oh, hey, i lost a finger...
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2014 1:57 pm
i know some of you saw this & commented on facebook back when it happened, but i thought i'd share a bit about everything that's happened.
here's the not-so-short version for anyone that isn't aware:
On August 9th, my wife & i drove to Kentucky to hang out with her brother Chris & his lovely wife Brittany. we were staying at a lake house that someone in Brittany's family owns. we had only been there maybe an hour...we headed out on a pontoon boat onto Nolin Lake. after cruising around a bit, we anchored in a little cove & were hanging out. They broke the news that they were having a baby. exciting! A short while later, i was getting into the water, and i was holding onto the railing to lower myself in. something felt very weird and awkward as i dropped into the water...i looked down & on my right hand, the pinky had been torn (mostly) off. in an adrenaline rush, i pulled myself back onto the boat & after a whirlwind 15 minutes, or so of cell phone calls, speeding back to the dock & running up to the house, the EMT's arrived.
There were no suitable facilities to deal with this sort of injury near where we were, so i settled in for the 1.5 hour drive to Louisville (yay morphine!).
I ended up having emergency surgery later that night. they had to take a skin flap from my third finger to save up to the first knuckle on my pinky. this also necessitated a second surgery a few weeks later (which we actually were not informed of until our follow up visit
) to separate the fingers.
recovery was surreal. i've never been seriously injured, or even particularly sick, so laying around for a month doped up on vicodin trying to keep my hand elevated was unfamiliar territory. i did confirm that all my friends & family are awesome, though - people stopped by all the time with food & booze & books & movies & well wishes. that aspect was nice.
now, it's 5 1/2 weeks later. the bandages are off. it's still a bit scabby & gnarly looking, but things are getting back to some semblance of normalcy (even band practice!).
i guess that's it for now...
here's the not-so-short version for anyone that isn't aware:
On August 9th, my wife & i drove to Kentucky to hang out with her brother Chris & his lovely wife Brittany. we were staying at a lake house that someone in Brittany's family owns. we had only been there maybe an hour...we headed out on a pontoon boat onto Nolin Lake. after cruising around a bit, we anchored in a little cove & were hanging out. They broke the news that they were having a baby. exciting! A short while later, i was getting into the water, and i was holding onto the railing to lower myself in. something felt very weird and awkward as i dropped into the water...i looked down & on my right hand, the pinky had been torn (mostly) off. in an adrenaline rush, i pulled myself back onto the boat & after a whirlwind 15 minutes, or so of cell phone calls, speeding back to the dock & running up to the house, the EMT's arrived.
There were no suitable facilities to deal with this sort of injury near where we were, so i settled in for the 1.5 hour drive to Louisville (yay morphine!).
I ended up having emergency surgery later that night. they had to take a skin flap from my third finger to save up to the first knuckle on my pinky. this also necessitated a second surgery a few weeks later (which we actually were not informed of until our follow up visit
) to separate the fingers.recovery was surreal. i've never been seriously injured, or even particularly sick, so laying around for a month doped up on vicodin trying to keep my hand elevated was unfamiliar territory. i did confirm that all my friends & family are awesome, though - people stopped by all the time with food & booze & books & movies & well wishes. that aspect was nice.
now, it's 5 1/2 weeks later. the bandages are off. it's still a bit scabby & gnarly looking, but things are getting back to some semblance of normalcy (even band practice!).
i guess that's it for now...
