Fingerless

*WARNING! PICTURES ON THIS POST ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC. NOT FOR THE WEAK!*

About a month ago, I got this real craving for Asian food. The Tyger and I had been watching Anthony Bordaine's travels on No Reservations through the Asian countries. I think this particular episode dealt with the country of Laos or Thailand. Anyway, watching him eat all those spicy noodle dishes gave me the hunger for some good Asian food. It's very difficult to find delicious Asian food in Atlanta unless you make it yourself. And even then you need to be able to know how to do it right. I decided to make Pad Thai for The Tyger and I that night for dinner to cure my craving for soft noodles and that sweet but spicy Thai sauce.

The Tyger arrived home from work as I was busy in the kitchen chopping away at vegetables. I had just sharpened the kitchen knife so that way I could get through all these vegetables much quicker. I'm chopping away at some green onion when all of a sudden a felt a sting and then saw blood on the cutting board. I thought to myself, "Oh I just probably cut my finger a little." I run left middle finger under some water and then noticed my nail was missing! "Oh my God! Where is my nail???" was the first thought that ran through my head.


All of a sudden, I'm in some seriously excruciating pain as I'm screaming and yelling with each throb of my finger. The Tyger comes running out and is like, "What happened???" I told her, "I cut part of my finger off!" The Tyger stands there and I can see her brain at work processing what I had just told her. "Umm..ok. What should we do?" She gets a paper towel and I wrap my finger up applying direct pressure. That's when she's asks, "Where is your finger?" We look over and see this little piece of skin and nail that looks almost like plastic sitting on the cutting board. It was freaky to say the least! This is where I begin to go white so I sat down on the couch as The Tyger is running back and forth around the apartment trying to figure out what to do. In the mean time, I'm in the worst pain you could ever imagine and in complete shock that part of my finger is gone! I decided against going to emergency as I figured there was nothing they could do anyway. The Tyger leaves to get gauze, bandages, and whatever else she thought I might need.

While she's gone I'm freaking out, in pain, and getting scared about cutting off part of my finger. I ended up calling my mom out of despair. I'm such a freaking baby! My phone conversation with her went something like this...

Me: Hi, Are you busy?
Mom: No, what's up?
Me: I'm not doing so well. I just had a really bad accident
Mom: What's wrong??
Me: I was in the kitchen chopping vegetables when all of a sudden I cut part of my finger off!
Mom: *silence*
Me: Hello??
Mom: Yeah I'm here. What do you mean you cut part of your finger off?
Me: I cut it off. It's gone!
Mom:Gone?
Me: Gone
Mom: Gone? *silence* ... Ok, so what do you mean "gone"?
Me: GONE!! As in "Not there any more!!!"
Mom: OH!!!!! Gone! Ok....

Geez! I guess it does take a while for people to process that kind of information. Even though my mom didn't have any real advice, talking to her did make me feel better in the sense I that knew I wasn't going to die! After what seemed like an hour, The Tyger comes back with enough gauze and bandages to wrap a leg! I take off the towel to see that after 40 minutes of direct pressure, the bleeding stopped. Looking at it almost made me faint as the Tyger and I wrapped it up and put it in a splint. Once it was wrapped up, the pain stopped and I went back into the kitchen and finished dinner.

The days and weeks after it were no fun though. For one thing, I never realized how many nerves we have on the tips of our fingers. Cutting just a corner of my finger off damaged the nerves obviously so any kind of touch to it put me in 20 minutes of throbbing pain each time. Also, keeping it clean was painful as well as I applied an astringent to it to keep it from getting infected. Neosporin became my best friend for two weeks! Taking a shower was a pain in the ass to say the least. My left hand was useless and I had to wear a glove anytime I took a shower. Washing my hair and body was tiring on my right side. My arm would get fatigued and I found myself having to frequently stop and rest. This is the one time I wish I had a boyfriend to help me in the shower! I also never realized how much you use your non-dominant hand for driving. It was hard to turn the steering wheel and my finger would continuously bump against the turn signal. It was annoying! Not to mention I had a finger splint on it for a little over 2 weeks making it looked like I was giving everyone "the finger!"

Eventually, it scabbed over and I took the band-aids off at night to keep it aired out. My finger has gotten better with each week as the skin cells replace themselves and the nail growing back. I find the human body amazing when it comes to healing. We may not be like lizards and starfish that can grow limbs back but our bodies can still do some amazing things! As of now, it's been about a month and you can't even tell I had cut part of it off. In fact, I'm now starting to see some of my fingerprints coming back. However, I still don't have any feeling at the tip of my finger. It's still kind of numb and tingly. I was told it would take maybe 2 months to get full feeling back.

Finger after one week

Finger after 2 weeks

The poor Tyger had to endure not only looking at my disgusting mutilated finger but put up with me whining about how much pain I was in and how I couldn't do certain things like take a damn shower! She is truly a good friend for putting up with me and my craziness!

The biggest advice I have for people is to KEEP YOUR FINGERS CURLED WHEN YOU CHOP! I was so stupid. I tell you, now I chop slow and I keep my fingers far away when I chop anything! The Tyger even got me one of those gadget choppers so I wouldn't be using the knife so much.

Oh well, lesson learned.