I got me one of those kitchen mandolines to cut veggies and things. Last week I decided to slice up some things to fry up. I ran through some squash, a carrot, and was slicing up an onion when I had a minor snafu. I was holding the onion with my fingertips and just thinking I should shift to the hand holder thing when I nicked the end of my right middle finger on the blades.
Yep, cleanly removed about a 1/4in deep slice right off the fingertip. Suddenly I’m bleeding.
I stuffed gauze on it and wrapped it up with tape. A bit later I went in to check it and realized I had a problem: I could pack gauze and stop the bleeding with pressure, but the scab formed would have the gauze embedded, and removing the bandage to change it would reopen the wound. :smack: I taped it up again because it was late at night and my car was having issues.
The next morning I dropped off my car at the shop, got a lift to work, then convinced a coworker to run me to a doctor’s office. He had just had his own snafu the night before with some tool use that sliced his finger up, so we both had an excuse to see the doc.
Of course they did exactly as I predicted and hoped to avoid - yanked the bandage off and the scab came with it. OUCH! He checked it over, basically told me there wasn’t any skin there to stitch (duh), and then showed me how to bandage it with nonstick pad (like on a bandaid, but larger). Duh! I didn’t think of that. Anyway, he numbed me up with a local, scrubbed up the fingertip end (still sensitive), then bandaged it and covered it with a finger splint to help protect from contact.
Then they updated my tetanus shot. I probably didn’t need it from this slice, but since it’s been over 10 years I figured it was worth it.
So the techinque of using some non-stick pad layer to cover has helped a lot. It still hasn’t fully sealed over, but I’m keeping it covered and using neosporin.
However, the finger splint was a big metal bulge, and I figured all I really want is a bit of extra layer to cushion the end to protect from bumps and such, so I went home and devised a layer of cardboard to wrap over the end. So I was cutting up pad, covering with the cardboard, then wrapping with that self-adhesive bandage tape that doesn’t stick to skin, just itself. Except I was having a bit of trouble with it shifting over time.
Since it’s been a few days, I shifted strategies. I basically put a regular bandaid over the end for the cushion, put a shorter piece of cardboard right around the end of the finger, then have been taping it with cloth medical tape. Just enough adhesive to hold and not shift, small enough not to protrude much, reinforces the surface so it doesn’t have contact pain, and only stiffens up the first knuckle joint so the finger is still reasonably useful.
Still have to do a lot with my left hand I normally would use my right. But it’s working okay.
The nurse bandaging me said he got one of those kitchen mandolines and did the same thing, threw it away.
At lunch today, the store clerk said she did the same thing to her finger.
Moral of the story:
- Kitchen mandolines are dangerous.
- Use the personal protective equipment properly.
