if I had a doctor do it, the strips would be off in 5 min and I'd leave the office bleeding and popping tylenol at home, taking another few days just to recover from the appointment. I wish I was able to do the finger surgery myself.


2pr5o3s.jpg


wk6bz4.jpg
 
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As others have said, "OUCH!" I once deprimed and resized the tip of my left index finger while reloading. It happened years ago. I've never repeated that mistake. I have, however, managed to discover new ways to cause minor injuries. [shocked]

Hope you heal well and quickly.
 
i would add some hydrogen peroxide to the "soaking" solution. [laugh]

nice gun [rofl]

at least its your pinky and NOT you index, middle finger or great toe!!!!
 
I feel your pain in regards to removing the steri-strips. When I cut off the tip of my left thumb, they applied gel foam to the area without any skin left. The stuff is basically foam that reacts somehow with the blood and creates an instant scab of sorts. Only problem being, after about a week I had to soak it in warm water and peroxide and remove the gel foam, which had healed into my finger a bit. Took me quite a while and wasn't the most comfortable experience, but far better than if the doc had done it. They are not very sensitive about the amount of pain they inflict upon you, and only seem to care about getting the job done. They never numbed my thumb at all while cleaning and bandaging it on my initial visit to the ER, and let me tell you having someone poke and prod the end of an appendage that is missing a large portion of the skin is not fun in any way. They did give me a shot of dilaudid in my rear, which helped after they were done messing with it. And then a day later the next doctor I saw told me I needed to turn in my pain killers as I didn't need them anymore, like he had a clue as to how bad it hurt. He was told very sternly to F off, and I requested to see someone else. Thankfully he was a bit more understanding.

I hope this heals soon, and you can stop dealing with all the BS associated with an injury like this. I know how bad it sucks, and it takes a while to go back to normal, which gets aggravating after a short time. You never realize how much just a finger can affect normal activities, until it happens.

Anyway, get better soon. I know it sucks, but it doesn't last forever.
 
I did attend a class today which involved 50-60 rounds to be fired. The finger did well. Couldn't grip the gun very well but I confirmed that I can safely do a one handed reload.
 
Isn't the pinky the strongest finger in gripping things? I was told this by my Aikido sensei and also a very good hand surgeon.


Kenny474 said:
...They did give me a shot of dilaudid in my rear, which helped after they were done messing with it....
Click to expand...

[laugh2][laugh2][rofl]
 
That still looks... interesting. How does it feel? Do you have full range of motion?

-Mike
 
drgrant said:
That still looks... interesting. How does it feel? Do you have full range of motion?

-Mike
Click to expand...

I still can't close a full fist without a little extra effort but I think it'll just come with a bit of time using it more.
I can do everything except give something a solid grip...and I have to be careful I don't rip off the temporary nail that's on there.
 
Did you sack the Dillon for a LnL yet? I have to say that the digit looks a hole lot better than it did before.
 
its been over 65 days now, but im new here, and I just wanted to say I thank you for the warnings and pictures and I hope your feeling better and a new nail has started back and your ok...

Good luck

Mike
 

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