Uhhhh... yeah... eleven hours to get to Chicago. That's got to be some kind of record. I could have flown to frickin' Tokyo in less time. But that's the travel game now-a-days. To get a decent fare on anything but a simple round-trip, you're going to be shuffled around the country for a while. It sucks, but it is what it is. And, as if that wasn't enough, I just found out that I am not leaving on Sunday morning after all, but Monday instead. If I had known that, I would have stayed downtown instead of at the airport. But it's not like I can complain... I'll take an extra day in Chicago, no problem.
Meanwhile, back at my finger...
For anybody who cares, here's the story of what happened.
Thursday was massively busy because it was my last day home for a while. I had orders to get out. Work to finish. Clothes to wash. A suitcase to pack. And lots of little details to finish up. One of those details was printing, cutting, and laminating the lanyards for Davecago 3 and Dave Louis. The printing is done on my faithful Canon i960 printer. The cutting is done with a surgically-sharp X-ACTO blade.
You can see where this is going.
It was 11:30 at night and I was running on no sleep. I was a little disoriented because I was still getting used to my new glasses. Exhausted and unable to judge distance properly, I somehow managed to cut out all but two pages of badges. And then it happened. I was holding the ruler with my left hand and my middle finger slipped out past the edge. So when I pulled that impossibly sharp X-ACTO blade across it, I had sliced off the tip of my finger before I had even realized it.
Once the stab of pain hit, I looked down and saw a chunk of skin on my X-ACTO blade. But it was blood-free. Lucky me... I had just sliced the skin off!!
Or so I thought. Then I looked down at the ruler where my finger was and saw blood pouring out over the table.
And I do mean pouring.
As in gushing...
I ran to the bathroom to put a bandage on it. Which sounds easier than it actually is, because Band-Aid brand adhesive bandage strips are IMPOSSIBLE TO TEAR OPEN!! Especially one-handed. Meanwhile, my finger continues to gush blood into the sink. After finally opening the Band-Aid, I quickly find out that it won't stick to my mutilated finger. So I wrap it up in a wad of Kleenex and put pressure on it...
... then go back to finish cutting out the name badges.
Because I'm just that dedicated.
The Kleenex would get saturated after about 6 or 7 minutes, which means I'd have to stop and go replace it with a fresh wad of tissue. After five trips, I managed to finish cutting the last of the badges and get them laminated.
By then it was 1:00am and I'm deciding whether or not to go to the emergency room because the bleeding simply will not stop. Since I have to leave for the airport in four hours, I decided to try and get some sleep instead. So I wrap my finger in a massive ball of tissue, gauze, and Band-Aids... then tape a plastic bag around my hand and take a pain killer.
I manage to get a rough few hours of sleep until my alarm rings at 5:00. At which time I drag myself to the bathroom so I can unwrap the damage. Much to my surprise, the bleeding had stopped. Not wanting to disturb the clotting, I cut around it. I then squirt antibiotics on the mess and wrap it all up so I can head to the airport.
And now here I am in Chicago.
I finally managed to work up the courage to take a look at my finger and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. I've put photos in an extended entry so, if you're squeamish, you may want to skip the rest.
Now it's time to take some pills and get some sleep.
I hope.
Ewwww... gross!!
But also very cool. Isn't it nifty how the body can fix itself like this? Amazing...
It's weird how I can cut myself and bleed everywhere and not freak out... but the sight of somebody else gushing blood makes me squeamish and want to die.
Good night.
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Ewwww! It is gross. Glad it’s healing already though!
Holy crap! You really took a chunk off! I can’t stop cringing.
And isn’t it amazing how much your fingers can bleed? I cut three at once as a teenager – you would have thought I’d cut my hand off.
Oh my…you made my butt clench and NOT in a good way!
I hope it heals quickly.
Death?, the doctor, would like to know when your last Tetanus shot was.
I was reading and hit the dave toon, I got all sad ‘cus I thought that the toon WAS the finger picture. then I got all happy ‘cus you said photos behind the fold.
Now? I’m ill, thank you very much!
OWIE!
also? going to the ER would have been pointless. they would have told you to apply pressure. its not like they could have sewn the tip back on.
Oh, geez, Dave. Why didn’t you just shoot a video too? Although, I’m sure it couldn’t have topped the SNL skit where Dan Ackroyd played Julia Child having a kitchen accident: http://www.hulu.com/watch/3523/saturday-night-live-the-french-chef
Pretty
Eeeeewwww! Looks like a bad cut and lucky ya didn’t cut to the bone/blood vessel…yuck. I know what you mean by not liking seeing other people bleed but it’s ok if it is yourself. I’ve had to develop a thick skin/or stomach as now I’m in health care and see the blood and puke and other yucky stuff.
Anyway, hope your Chicago and other trips go great. Get some rest will ya?
Oh Dave. Your poor poor finger.
Although I must say that’s not as bad as I was envisioning. At least it looks like it’ll heal relatively fast. That’s a good thing right?
Ouch, last time I stuck an X-Acto blade into myself I needed four stitches in my hand.
Even tonight I was cleaning some tape residue off a knife and stuck the point in my thumb. We shouldn’t be allowed around sharp objects.
Now where did I put that nail gun?
Oooh who gets the lanyard with Dave blood on it? Now that would be some souvenir! 😉
It’s hard to type with a sore finger isn’t it?
Cheers
Charlie
omg omg omg
If you would have gone to the ER they would have cauterized it. (With novacaine, of course)
I’m sorry it happened and even sorrier that I just HAD to look.
I cut my finger like that once, but I was slicing onions. It hurt to type for awhile, but it healed and now I only have a tiny little scar.
And that is the reason why you don’t have children.
Oh my that looks quite nasty! Please do take care…
Well, that was disgusting to see at 6:40 am. Now I’m having sympathy pains!
I hope the folks attending Davecago really appreciate all the blood, sweat, and possibly tears that went into the making of their lanyards.
Also, might I suggest Band-Aids already saturated with antibiotics? The J&J brand of Band-Aids has 10,000 units of Polymyxin B Sulfate and Bacitracin Zinc 500 in a special (their words directly off the box) petrolatum base.
They are very soothing to the cut too.
Keep it clean. And if you put enough bandages on it so it looks as though you are flipping people off, that would be cool too.
Oh, darlin’. You’re right, it doesn’t look bad now, but I’m sure at that moment, with the blood everywhere, it was pretty horrible. Try to have fun in Chicago!
Holy Cr*p!
Don’t worry, it’ll grow back… 😉
Oh, jeez, Dave! You poor thing.
I don’t know if you have time, or even care, but Beatlefest is at one of the airport-area hotels this weekend. I don’t know any of the details but one of my friends has been going for more than 30 years.
Anyway, let me know if you need me to do anything for Dave Louis. I hope you’re feeling better.
As we build props, I’m just waiting for one of us to slice off part of a finger with the jigsaw or dremel. That’s quite a chunk you cut off, too!
OK – get some more neosporin on that PRONTO! Will my badge be all covered in blood? Because that should totally up my Dave score by several points. I’ll feel just like Angelina Jolie with a vial of Billy Bob’s blood around my neck. Stay safe until tonight!
Whoa! That’s more than I thought it would be. You weren’t kidding about how much was missing! Glad it stopped bleeding for you.
OMG! That looks awful!
You know, we could have gone with the Hello, my name is…stickers, but then it wouldn’t have been a DaveEvent!
Is there blood on my lanyard? Eeeewwwww!
No more Guitar Hero for you.
That missing chunk of finger could be put up on eBay.
Wow Dave! That looks really bad 🙁 I hope it heals soon.
(I got my package yesterday – the cards turned out amazing! And of course, I am wearing the shirt today. Thanks!)
I did a similar thing to my thumb once, but it didn’t stop bleeding and I had to get stitches.
It looks like it is healing quite nicely!
Enjoy Davecago!
by the time that all heals up, i bet your finger is gonna look pretty rad.
Good God man! That’s horrible!
I hope you are healing.
oh no!! >__
mend quickly!!!
I remember in 5th grade I had broken my middle finger on my left hand. Much to my surprise, I never got in trouble for flipping everyone my splinted finger and saying, “See! I broke my finger!”
So now you can flip off all of Chicago and say, “See! This is what I think of you, Chicago! This is how dedicated I am!” *snort*
Could have been worse. You could have been naked and you could have done a John Bobbit…
I couldn’t look. I’m such a pussy.
yikes. I’m glad it’s not too bad. Take care of yourself, Dave.
It never fails to amaze me how much you do and on so little sleep. It’s like you are on the go 20 hours a day – do you EVER have any “down” time?
I’m so glad that your injury wasn’t worse than what it already is, given the blade you were using. I’m sure you don’t need the lecture you’d totally get from your mother about how “accidents happen when you’re not paying attention (due to non-sleep in this case) and yadah yadah” so I’ll spare you.
You’re welcome.
By the way, I’m the exact opposite. Blood and the like doesn’t freak me out when it comes to other people. And even though I donate blood on a regular basis as my blood type is the “Universal Donor” AND I have to have blood draws every 3 months to monitor a medical thing… it Never. Fails. to give me that “woozy, nauseous, I’m going to pass out RIGHT NOW” feeling if I happen to actually look and see the blood leaving my body.
Injuries and wounds-wise? The pain just pissses me off more than anything else. Try cutting the back of your leg on accident while shaving. Those bastard cuts HURT! But, I’m kind of a weenie when it comes to pain.
Which is why your stories always make me wanna cry a little. The ways you hurt yourself… it should be used as a prototype of some sort for future Tom and Jerry episodes. Also, possibly, The Road Runner.
Hope you feel better soon! 🙂
That made my toes curl.
I stabbed the end of my thumb with an exacto knife once. It gushed blood as well. I actually shook my hand for a second or two (which just sprayed the blood around the room). Thankfully someone had 3M suture adhesives so I just put those one it to seal up the gash after the bleeding settled down. It took a good two to three weeks for me to be able to use that hand again. Doing things one-handed was a lot of fun. Though I had a fair amount of experience since I had broke my wrist a couple of months before this.
Holy crap… I just passed out from merely IMAGINING all that loss of blood.
Ew. I’ve had that happen. Not pretty. It’ll grow back (sorta) but definitely not the same. The joys of the Xacto…
omg dave! that is seriously ouchie…in all my years of cutting stuff with razors I’m fortunate not to have cut myself so seriously. Although there was this time when I was bored and cutting up an eraser with scissors. As I held the eraser between my thumb and index finger, I brought the scissors closed on the flap of skin between the thumb and the hand. Needless to say it was a bit painful. But it healed up quite nicely…