My first bone head move - router table accident

[tom]

Yep, ever since I sliced my thumb sharpening that drawknife, my wife put 911 on the speed dialer. It's now #38. Tom

[Andy Dingley]

How do you _know_ it's only a flesh cut?

You've stuck a marginally upholstered important finger bone too close to a whirling bone-chewing cutter. The likelihood of bone damage is high and the consequences of a finger injury are serious for future loss of dexterity. Now I'm not a radiographer and I've no idea if an X-ray would even tell you much more (maybe a local and simply poking at it closely is more informative) but this seems like the sort of thing that would get upgraded to a hospital visit.

Last time I went to hospital I'd only bruised my foot - but until we'd got an X-ray, it was entirely possible I had broken something (steel plate bounced off my toecap and hit the arch). Everyone was relieved that the "cheap" X-ray was adequate treatment for it and I could head home there and then without costing any more money.

Maybe it's because of the UK's excellent NHS and their cost structure. "Visiting" A&E doesn't carry a flat fee cost, it just costs what you actually use. A cheap visit in time saves money overall compared to even a small fraction that turn serious later on.

[Modat22]

Most Doctors could make an educated guess as to if the bone was damaged or not, The X-ray in most cases are taken to protect the doctor in a lawsuit.

[Charles Spitzer]

how would one get a sewing machine through a finger? :)

[Andy Dingley]

Pointy end first of course!

[Larry Jaques]

On Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:05:15 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Greg G. quickly quoth:

Right you are, Greg. Too many people die in those places, and far too many of those deaths are from things OTHER than what they went to the hospital for, too. (Want flesh-eating staph? YOu know where to go!)

Yeah, I survived a helluva lot worse stuff as a kid, wrapped a paper towel and a rubber band around it, and it healed in 2 weeks. No big.

No, I'm a unique and original Heinz 57, thanks. I simply saw that phrase on the wreck.metalheads group, thought it was funny, and added it to my sig file.

-- "Menja bé, caga fort!"

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 10:57:31 +0000, with neither quill nor qualm, Andy Dingley quickly quoth:

Um, common sense? Logical inspection of the wound? I guess that's hard for some people. We're all built differently. If I truly needed to, I'd do my own stitches with a needle and thread. I slit the last digit of my thumb in half once (dicing meat for Mom, nice freshly sharpened by me knife) cleaned it out, put some Bacitracin on it, and a good fabric bandaid over it. Two weeks later it was mostly healed. A doctor probably would have put 20 stitches in it but I can no longer tell which thumb it was by looking. No, I'm no macho fool, either. It didn't hurt much (that day) with a clean cut halfway through the nail and all. I laughed when I did it, showed Mom, and she almost fainted. (Yes, this was after I quit drinking, too. ;) Touching that thumb for the next weeks was NOT fun but I survived without a doctor. The human body is an amazingly self-repairing tool. (see sig)

If you can see/feel bone during the cleanout, yeah, probably. An x-ray would show missing pieces of bone or shattered bones, but not pick up much in the way of missing flesh. If your finger still works, you haven't severed a tendon. Why worry?

Otherwise, it seems an unnecessary expense and hassle. Missing pieces aren't repairable and cuts/breaks in the bone HURT LIKE HELL. You'll know when it's really time for a hospital or ER visit. 90% of things aren't.

ER work for that over hear would be in excess of $1,000. A doctor's visit with x-ray might be $90-100. In your case, yes, it sounds like a doctor's office or hospital visit was in order.

I bruised my foot once after slipping off a thong. (No, the type of shoe, not the bathing suit. That would have been a tongue bruise.) I couldn't walk the next day (that was my hint to get to the doctor) so had it x-rayed. It showed a possible crack in the last metatarsal. DAMN those bone pains hurt! A prescription for staying off it as much as possible and an order of Naprosyn (NSAID for bone pain) worked. I could walk on it the next day but was careful for a few weeks.

Perhaps it's quicker, cheaper, and MUCH less hassle over on that side of the pond. It's hellatiosly costly and tiresome here, especially for the uninsured.

-- The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. --Voltaire (1694-1778)

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- Medicine-free Website Development

[Larry Jaques]

On 1 Dec 2005 19:26:37 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, "tom" quickly quoth:

You need your wife to dial 911 for an ambulance to take you to the hospital for a thumb wound?!?

Why didn't she drive you to your doctor?

Damnfool 'murricans. I swear...

-- The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. --Voltaire (1694-1778)

--

- Medicine-free Website Development