**Good cautionary tale** Don't let this happen to you -- blood & gore (Page 3 of 4)

Its not stupid to clean your chain or oil it while its "moving", it is beyond stupid to do it with the motor running and the bike in gear.  There is a reason the transmission has a neutral.

Great thread! Lots of good advice, too.I have patched up MORE THAN A FEW of you at the track. I agree w the trephining of the nail w a heated paperclip. if it happens at the track, I'll do it for a craft beer. If it takes more than steri strips to put things back together  I'm sending you to town... Some things I see a lot that need to change, tho...

1. Eye protection   I always have extra sets in the truck/ambulance. Ask the Diplomatic Immunity Mercedes guy where he got the yellow ones...
2. Ear protection   Use with ALL high pitched and loud noises. I have good hearing after 10 years w the USMC as a Navy Doc.
3. Gloves.   THey USUALLY help, unless you do something really stupid.. (like what we are doing isn't stupid enough)
4. Stop and THINK about what you are doing. Do you have the right tool? if not, someone else has one that you can break.

Now, roughly a month later, the wound has healed nicely.   There is a non-obvious scar, of course, but the doctor did a pretty good job of sewing it up.   The problem is the loss of feeling in the end joint of my index finger.   There is a tiny bit of feeling, but only on the top side (down to the base of the nail) and a little bit along the side that faces my thumb.

One big effect on my life is how it affects my typing.   Since I make my living at a keyboard, this is a big deal to me.   I now have to go much slower and must look at my fingers often -- exactly what my typing teacher told me to never do.   Otherwise, I hit either the wrong key or two keys at once: "r" and "t", "e" and "r", and so forth.   The command to exit my editor is Control-Z, and I often find the adjacent key in the file, right where I did the exit command.   Code doesn't compile too well with things like that.   

The other big effect is how much more careful I have become in my shop work.   I find myself thinking two or three times about what might go wrong.   This is good, and I hope the rest of you are now doing the same.   Please work safely.

Over time you should get most or all of the feeling back. If I recall correctly, myelinated nerve fibers can regenerate at about an inch a month but there are some factors that play into it. Lets hope for a quick recovery.

EMACS WAR!!

Maybe an ergo keyboard would help.  My Kinesis is awesome since the control key is hit by the thumb you can hit the "z" key with your pinky.

Obviously mine does not have the windows/apple key, just two control keys.  It ships with the extra key caps.

I should start one of these cautionary tale threads about how Lemons can (almost) ruin a marriage...

Don't let this happen to you, kids:

If you're lucky enough to get your wife interested enough to drive your Lemons car, put someone else on the radio spotter position. Apparently "@$&!%* Why don't you go faster!" isn't a supportive way to interact with a spouse.

Spank and I can help with the cautiinary marriage write up! Lol!

Update: fourth metacarpal on my right hand snapped... but the doc says he thinks it'll be healed enough top have a removable cast by the time of the race. Of course, now we're down a wrench turner for a car that is very yes apart. Going to have to be a bad patient and try to work one handed.

Never get cocky around power tools...

I'll have you know i even put on my safety glasses when drilling brass today.  BRASS!  I are safe.

Oh, Rae, I'm so sorry that you got hurt too.   My original post was to try and prevent more of these injuries.   While the work gloves might have saved you, the real cause was not paying attention to the tool and what you were doing.   That was my mistake too.   I won't make it again, and I know that you won't either.   We have learned.

THE PROBLEM IS THE PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T LEARNED FROM OUR INJURIES!

Please, people, think carefully about safety every time you pick up a tool.   Think about all the things that could go wrong, and protect yourself from them.   That flake of rust or speck of greasy dirt is just waiting for a chance to fall into your eye.   That drill is lusting for the taste of your blood.   Even your best wrench wants nothing better than to bust your knuckles against the frame.   Every tool you own will turn on you if you let it.   Please don't let it happen to you.   Think!

You know if you stop to think, you'll think to stop. And then I'd probably be watching TV instead of breaking bones trying to build something.

I should be good and careful for another decade or so now.

Here's a pic (hopefully) of my thumb a week after the incident.

https://www.dropbox.com/lightbox/home/Public