Last Saturday was a beautiful sunny day for cleaning my car and doing yard work. Strider is always happy to run around the backyard while I walked around with the lawn mower, weed whacker, and hedge trimmer.
We have some wisteria that grows like crazy when springtime hits, and it's a lot of work to trim them as they're tall and grow in all directions. I used to have a gardener to help with the trimming, but money's tight, and I can use the exercise anyways!
By the end of my trimming job I had to pull some branches down as I hold my trimmer high and get that last few branches. A branch snapped and the hedge trimmer came swinging down. I switched off the trimmer and by reflex my left hand tried to stop the fall of the trimmer so it doesn't hit the floor, or my leg.
Next thing I know was me looking at my hand that is now stuck by the hedge trimmer's blades. Turns out the trimmer was still cycling after power down, and two of the teeth cut into my index and middle fingers. The teeth didn't cut all the way through, squeezing some of the meat of my fingers in between, and I can't pull my fingers free from the trimmer.
My mind was racing at a mile a minute, and the thought of visiting the ER with a 24 inch trimmer stuck on my left hand is not a story I want to tell. I dashed straight for the garage, and lucky for me the garage door was still opened after the car wash. I stumbled to grab a pair of pliers, and I proceeded to lift the teeth on the trimmer and free my fingers one by one as I painted the driveway red. Two strips of paper towels later and the bleeding finally slowed down.
After a 3 hour party at the ER, I've earned 6 stitches and a bag of party favors for keeping my fingers looking like cucumbers.
The stitches takes 12 days to remove, and in the first few days I need to keep it elevated to keep the pain down. I now hold my fingers up as I walk around so I look like Dr Strange casting spells all day. Worst of all I can't type with most of my left hand so my WPM had been halved. There might be some delay in bug fixes while my fingers heal, so apologies in advance.
For those who don't mind looking at nasty stuff, here's my first attempt as a hand model:
Click here to see the stitches
