Thursday, February 14, 2013

Yikes! Cut to the Bone !

So, without looking, I grabbed the wrong paring knife that was larger than the one I intended to use, and my sense of distance between the hand and the blade wasn't correct when I started using it, resulting the tip of the blade to slice my finger all the way to the bone... I might need to stitch it, but right now, I have to work. The blood keeps on gashing out like a fountain, so in order to keep working, I sealed the wound with layers of band aids and masking tapes and tin foil! (You see, it's on the middle finger, and you can imagine I'm having fun with it. *grin*) Well, although rare, injuries do happen in a bookbindery, and it's usually a burn or cut fingers, but this is the worst cut I've had since I stated working here. As for a burn, I remember one intern who was branded a word on her upper arm by a hot stamping machine! I don't remember what word it was, but I know it wasn't a cool word to be permanently branded on the arm. I hope it wasn't someone's name or anything! Yikes!

12 comments:

  1. Please, please, please, see a doctor! It would be horrible if any complications would happen to you.

    Your worried fan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I changed the band aids (and the tin foil!) yesterday and checked the wound. Though it looked still fresh and nasty, I think it'll heal without stitches if I keep it in the "cocoon" tightly. Hospital's expensive! I just gonna gamble on my immune system for now. I didn't lose my finger, and I don't think I harmed the nerve (thought I can still see the white bone from the opening!!), so I'm all good! My hand's my life, so if my hand's disable, my life's over! Whew, I really have to be careful with that steel. When things become a second nature, that's when we gotta be more careful..

      Right now, I can't work smoothly until it heals, so that's bothersome.

      Thanks for your sincere concern, Seraphic.

      Delete
  2. Hey, go to the hospital - if you haven't already! You don't want to lose your finger through neglecting it. I'm sure your boss would rather you took a couple of hours out to visit the Accident department, rather than days off to nurse a huge infection (and so would you?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your concern, Lizzie! In fact, my boss COMMANDED me to go home and take the rest of the day off, but I just wanted to finish what I was doing. And yeah, the infection is the most I'm worrying about now that I know I didn't cut the nerve. This "tin foil cocoon" thing's actually working to prevent germs from getting to the wound and also it's closing the cut tightly. So I'm just gonna be my own doctor for now! (I've got a good ol' hydrogen peroxide and masking tapes!)

      Ah, I sound like such a snob!

      Thanks again!

      Delete
  3. You manage to keep your sense of humor even in critical situations like this :) I hope you did go to the hospital and got some stitches. Ah, maybe you should make a tutorial one day on how to sharpen those paring knifes so well! My hands are also beaten up and full of scars from work but no danger of deep cuts with my poor sharpening skills.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your concern, Teo. My master and the intern nicknamed me "The Metal Finger". haha.

      Yeah, I try to keep my knives super sharp all the time. Nothing worse than a dull knife! I don't know what kind of paring knife you use and how you sharpen it, but it's not that complicated. I might write about that in the future.

      Delete
  4. Here, fellow binders, is some serious bookbinding devotion; "Hospital can wait, books cannot!"
    I once cut a slice of my finger (why do these darned things bleed that much really?)and the only thing I could think of in the first seconds was "Don't stain anything-Don't stain anything!" because I had 2 bindings in front of me.
    If "cut to the bone" however is not a poetic exaggeration I hope you went to check it soon enough. You might be able to get through the day's work but if not tended it might be somewhat uncomfortable to work in the days to come.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. EXACTLY! You understand me! That's THE first and only thing comes to my mind when things like an injury happens, "Protect the book". This particular injury happened away from my work, so I didn't need to worry about it. But a few years ago, when I was trimming back a part of marble endpaper of a book I was restoring, I realized that I placed my finger tip over the pass of the Exacto blade. In this particular situation, I couldn't move my finger without sifting the ruler which would result in imperfection on the work. SO, I took a deep breath, and sacrificed my fresh. I quickly moved away from the book in fear of the blood would ruin the book. Fortunately, it didn't slice too deep, so didn't bleed too much.

      People might call us "Stupid!", but hey, we are just being bookbinders!

      Delete
  5. Hi MHR,
    Oh your blood will be everywhere, scary!? Love your tutorials (actually I just finish a very small part, but the tone and flow is good, I hope that I am able to finish watching them all one day.)
    By the way, I love your icon on the top left corner too, it just gorgeous, I think this is a dream girl of every man. Ha Ha!

    Thanks for your humorous and take good care of your little innocent middle finger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I made a whole bunch of mess in the bathroom. It was like someone got killed in the sink!

      hummm, a dream girl, eh? Maybe, if I don't open my mouth, I can be. haha..

      Delete
  6. شفاك االله وارجو ان تكونى بخير

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :-) إصبعي بخير. شكرا لك على النظر.

      Delete