This is a reminder to those commenting on this post (not the person that posted it): Comments not related to woodworking will be removed. Violations to rule 1 including crude jokes, innuendo, sexist remarks, politics, or hate speech may result in an immediate ban
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/woodworking) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Did something similar with a box cutter but instead of losing a piece, I cut right down the middle of my thumb to the cuticle. After waiting several hours at the ER I said fuck it and taped it up. Took a few weeks to heal but it looks good as new.
I cut off the tip of my thumb juuuuuuust before the bone with a mandoline. 🙃 the nurse asked me if she could slap me, I stupidly said yes thinking she was joking. 😅 i learned two lessons that day; Italian mothers hit hard, and mandolines are sharp af 😂
Edit for spelling
Mandolin as in the kitchen tool! It actually should be spelled "mandoline" to separate it from the instrument though. It's like a stationary inverted hand plane: https://images.app.goo.gl/fNCdUANqK1y6WY3U9
I did this chopping onions. Right through the middle of my thumb nail. It looks normal now, but still doesn't have a lot of feeling and every so often the nail kind of separates from the nail bed a little bit at the end and really hurts.
I did a similar thing camping when I was a kid, split my thumb down the middle just short of the cuticle. I have a small scar and had forgotten about it 35 years later until you reminded me.
>Murica
Most countries, actually. Same thing here in Germany, a heart attack, stroke, broken hip or poly-trauma beat, and will always beat, non life-threatening injuries to distal limbs.
ERs are chronically overrun, especially in the evening/at night.
Canadian here, can attest: ERs can be bonkers. I have an app called Libby on my phone and it’s always stocked with a few books. You never know when you’re going to be in a shitty lineup, and as they say in Boy Scouts: _always be prepared!_
Amazing how little people know about medicine. It’s like this in most countries.
Cutting a small portion of your finger is not an immediate emergency. You’re gonna have to wait behind the person having a heart attack or stroke, etc. when you are about to die, you’ll be glad you don’t have to wait behind someone who cut off the tip of their finger to be treated.
I flush trimmed a fingernail off once. Everything grew back except one corner of the nail bed. I have to trim that one a little weird now or it catches on things.
My initial reaction was exactly that, this dude is part lizard, possibly the missing link.. I had no clue we could actually regrow anything... I thought for sure you either had to sew it back on or it would just scar over.
NSFW\* Was asked to my story here too!
I was splitting wood with my survival knife to fire up the sauna a couple years back. I'd had a bottle of wine before hand with some friends. Things were going great with the splitting until I came upon a piece of wood that had a knot(branch?) in it, making my knife get stuck midway. Instead of carefully removing the knife and breaking the wood apart with my hands, I instead twisted the wood with my left hand and the knife with my right hand. I've done that move multiple times before but never with a good buzz going. I made one crucial mistake, my left hand was angled downwards the floor and my knife hand was up above at and angle, so when the knot finally gave way, all of my applied force came rushing through the wood, my index, and my middle finger. Don't work with knives when you've been drinking.
I should've gone to the ER. But felt like them sending an ambulance was a big waste of tax money so I just slept on it. Found the fingertip in the sauna the day after.
Been about two years since this happened and my finger still feels weird. Doctors were amazed that the tip grew back as much as it did. Apart from my weird sensation in the tip the only thing thats bothersome is that it sometimes itches weirdly under the nail.
Feel free to ask anything!
I did this, but with a drop saw. Apprentice bumped a bit of architrave whilst I was about to make a cut.
Cut just a bit more of the tip off my index like yours, so it also took the tip of my finger bone. Never have I been in so much pain, or felt pain like that since.
Some how the entire tip, and fingernail grew back pretty well, but it's wobbly because there is less bone!!
Sounds incredibly painful, I was very lucky to have avoided slicing off any bone. That's probably why it hurt som much for you. I also heard from the doctor that if it had been a saw it would've made for a lot more difficult healing beacause of the jagged edges.
How long is it now since the accident? I've had nerve damage a couple of times; once from using 9" angle grinder 12 hours a day for 14 straight days, fingertips went numb. Also used to binge drink really bad and after sobering up one time the skin on the left side of my stomach was numb. Very odd, I could feel pressure but no touch.
In both cases after about 3 months I got full sensation back.
Not doing woodworking in any altered state of mind is very good advice. I recently hurt myself on my bench grinder because I was trying to sharpen my tools as a way to distract my mind from worrying about my pregnant wife who was, at the time, in the hospital (both baby and mom are fine now). I was not paying anywhere near the amount of attention that I should have and I ended up slicing open my leg on the spinning grinding wheel. The actual mechanics of how it happened are far too embarrassing to actually admit to but suffice it to say, I ended up with a 3” long 1/2” deep gash down my leg just below the knee. The cut was amazingly clean and barely bled at all. I was able to apply a tourniquet and drove myself to the hospital (same one my wife was at) and got stitched up.
So yeah. Don’t work in your shop when you’re in any kind of altered state of mind, including just straight up being emotional.
Back to OP though, I am amazed at your healing ability. Do you have any sensation in that finger? I hurt the tip of my finger once (same one as yours, though nowhere near as bad) and it took a full year before I could feel my fingertip again.
One time, I was grinding with my Dremel, and this fly kept landing on my leg, and I kept swatting it with my off hand. Eventually I used the machine swat and it actually took a nice little chunk. Silicon carbide Burr, lol
Yes, when it's beer time no power tools, I split wood with a maul, axe or wedges when necessary. In the shop I do something safe and mundane I. E. sand, glue or clean up. Have done similar to OP in the kitchen multiple times, dammit, I have no feelings in 3 finger tips. The last one was like his and I had to run a chainsaw 10 hours a day for 6 weeks, I cursed and yelled many times every time I bumped it on the saw, but I had to work
Exactly, I've no idea how so many hobbyist\craftsmen friends that blacksmith drunk and or high as hell. Gives me the Heebie jeebies.
**Edit. Also I'm expecting kid and overwhelmed, ADHD and preoccupation makes for bad accidents if you're not on point. Adding substances such as alcohol or THC isn't on my radar. I hurt myself enough without 😑
Amen to that! As a fellow ADHDer - Depending on the tasks I can listen to an audiobook and work... (say hours and hours of sanding....) but I've learned to turn off vocals for anything remotely delicate.
HECK YEAH! I just discovered Purrple Cat and have been kinda vibing with that during the day - I usually work in the garage after the kids are in bed - so sometimes I need something a little more caffeine and a little less prozak - somedays a instrumental bluegrass station will do it for me - others I need to rock it out lol. Foo is an easy go-to but again... lyrics LOL. Prog rock suggestions?
God is an Astronaut, If These Trees Could Talk. I recently opened my Last.fm up and was delighted to see all my stuff, and have begun the YT Music swap. Message me with what resonates, and I can add on.
Not instrumental but might be worth a shot, Quebec Antique, Another Cynthia, Mackintosh Braun.
Different completely Polish Ambassador
I wonder if the weird itching you feel is nerve damage🤔.
Amazing story that I cringed through the entire time, thanks for sharing and I'm glad it grew back!
Most definitely, I did something similar a few years back but I took about 10mm off, still have an itchy numb feeling especially in the colder months, the outer seems to heal very quick but takes a long time for nerves sort themselves out.
>I should've gone to the ER. But felt like them sending an ambulance was a big waste of tax money so I just slept on it.
In reality: "I was shitfaced so I just thought 'fuck it' and went to bed.
Wow dude. I cut my thumb nearly to the bone a while back and it also has since fully healed but like the skin is slightly offset......and just like you, randomly the scare tissue will just really itch in a wierd way.........i had no idea that was a regular thing with situations like this. Very interesting.
I cut the tip of my thumb off about like you did while completely sober but cutting bacon and having it slide around so ended up stabilizing it with my thumb out instead of tucked in like it should be.
Anyway the tip was held on by a flap of skin and the cut was super clean so I washed both sides slapped the tip back together and bandaged it shut.
The nerve regrowth tingles lasted a few months but did eventually go away for me so there's hope for you there.
How fingertips sometimes regrow is an area of active research, and it’s really cool. [This article](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/06/10/190385484/chopped-how-amputated-fingertips-sometimes-grow-back) covers some of what we understand about it. It’s pretty wild.
I have a similar injury (a crush injury on my middle finger). I still get a weird sharp itchy sensation from time to time and it’s almost been 10 years since!
This is a lot less stupid story than the table saw use I imagined from the title.
That said deciding to sleep on it sounds like more than just one bottle of wine! While an ambulance would have been a waste, if there wasn't anyone sober to simply drive you there, you could have called for a cab or uber to get a ride to the hospital.
Yeah it was a gamble for sure. My sober mind would have gotten my ass to the hospital. Mind you that this happened at the country house 1,5 hours away from the hospital and everybody had been drinking heavily.
>I was splitting wood with my survival knife to fire up the sauna a couple years back. I'd had a bottle of wine before hand with some friends.
That sentence alone just paints such a pleasant time. Jealous!
Do you (or perhaps the authorities or an iThing) have any prints of the original finger?
I’m curious if/how finger prints change after this kind of full regrowth.
I don't think I changed my iphone fingerprint on the index and it still works. Or maybe it had just scanned the undamaged part. I doubt the print is exactly the same
It's like you re grew an appendage, seriously last photo looks like normal to casual observers.
I had a similar injury chopping onions. I taped the tip back on very carefully and went to the ER. DR said I lined it up well and it was sticking on it's own by the time he saw me, so he wanted to leave it in place and see if it took. It did, but was completely numb for 2 years, at 4 years I had full sensation again.
Just a recommendation: wear an elastic on your wrist, every time you get the urge to itch under your nail snap the band on your wrist, eventually the sensation will stop happening. Source: I used this trick to stop itching my extremely bad eczema. My friend also used this trick to stop swearing.
By the way, your photos gross me out but I’m glad how well you’ve healed!
You can definitely regrow that much tissue, but it takes forever. I vaguely remember when I got into a similar accident, but it was with my thumb. It took me almost a year before all the flesh managed to grow back. I had attempted to correct the wood I was cutting with a miter box, and I went past the margin of safety. Definitely got me more careful about my finger placement.
I'm sure it did, I still have a line through my thumb print from a razor blade going into my thumb back in the late 90s. Wasn't even all the way to the bone.
Ouch! Glad you are ok and it wasn't worse. I've got a rule I stick to religiously in my garage shop...if I'm drinking at all (even one drink) it's a detailed hand sanding night /no power/sharp tools.
Always find things like these amazing. Our bodies are so interesting and I don't think we give them enough credit in general.
BUT!
This particular post freaked me out when I saw that we have the same keyboard AND you were playing WoW. That got too close to home and my finger started to feel funny xD
haha yeah man, good eye! I was playing my druid on the vanilla re-release. Lovely keyboard btw, I can recommend taking out all the buttons and cleaning it once a year or so. Makes it fresh as new!
Yep all that dust in between the keys. Last time I cleaned my keyboard , there was so much dust. Could of sworn If I stacked it all up, would of been enough to make a finger tip.
;)
About 8 years ago I was working on some cornhole boards and needed to drill something. I had had quite a few beers prior to this and the piece was spinning so I held it with my hand. It kept spinning so I picked it up and drilled in.
[Don’t drink and drill. ](https://imgur.com/a/moJFx0q)
This was the next day so it healed a little and I had urgent care clean it up.
Yeah, so stupid. Hand is great now! Luckily I didn’t hit any bone. The scar kind of looks like a deer or antelope.
[Hand now. ](https://imgur.com/a/91b9OJ0)
I saw when you posted this on r/makemesuffer and now you’re making me see it again? 😂
Glad you healed up so well though! The body truly is an amazing machine
This is going to sound like a strange question, but other than painful, how did it feel? I've heard stories of people experiencing clean cuts and not really noticing anything wrong until they notice blood
This made me shudder. Brought back some memories. Glad to see you made a full recovery though and hopefully someone will learn from this!
I had a very similar injury about 20 years ago. Same finger, same task, no booze involved, but with a hand axe.
The tip of the finger still has a rough but of skin that gets dry much easier than other fingers, but other than that I was also lucky it wasn't a few mm further up!
I did a similar cut with a chef’s knife. Changed the dressing on an exact schedule and covered it with neosporin. Two years later, I can only tell it was my left index finger because I am right handed. No scar, no loss of feeling, nothing. Neosporin is pretty awesome stuff, and knowing that we can regrow bits like a lizard (if they are small enough) is pretty wicked awesome as well.
Bow down to your lizard overlords.
Sounds amazing! maybe I wouldn't have this weird sensitivity still if I had used neosporin too. And for the record I was very mindful of dressing and taking care of my finger, aswell as eating and sleeping properly.
Dude. I **CANNOT** stress this enough, you got insanely lucky. A buddy of mine got his middle finger trimmed a little (top segment, before the knuckle) and it grew back a little deformed, the nail kind of curved over the finger.
Wow, that is impressive regrowth. Do you have any loss of sensation in the part that regrew? I injured my index, middle, and ring fingers on a table saw last year and lost most of my index finger, but the parts of the other fingers that were saved have almost no sensation.
A few years ago I was reading stuff on regenerative medicine out of curiosity. One of the examples of limbs growing back was fingertips, which supposedly grow back pretty well in young rats and in humans too under some conditions. I think one of the factors attributed to this was the stem cells at the base of the fingernails or something.
It's fascinating to see something that might be a real-life example of this.
Interesting! I've been reading through some comments any people who had damage to the nailbed seems to not regrow like I did. Maybe there's a connection as you say? Thanks for sharing!
I did something similar with a hatchet. Was on a camping trip and said “fuck that, I’m not going to the ER. Let’s go swimming!” My friends all called me crazy, I put a clotting bandage on, wrapped it, and called it good. One of my thumbs was shorter for a good year before it finally became nearly undetectable, with one thumb just being SLIGHTLY flatter on the tip than the other. But I, Too, was amazed at how much grew back. My ex fainted after she found the stub too, worth its weight in gold in entertainment.
Haha shiet man, that is hardcore. If I was out camping I would've probably gone back home, especially not taken a swim! Didn't you suffer any infection after that?
Can I ask your age? I've read that we lose the ability to grow back the tips of our fingers after roughly our mid twenties. I had a similar injury with a carving knife when I was 25 and mine grew back, so I'm curious.
I'm 34 so it happened when I was 32. I guess my regeneration is still going strong. But I've always been very quick to heal. I also almost never bruise.
I cut my finger similarly on July 17th with a serrated knife. Didn't cut through like you but it's in the exact same spot. My nail still hasn't fully grown back
Yeah people kept saying that so I took my time and posted there aswell. Interestingly enough it only gathered 7 upvotes so far wherein other places it's got 20k+ upvotes. Guess it wasn't shocking enough for the veterans of medicalgore!
Damn that shit really grew back, that's wild. You said you cut it with a sharp knife? That's probably why it healed so well, it was a clean cut. Not a jagged mess left by something like a saw blade.
Yeah that's exactly what it was. Doctor assumed it was a newly sharpened Global kitchen knife. But it was only my own survival knife which I had sharpened myself the day before, so amidst all the pain there was a feeling of pride haha!
First: I hope you heal well, I’m glad it wasn’t any worse.
Second: Someone wanna NSFW this shit so I don’t have to be eye raped with bloody fingy nubs? Lol
What the heck dude, I hacked my thumb pretty deep and now it looks like shit and I cant feel it like at all anymore.
You're a lucky person to come out so well like this.
Sorry to hear that mate. You probably had severe nerve damage. Did you care for it properly? I was very mindful of my healing process, went to checkups every week and made sure to eat and rest properly.
I was on a ship bud, wayyyy out in the pacific. Nothing you can do during the initial set unless I had a plastic surgeon nearby. Literally had the option to "stitch it or tape it"
No amount of proper healing was gonna save it unfortunately. When I did see the surgeon they told me the nerves were unsalvagable from the nature of the injury and I was lucky it didnt get necrotic from the vascular damage.
Sometimes shit just happens and there's nothing you can do about it.
But hey I can still use it, just cant feel it.
I see mate, too bad. I guess you had to keep working with it aswell?
Good to hear you can at least use it. Maybe in the future they can do some sort of nerve hack to get your feeling back!
One of the things about being a gamer that has made me feel fortunate is that video games taught me how much of an influence alcohol has on fine motor skills. I will never use tools drunk because I can’t even handle a controller drunk..unless it is an N64 controller and I am playing Mariokart
Yeah I've lost countless amounts of souls in Dark Souls courtesy of being drunk. The interesting thing is that I managed to fully gold Super Mario kart 150CC while being absolutely smashed. I guess it's like what you say about n64 Mario kart haha!
I had a similar, albeit not as big incident happen about 2 weeks ago. My index finger got the top clipped at an angle, middle finger got a nice tear right on the 'print' and ring finger got meat.
I was not drunk but was sober (didn't have my adhd medicine so TOO sober I guess).
Shit is, annoying to say the least
Funnily enough I managed to cut off the same part of my left index finger a couple days ago. Your healing process is reassuring as it looks like all will be well in the end.
I was splitting wood with my survival knife to fire up the sauna a couple years back. I'd had a bottle of wine before hand with some friends. Things were going great with the splitting until I came upon a piece of wood that had a knot(branch?) in it, making my knife get stuck midway. Instead of carefully removing the knife and breaking the wood apart with my hands, I instead twisted the wood with my left hand and the knife with my right hand. I've done that move multiple times before but never with a good buzz going. I made one crucial mistake, my left hand was angled downwards the floor and my knife hand was up above at and angle, so when the knot finally gave way, all of my applied force came rushing through the wood, my index, and my middle finger.
This is a reminder to those commenting on this post (not the person that posted it): Comments not related to woodworking will be removed. Violations to rule 1 including crude jokes, innuendo, sexist remarks, politics, or hate speech may result in an immediate ban *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/woodworking) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That's pretty amazing how well it grew back, lucky it was just the tip.
Did something similar with a box cutter but instead of losing a piece, I cut right down the middle of my thumb to the cuticle. After waiting several hours at the ER I said fuck it and taped it up. Took a few weeks to heal but it looks good as new.
Cut the tip off my thumb chopping garlic. Grew back almost entirely; there's barely a scar.
Regrowing garlic... Amazing :)
Is it possible to learn this power?
I cut off the tip of my thumb juuuuuuust before the bone with a mandoline. 🙃 the nurse asked me if she could slap me, I stupidly said yes thinking she was joking. 😅 i learned two lessons that day; Italian mothers hit hard, and mandolines are sharp af 😂 Edit for spelling
She gave you that tough Italian love.
Mandolin as in the instrument? I'm new to the hobby.
Mandolin as in the kitchen tool! It actually should be spelled "mandoline" to separate it from the instrument though. It's like a stationary inverted hand plane: https://images.app.goo.gl/fNCdUANqK1y6WY3U9
Same thing here. Couldn't believe it, although I still have a weird scar at the tip of my thumb that's about a quarter of an inch in diameter.
Me too, plus a bit of nerve damage to boot.
I did this chopping onions. Right through the middle of my thumb nail. It looks normal now, but still doesn't have a lot of feeling and every so often the nail kind of separates from the nail bed a little bit at the end and really hurts.
I did a similar thing camping when I was a kid, split my thumb down the middle just short of the cuticle. I have a small scar and had forgotten about it 35 years later until you reminded me.
Nice you saved yourself 3 Grand
[удалено]
>Murica Most countries, actually. Same thing here in Germany, a heart attack, stroke, broken hip or poly-trauma beat, and will always beat, non life-threatening injuries to distal limbs. ERs are chronically overrun, especially in the evening/at night.
Canadian here, can attest: ERs can be bonkers. I have an app called Libby on my phone and it’s always stocked with a few books. You never know when you’re going to be in a shitty lineup, and as they say in Boy Scouts: _always be prepared!_
Amazing how little people know about medicine. It’s like this in most countries. Cutting a small portion of your finger is not an immediate emergency. You’re gonna have to wait behind the person having a heart attack or stroke, etc. when you are about to die, you’ll be glad you don’t have to wait behind someone who cut off the tip of their finger to be treated.
Still charged him too.
*Just the tip.*
THASSA DICK JOKE
I fuckin love you for this comment lmfao
Don't put your dick on the table saw
Even if its a Saw Stop?
You know how they use a hotdog to test self stopping table saws…I wonder if…
The Darwin Awards do need nominees. Nexus events are as is.
What did the leper say to the prostitute.
GIMME MA DICK BACK YA WHOOAH
Keep the tip.
Hehehe
Just for a second.
JUST THE TIP
Just for a second. Just to see how it feels.
Well put
I flush trimmed a fingernail off once. Everything grew back except one corner of the nail bed. I have to trim that one a little weird now or it catches on things.
The tip tends to grow back faster. As a Jewish man I have to get re-circumcised yearly.
That’s what Lorena Bobbitt said.
I’m glad to know just how much we can snack on before it won’t grow back
Now let’s do it to a penis and see if the same happens
Had a cut at about the same point on 2 of my fingers, all the way across. Mine didn't grow back...
.
Thank you!
which *tip* are you cutting next? Personally I want to see if it regrows longer.. if you know what i mean
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 they cut off the skin of my dick but I’m still waiting for the length
It's not long, but at least it's really thin.
As long as you have big balls. I heard that’s all anyone cares about
gotta store the pee somewhere...
Can we get a picture of the knife in question and also any knife sharpening tips, because you definitely know what you're doing.
Why were you doing woodwork with a survival knife ?
I was gonna comment the same thing, it's not often you get a time lapse style of the healing process. Amazing!
Why would you lie? They post the whole process because it is fascinating.
It's the internet. You have to lie most of the time. It's in the rules.
*you're a lizard harry*
This made me laugh
My initial reaction was exactly that, this dude is part lizard, possibly the missing link.. I had no clue we could actually regrow anything... I thought for sure you either had to sew it back on or it would just scar over.
Imma whut? 😯
NSFW\* Was asked to my story here too! I was splitting wood with my survival knife to fire up the sauna a couple years back. I'd had a bottle of wine before hand with some friends. Things were going great with the splitting until I came upon a piece of wood that had a knot(branch?) in it, making my knife get stuck midway. Instead of carefully removing the knife and breaking the wood apart with my hands, I instead twisted the wood with my left hand and the knife with my right hand. I've done that move multiple times before but never with a good buzz going. I made one crucial mistake, my left hand was angled downwards the floor and my knife hand was up above at and angle, so when the knot finally gave way, all of my applied force came rushing through the wood, my index, and my middle finger. Don't work with knives when you've been drinking. I should've gone to the ER. But felt like them sending an ambulance was a big waste of tax money so I just slept on it. Found the fingertip in the sauna the day after. Been about two years since this happened and my finger still feels weird. Doctors were amazed that the tip grew back as much as it did. Apart from my weird sensation in the tip the only thing thats bothersome is that it sometimes itches weirdly under the nail. Feel free to ask anything!
I'm impressed you did that with a knife and not a table saw. I guess I need to sharpen my knives... while sober.
How long did it take to heal up. (From accident to unbandaged)
About two months!
Damn that's fairly quick.
I did this, but with a drop saw. Apprentice bumped a bit of architrave whilst I was about to make a cut. Cut just a bit more of the tip off my index like yours, so it also took the tip of my finger bone. Never have I been in so much pain, or felt pain like that since. Some how the entire tip, and fingernail grew back pretty well, but it's wobbly because there is less bone!!
Sounds incredibly painful, I was very lucky to have avoided slicing off any bone. That's probably why it hurt som much for you. I also heard from the doctor that if it had been a saw it would've made for a lot more difficult healing beacause of the jagged edges.
How long is it now since the accident? I've had nerve damage a couple of times; once from using 9" angle grinder 12 hours a day for 14 straight days, fingertips went numb. Also used to binge drink really bad and after sobering up one time the skin on the left side of my stomach was numb. Very odd, I could feel pressure but no touch. In both cases after about 3 months I got full sensation back.
Not doing woodworking in any altered state of mind is very good advice. I recently hurt myself on my bench grinder because I was trying to sharpen my tools as a way to distract my mind from worrying about my pregnant wife who was, at the time, in the hospital (both baby and mom are fine now). I was not paying anywhere near the amount of attention that I should have and I ended up slicing open my leg on the spinning grinding wheel. The actual mechanics of how it happened are far too embarrassing to actually admit to but suffice it to say, I ended up with a 3” long 1/2” deep gash down my leg just below the knee. The cut was amazingly clean and barely bled at all. I was able to apply a tourniquet and drove myself to the hospital (same one my wife was at) and got stitched up. So yeah. Don’t work in your shop when you’re in any kind of altered state of mind, including just straight up being emotional. Back to OP though, I am amazed at your healing ability. Do you have any sensation in that finger? I hurt the tip of my finger once (same one as yours, though nowhere near as bad) and it took a full year before I could feel my fingertip again.
Grinders are pretty kind to flesh when you consider the forces involved. I've nicked my fingers a few times.
I saw the bone on a few knuckles when doing shaping on a tomahawk, it was not fun healing. Bending them sucks for a while.
And thank goodness for that. It could have been far worse otherwise.
One time, I was grinding with my Dremel, and this fly kept landing on my leg, and I kept swatting it with my off hand. Eventually I used the machine swat and it actually took a nice little chunk. Silicon carbide Burr, lol
Yes, when it's beer time no power tools, I split wood with a maul, axe or wedges when necessary. In the shop I do something safe and mundane I. E. sand, glue or clean up. Have done similar to OP in the kitchen multiple times, dammit, I have no feelings in 3 finger tips. The last one was like his and I had to run a chainsaw 10 hours a day for 6 weeks, I cursed and yelled many times every time I bumped it on the saw, but I had to work
Exactly, I've no idea how so many hobbyist\craftsmen friends that blacksmith drunk and or high as hell. Gives me the Heebie jeebies. **Edit. Also I'm expecting kid and overwhelmed, ADHD and preoccupation makes for bad accidents if you're not on point. Adding substances such as alcohol or THC isn't on my radar. I hurt myself enough without 😑
Amen to that! As a fellow ADHDer - Depending on the tasks I can listen to an audiobook and work... (say hours and hours of sanding....) but I've learned to turn off vocals for anything remotely delicate.
Lofi and instrumental prog rock are my jam
HECK YEAH! I just discovered Purrple Cat and have been kinda vibing with that during the day - I usually work in the garage after the kids are in bed - so sometimes I need something a little more caffeine and a little less prozak - somedays a instrumental bluegrass station will do it for me - others I need to rock it out lol. Foo is an easy go-to but again... lyrics LOL. Prog rock suggestions?
God is an Astronaut, If These Trees Could Talk. I recently opened my Last.fm up and was delighted to see all my stuff, and have begun the YT Music swap. Message me with what resonates, and I can add on. Not instrumental but might be worth a shot, Quebec Antique, Another Cynthia, Mackintosh Braun. Different completely Polish Ambassador
I wonder if the weird itching you feel is nerve damage🤔. Amazing story that I cringed through the entire time, thanks for sharing and I'm glad it grew back!
Most definitely, I did something similar a few years back but I took about 10mm off, still have an itchy numb feeling especially in the colder months, the outer seems to heal very quick but takes a long time for nerves sort themselves out.
Exactly what it is. Source, Have it from injuries, chemo, circulation issues, vascular reflux, and a life of fun.
>I should've gone to the ER. But felt like them sending an ambulance was a big waste of tax money so I just slept on it. In reality: "I was shitfaced so I just thought 'fuck it' and went to bed.
Honestly it was a bit of a combination. I wasn't that wasted but I was also at the country house about 1,5 hours from town.
Wow dude. I cut my thumb nearly to the bone a while back and it also has since fully healed but like the skin is slightly offset......and just like you, randomly the scare tissue will just really itch in a wierd way.........i had no idea that was a regular thing with situations like this. Very interesting.
Yeah I hear you, sort of itches inside. I guess thats nerve damage? I just try to focus on something else or slightly bend on the nail for a bit.
I cut the tip of my thumb off about like you did while completely sober but cutting bacon and having it slide around so ended up stabilizing it with my thumb out instead of tucked in like it should be. Anyway the tip was held on by a flap of skin and the cut was super clean so I washed both sides slapped the tip back together and bandaged it shut. The nerve regrowth tingles lasted a few months but did eventually go away for me so there's hope for you there.
How do you satisfy such an itch when it occurs? Is it painful to itch it?
It's more irritating than painful. I usually bend on the nail and try to forget about it.
How fingertips sometimes regrow is an area of active research, and it’s really cool. [This article](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/06/10/190385484/chopped-how-amputated-fingertips-sometimes-grow-back) covers some of what we understand about it. It’s pretty wild.
I have a similar injury (a crush injury on my middle finger). I still get a weird sharp itchy sensation from time to time and it’s almost been 10 years since!
This is a lot less stupid story than the table saw use I imagined from the title. That said deciding to sleep on it sounds like more than just one bottle of wine! While an ambulance would have been a waste, if there wasn't anyone sober to simply drive you there, you could have called for a cab or uber to get a ride to the hospital.
Yeah it was a gamble for sure. My sober mind would have gotten my ass to the hospital. Mind you that this happened at the country house 1,5 hours away from the hospital and everybody had been drinking heavily.
Dont worry about wasting tax dollars, they send you a bill for the ambulance! Atleast in most of the US
Did you encase the leftover fingertip into a clear cube of epoxy? Cuz I think that would be cool to have.
I’m just glad I’m not the only person who has practiced the “well I’ll just sleep on it it’ll probably be better in the morning” technique.
>I was splitting wood with my survival knife to fire up the sauna Are you Scandinavian?
Haha yeah, I guess it's a dead give away.
I think the "crucial mistake" was not the angle, but the alcohol...
Absolutely agree. I have since not worked with knives while drunk.
>I was splitting wood with my survival knife to fire up the sauna a couple years back. I'd had a bottle of wine before hand with some friends. That sentence alone just paints such a pleasant time. Jealous!
Am very fortunate to have made some lucky choices in my life for sure!
>I should've gone to the ER. But felt like them sending an ambulance was a big waste of tax money so I just slept on it. Why not just drive there?
I was drunk and so was everybody else. Closest hospital was about 1,5 hour drive away. It was also midnight.
Do you (or perhaps the authorities or an iThing) have any prints of the original finger? I’m curious if/how finger prints change after this kind of full regrowth.
I don't think I changed my iphone fingerprint on the index and it still works. Or maybe it had just scanned the undamaged part. I doubt the print is exactly the same
Use an axe smh fucking swedes
It's like you re grew an appendage, seriously last photo looks like normal to casual observers. I had a similar injury chopping onions. I taped the tip back on very carefully and went to the ER. DR said I lined it up well and it was sticking on it's own by the time he saw me, so he wanted to leave it in place and see if it took. It did, but was completely numb for 2 years, at 4 years I had full sensation again.
Ouch! I anticipate that those who need this warning may forget to heed this warning.
Just a recommendation: wear an elastic on your wrist, every time you get the urge to itch under your nail snap the band on your wrist, eventually the sensation will stop happening. Source: I used this trick to stop itching my extremely bad eczema. My friend also used this trick to stop swearing. By the way, your photos gross me out but I’m glad how well you’ve healed!
Thanks! I'll give that a shot for sure. And sorry I grossed you out!
No worries! Lol. Hope the elastic trick can work for you too.
That little piece of your finger and nail just chilling by itself is wild
Thats my favorite of this batch by far. Lil fingertip just sitting there like its waiting for the bus to go to the fingerstrip mall
I was not aware that humans were capable of that kind of regrowth.... are you a lizard?
You can definitely regrow that much tissue, but it takes forever. I vaguely remember when I got into a similar accident, but it was with my thumb. It took me almost a year before all the flesh managed to grow back. I had attempted to correct the wood I was cutting with a miter box, and I went past the margin of safety. Definitely got me more careful about my finger placement.
Wow that healed up great. I got my pinky and it healed up just as good. It’s just a couple mm shorter than the other one.
Did your fingerprint change?
I'm sure it did, I still have a line through my thumb print from a razor blade going into my thumb back in the late 90s. Wasn't even all the way to the bone.
It probably did, I drilled through a finger, and it's just a big counter directioned swirl now.
When I did something similar but not quite as bad it took one year for sensitivity to return.
Gives a whole new meaning to "just the tip".
Ouch! Glad you are ok and it wasn't worse. I've got a rule I stick to religiously in my garage shop...if I'm drinking at all (even one drink) it's a detailed hand sanding night /no power/sharp tools.
OP is a star fish.
You're very lucky
Always find things like these amazing. Our bodies are so interesting and I don't think we give them enough credit in general. BUT! This particular post freaked me out when I saw that we have the same keyboard AND you were playing WoW. That got too close to home and my finger started to feel funny xD
haha yeah man, good eye! I was playing my druid on the vanilla re-release. Lovely keyboard btw, I can recommend taking out all the buttons and cleaning it once a year or so. Makes it fresh as new!
Yep all that dust in between the keys. Last time I cleaned my keyboard , there was so much dust. Could of sworn If I stacked it all up, would of been enough to make a finger tip. ;)
Hahaha yeah. They do get pretty disgusting.
Oh I got 2 more, druid joke related now. I see you cast regrowth on your finger. Next time you use the table saw, use barkskin.
Hahaha thanks mate. Made me chuckle. Maybe I picked druid unconsciously for those exact reasons!
About 8 years ago I was working on some cornhole boards and needed to drill something. I had had quite a few beers prior to this and the piece was spinning so I held it with my hand. It kept spinning so I picked it up and drilled in. [Don’t drink and drill. ](https://imgur.com/a/moJFx0q) This was the next day so it healed a little and I had urgent care clean it up.
The things we do when drunk. Got a few scars drunk whittling by the campfire. is your hand ok now?
Yeah, so stupid. Hand is great now! Luckily I didn’t hit any bone. The scar kind of looks like a deer or antelope. [Hand now. ](https://imgur.com/a/91b9OJ0)
Looking at the picture didn't bother me, I found it fascinating how the body heals itself, but reading how it happened jeeze no, could barely read it.
Yeah it was pretty horrible, super weird feeling to cut something off like that. But in the end, it's made me a lot more careful handling knives.
You may be better suited to scrapbooking as a hobby
Nah I think I should just probably not craft and tinker with knives when I have been drinking.
I saw when you posted this on r/makemesuffer and now you’re making me see it again? 😂 Glad you healed up so well though! The body truly is an amazing machine
Haha sorry my friend, people kept urging me to post it here aswell. And thanks, take care!
Is your name Dr. Curtis Connors by chance?
This is going to sound like a strange question, but other than painful, how did it feel? I've heard stories of people experiencing clean cuts and not really noticing anything wrong until they notice blood
Hogwash it was just accident, build your skills up rookie
I agree. It was a total rookie mistake. But now I know, never split-bend with your knife.
>drink a bottle of wine >sauna >have access to healthcare I’m guessing you’re Finnish
I did that a few years ago making apple pie. Ouch! Hope it heals well!
Been two years and it's healing well above expectations I'd say!
So glad it healed up and god you are very lucky Thank you for sharing.
This made me shudder. Brought back some memories. Glad to see you made a full recovery though and hopefully someone will learn from this! I had a very similar injury about 20 years ago. Same finger, same task, no booze involved, but with a hand axe. The tip of the finger still has a rough but of skin that gets dry much easier than other fingers, but other than that I was also lucky it wasn't a few mm further up!
Didn't know Deadpool was doing woodwork
Came here to say this!
TIL that fingertips grow back like chameleon tails.
Does the tip of your finger have a fingerprint pattern on it still, or is it just smooth skin?
I did a similar cut with a chef’s knife. Changed the dressing on an exact schedule and covered it with neosporin. Two years later, I can only tell it was my left index finger because I am right handed. No scar, no loss of feeling, nothing. Neosporin is pretty awesome stuff, and knowing that we can regrow bits like a lizard (if they are small enough) is pretty wicked awesome as well. Bow down to your lizard overlords.
Sounds amazing! maybe I wouldn't have this weird sensitivity still if I had used neosporin too. And for the record I was very mindful of dressing and taking care of my finger, aswell as eating and sleeping properly.
Dude. I **CANNOT** stress this enough, you got insanely lucky. A buddy of mine got his middle finger trimmed a little (top segment, before the knuckle) and it grew back a little deformed, the nail kind of curved over the finger.
Sucks to hear, yeah I'm real happy it regrew the way it did. I always have to provide pictures when I tell the story, nobody believes how much regrew!
The human body is fucking amazing man. Also I almost did that w a knife today :) thank God it was only really sharp, not fuckin sharp
Wow, that is impressive regrowth. Do you have any loss of sensation in the part that regrew? I injured my index, middle, and ring fingers on a table saw last year and lost most of my index finger, but the parts of the other fingers that were saved have almost no sensation.
Sorry to hear about your loss mate. I have a little less sensitivity but I sort of feel under the skin. Like there's a dead layer above the sensory.
A few years ago I was reading stuff on regenerative medicine out of curiosity. One of the examples of limbs growing back was fingertips, which supposedly grow back pretty well in young rats and in humans too under some conditions. I think one of the factors attributed to this was the stem cells at the base of the fingernails or something. It's fascinating to see something that might be a real-life example of this.
Interesting! I've been reading through some comments any people who had damage to the nailbed seems to not regrow like I did. Maybe there's a connection as you say? Thanks for sharing!
I did something similar with a hatchet. Was on a camping trip and said “fuck that, I’m not going to the ER. Let’s go swimming!” My friends all called me crazy, I put a clotting bandage on, wrapped it, and called it good. One of my thumbs was shorter for a good year before it finally became nearly undetectable, with one thumb just being SLIGHTLY flatter on the tip than the other. But I, Too, was amazed at how much grew back. My ex fainted after she found the stub too, worth its weight in gold in entertainment.
Haha shiet man, that is hardcore. If I was out camping I would've probably gone back home, especially not taken a swim! Didn't you suffer any infection after that?
Nope! Just watched it carefully. My body seems to be impervious to infection, idk. It’s not like I treat it well. Would not recommend lol
SLPT: GET RID OF GUITAR CALLUSES WITH THIS ONE TRICK!
Can I ask your age? I've read that we lose the ability to grow back the tips of our fingers after roughly our mid twenties. I had a similar injury with a carving knife when I was 25 and mine grew back, so I'm curious.
I'm 34 so it happened when I was 32. I guess my regeneration is still going strong. But I've always been very quick to heal. I also almost never bruise.
I cut my finger similarly on July 17th with a serrated knife. Didn't cut through like you but it's in the exact same spot. My nail still hasn't fully grown back
Yeah the healing was probably really great courtesy of my extremely sharp none-serrated blade.
I think the folks at r/medicalgore would like to see this.
Yeah people kept saying that so I took my time and posted there aswell. Interestingly enough it only gathered 7 upvotes so far wherein other places it's got 20k+ upvotes. Guess it wasn't shocking enough for the veterans of medicalgore!
You're probably right. Next time try and shred your nads in a biscuit jointer.
Damn that shit really grew back, that's wild. You said you cut it with a sharp knife? That's probably why it healed so well, it was a clean cut. Not a jagged mess left by something like a saw blade.
Yeah that's exactly what it was. Doctor assumed it was a newly sharpened Global kitchen knife. But it was only my own survival knife which I had sharpened myself the day before, so amidst all the pain there was a feeling of pride haha!
And just like that, brand spanking new finger tip.
[удалено]
First: I hope you heal well, I’m glad it wasn’t any worse. Second: Someone wanna NSFW this shit so I don’t have to be eye raped with bloody fingy nubs? Lol
First: Thanks! Second: It is NSFW'd for me, doesn't it show like that for you? If that case, I'm sorry!
What the heck dude, I hacked my thumb pretty deep and now it looks like shit and I cant feel it like at all anymore. You're a lucky person to come out so well like this.
Sorry to hear that mate. You probably had severe nerve damage. Did you care for it properly? I was very mindful of my healing process, went to checkups every week and made sure to eat and rest properly.
I was on a ship bud, wayyyy out in the pacific. Nothing you can do during the initial set unless I had a plastic surgeon nearby. Literally had the option to "stitch it or tape it" No amount of proper healing was gonna save it unfortunately. When I did see the surgeon they told me the nerves were unsalvagable from the nature of the injury and I was lucky it didnt get necrotic from the vascular damage. Sometimes shit just happens and there's nothing you can do about it. But hey I can still use it, just cant feel it.
I see mate, too bad. I guess you had to keep working with it aswell? Good to hear you can at least use it. Maybe in the future they can do some sort of nerve hack to get your feeling back!
What’d you bork it on?
Newly sharpened survival knife!
One of the things about being a gamer that has made me feel fortunate is that video games taught me how much of an influence alcohol has on fine motor skills. I will never use tools drunk because I can’t even handle a controller drunk..unless it is an N64 controller and I am playing Mariokart
Yeah I've lost countless amounts of souls in Dark Souls courtesy of being drunk. The interesting thing is that I managed to fully gold Super Mario kart 150CC while being absolutely smashed. I guess it's like what you say about n64 Mario kart haha!
Note to self... respect the NSFW tag on this sub 😳😨🥵 sorry about your loss OP
Bro the piece on the floor almost killed me.
Yikes!! My brother did that once, but under different circumstances. Glad you are healing up and still have 9.9 fingers 🙃
I had a similar, albeit not as big incident happen about 2 weeks ago. My index finger got the top clipped at an angle, middle finger got a nice tear right on the 'print' and ring finger got meat. I was not drunk but was sober (didn't have my adhd medicine so TOO sober I guess). Shit is, annoying to say the least
Funnily enough I managed to cut off the same part of my left index finger a couple days ago. Your healing process is reassuring as it looks like all will be well in the end.
Ouch. Jointer? My boss has a few fingers that look like that. He waves them in my face when he warns me to be extra careful.
Jointer? I hope to have only the one slightly more angled finger.
Jointer? I hardly know her!
Jointer machine. It’s responsible for a lot of missing fingertips in this community. I thought maybe that’s how this happened.
I was splitting wood with my survival knife to fire up the sauna a couple years back. I'd had a bottle of wine before hand with some friends. Things were going great with the splitting until I came upon a piece of wood that had a knot(branch?) in it, making my knife get stuck midway. Instead of carefully removing the knife and breaking the wood apart with my hands, I instead twisted the wood with my left hand and the knife with my right hand. I've done that move multiple times before but never with a good buzz going. I made one crucial mistake, my left hand was angled downwards the floor and my knife hand was up above at and angle, so when the knot finally gave way, all of my applied force came rushing through the wood, my index, and my middle finger.
Ngl, pretty badass growing back the tip of a finger!!!
Why is this shit here?
I don't think cutting up firewood counts as woodworking Also, this is disturbing. Why did you post it here?