What happened now?

WARNING:  There are images and descriptions that some viewers may find disturbing.  Please feel free to pass this entry if you are easily made queasy.

About one year ago, a member of our guild was working on a Bonnie Hunter mystery when she accidentally sliced her finger with her rotary cutter.  She had a nightmare recovery, but she is back quilting prolifically today.

You can see where this is going...

Just after Christmas, as I was working on a Bonnie Hunter mystery and trimming blocks with a brand new ergonomic rotary cutter I had received days earlier.

My non-dominant (left) index finger wandered off the edge of the ruler as I was slicing.  I headed up the edge of the ruler and right into my finger.  At the time, it didn't hurt, but I immediately realized I'd done something foolish.  I ran to my washroom with a concerned husband following close behind.  After bleeding through two bunches of gauze, I told him I needed to go to the hospital to have it looked at.

After a 5+ hour wait in the local emergency room, a wonderful emergency doctor came in to check out what I had done.  It was just my luck that not one, but two, ambulances had come in with victims of car accidents.  When it was my turn, I was fortunate to be immediately seen by the doctor.  He first numbed the finger and THAT was the worst part of the whole experience.  Once frozen, he had me sit in front of a sink and run the finger under water that was between lukewarm and slightly cook for 5-10 minutes.  This is KEY.  If you ever cut yourself with a rotary cutter, and I certainly hope you do NOT, those blades have an oil coating and fibers from the cloth we cut.  Flushing out the wound is key to having a chance of healing well.  He got out his suture kit, I joked about "I'll be the judge of your stitching skills sir" and he proceeded to put me back together with 5 stitches and a splint to stabilize the finger for a week.

Immediately after the stitches were completed in the hospital

For those who are curious, NO, I did not bleed on any of the fabric.

Here's what it looked like after a week when the stitches were taken out.  Another week and I was panicky as the seam was opening up.  In reality it was only the top layer or two that died off, the stitches had done their job to hold the deeper cut together.

 

Here it is now!

You can see where I had hit my fingernail, though it has start to grow out since this happened. I do have some nerve damage on the side of the my finger, but the tip is not too bad.  I am very, very lucky and grateful for the medical services I received.

Needless to say, when I shared this with my quilting friends, there was a run on ordering gloves to protect hands while working with rotary cutters.  Whether you use a protective glove or not, please remember that quilting is not supposed to be a blood sport.  Use caution and know when to stop of you are tired or feeling at all unwell.  Don't follow my lead on this on, please!