10 till 5 and I was wrenching on a bike. In my rushing, I made a rookie mistake and didn't tighten the seat post enough.
Putting on the drive-side pedal, ssslllliiipppp, the seat post slipped out of the frame. SLICE, 1/4" long chainring tooth cut right into my hand.
I grabbed the bike with my left hand and let it go on the ground while observing the damage. No blood, but white, stringy "stuff" was in the shockingly large hole in my hand. Wiggling my fingers, the "stuff" was moving. I was really hoping it was just fat, and not tendon damage. Since I could still move my fingers without much resistance, I assumed the former was true. Could have been really bad. Went to the bathroom, cold water, lots of pressure. Didn't hurt THAT bad, so I tried to finish the bike I was building. I couldn't, so I told my manager that I had to go.
Let me tell you something fellas. Driving to the ER, in my manual truck, in rush hour traffic, is not a fun thing. Espically when you can't easily move your fingers. So I was shifting with my left hand, while rowing through 1st and 2nd trying to jockey lanes to get to the ER for some stitches. Goddamn, if I were in the Legacy, I'd have been having some real problems (what with the necessity to shift relatively quickly compared to the truck, as well as needing to shift a lot more often).
The cut is about the size of one of the crescent moons from Lucky Charms (same shape too). The tooth actually cut into the fat (that makes 3 cuts through the fat on my right hand), and the fat was bulging out of the cut slightly. The doctor stitched me up (to the tune of 2 standard lateral stitches, and one square stitch across the center of the cut) and sent me on my way.
Now, a 1/4" long by almost 1/4" across cut wouldn't have really bothered me, but it's the location that made it almost impossible to move my hand all weekend. Look at the knuckles for your index and middle fingers. The cut was right in the center of that, about 1cm down from the center line. That meant any movement of my index or middle fingers would put stress on the wound and open it back up, and any movement of the other fingers would pull the skin around the wound and hurt as well. I can't get it wet until tomorrow as per doctors orders, so that sucks
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I ve got so many scars on my hands, most from working on my car and a few from some incidents with a very sharp bagel knife.