Month 28
I was going to write to this blog on Thanksgiving weekend just to say that things were going well. My cold started petering out after 3 weeks or so. The coughing lessened a little each day and is now gone. The runny nose persisted a bit longer and still continues slightly, although I guess that could be allergies and not a cold. Also, I got more inoculations, including polio, tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis B, and influenza.
Anyway, things were going fine until Wednesday afternoon (Thanksgiving Eve) when I had a very unfortunate accident with a hydraulic log splitter that resulted in the loss of the ends of 2 fingers of my right hand. We had been splitting for a while and were within a couple of minutes of being done when I broke the cardinal rule of using such a machine which is to not put your fingers on the end of the log. I won’t go into details partly because I don’t like to relive it. Although we had the severed tips, reattachment was not an option mostly because it was only the ends of the fingers. They were severed at the first (most distal) knuckle of my index finger and a little above that on my middle finger. I went to see an orthopedic specialist yesterday and found out that I had not lost as much as much as I had thought for 6 days (I had thought it was about ½ inch more than is the case). He also said that the skin graft which had been done in the ER that night may be good enough so that another graft would not be required. That night in the ER, they sewed some skin from the severed tips onto the ends of the fingers and my memory of what I was told was that what they had done was just to protect the ends and keep them clean, and that another graft would be done with skin from the palm of my hand. It was good news to find out that might not be necessary.
The bottom line is that I will be fine. When I heal and recover, I will have to make a few adjustments (e.g. typing on a keyboard), but will not be greatly hampered for most things. In the meantime, it has been and will continue to some extent to be painful and very inconvenient.
Lesson for all – when using powerful tools of any kind (including non-physical), do not get careless enough to forget how much harm as well as good can be done with the tool.
Love,
Justin
Anyway, things were going fine until Wednesday afternoon (Thanksgiving Eve) when I had a very unfortunate accident with a hydraulic log splitter that resulted in the loss of the ends of 2 fingers of my right hand. We had been splitting for a while and were within a couple of minutes of being done when I broke the cardinal rule of using such a machine which is to not put your fingers on the end of the log. I won’t go into details partly because I don’t like to relive it. Although we had the severed tips, reattachment was not an option mostly because it was only the ends of the fingers. They were severed at the first (most distal) knuckle of my index finger and a little above that on my middle finger. I went to see an orthopedic specialist yesterday and found out that I had not lost as much as much as I had thought for 6 days (I had thought it was about ½ inch more than is the case). He also said that the skin graft which had been done in the ER that night may be good enough so that another graft would not be required. That night in the ER, they sewed some skin from the severed tips onto the ends of the fingers and my memory of what I was told was that what they had done was just to protect the ends and keep them clean, and that another graft would be done with skin from the palm of my hand. It was good news to find out that might not be necessary.
The bottom line is that I will be fine. When I heal and recover, I will have to make a few adjustments (e.g. typing on a keyboard), but will not be greatly hampered for most things. In the meantime, it has been and will continue to some extent to be painful and very inconvenient.
Lesson for all – when using powerful tools of any kind (including non-physical), do not get careless enough to forget how much harm as well as good can be done with the tool.
Love,
Justin
3 Comments:
Ahh, Justin. The constant challenges are... uhh,... constantly challenging, no?
Really, I feel for you, brother. And I love you.
Bruce
Dear Justin,
I grieve for your loss of a piece of your body. I suppose treatment could have been more difficult if you'd still be taking immune suppression drugs, so I'm glad you were past that stage.
Love,
Glenn
Dear Justin-
Your Aunt Shareen sends her love.
Merry Christmas to you all, from us all-
Max, Jane, John, Christian, Jim and Shareen
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