When I was in the ER for another issue, I saw a guy in what looked like a dr.'s coat walk past the room, looking determined. Walked back about five minutes later carrying bolt cutters that looked pretty much like the ones I had at home. Person treating me mentioned that some guy had put a ring on the wrong finger.
That was probably a HIPAA violation, except she didn’t say his name or where he was in the ER. I asked how you could put a ring on the wrong finger, and she just shrugged. She did say, though, that the bolt cutters came from the maintenance crew, because nothing in the doctors’ tools had worked to cut the ring.
I didn’t find out if the bolt cutters actually did work, but if something like that ever happened to me, my own bolt cutters were where I’d go before I’d be running up an ER bill.
I realize that titanium is a very hard metal, but the chances that the inlay is pure titanium is not great-- it’s probably alloyed with something softer, and at any rate, when I bought my first pair of bolt cutters (I now have small, medium and large) the guy at the tool shop said they were a vanadium alloy, and had been heat-treated, and could cut pretty much anything, including harder metals if they were just thin pieces.
I don’t want to discourage you from seeing a doctor if you feel better about doing that, and especially because your skin is irritated. But I’d hate for you to spend the money just for the doctor to use a tool that costs $25 at Walmart.
When my son was little he stuck his finger in a hole in his bed frame, became stuck. Much panic, eventually fire dept came and used a SawzAll to cut off a segment of the bed where his finger was stuck.
Ended up in ER, where a dr took over 3 hours using a Dremel to get his finger out. If you go this route, use plenty of ice, and slip in a curved piece of metal to protect your finger from cuts! The metal bed frame heated up to a dangerous temp, had to keep stopping and ice the metal and finger.
Eventually saw a specialist to determine if he had nerve damage in his finger.
Good luck!
Standard bolt cutters &c do not have the part that slips between the ring and the finger like the specialized ring cutting tool pictured above. After the finger is protected, you can hit it with the Dremel diamond-dust cutting wheel.
The emergency room removes rings frequently. But not always by cutting.
First, are there alternatives? You need to cut off the ring or remove it urgently if the swelling impedes the blood supply. If you push hard on a fingernail, it should turn whiter. Letting go, It should regain the normal colour within a second or two. If the blood supply is intact and the motor and sensory nerves are okay, waiting for the swelling to go down may be an option.
Next, you can try using soap or lubricant and yanking it. As said above, a local anesthetic might help, as would an extra pair of hands.
The next technique uses a string, but takes practice. Must be an online tutorial? You wind it through and around the ring so the ring is pulled off the finger when the string is pulled.
A ring cutter is a sharpened wheel attached to something like a curved skinny pair of blunt scissors. The scissors go under the ring and protect the finger from the wheel. Jewellers are able to fix cut rings (I presume). But this works better with softer metals. Tougher metals require tougher actions.
It is important to know what the ring is made of. My wedding ring is tungsten carbide, about the same weight as gold but much stronger. It will not scratch or bend and you will have a very hard time cutting it off. They use something like a vice-grip to break them. Just a little deformity and it will just break because it is more like a ceramic than a metal. Emergency rooms and jewelers also have a tool to crunch these off.
Well, I was back in my hometown on family business. I made some enquiries.
The fancy jewelry store that sold it to me refused to cut it off. They freaked out over the idea of cutting on an “alternative metal.”
The lady at the best tattoo shop in town also could not help. But I determined the stuffed penguin in the window was priced at $1,500. It is begging to be made into a lamp.
After having drinks with my family, I passed by the guys sitting in front of the fire station. They said the hospital is the best bet.
So the plan now it to live with it until the swelling goes down. Supposedly, this sort of thing is easier in cold weather. If that fails, I will get a cutting tool from Amazon. If that fails, I will get me a rotary tool. If that fails, I will try a hospital.
Again, I shall report back as events require. Events involving either the ring or the taxidermy penguin.
I am not in pain. Circulation is fine. It is bothering me psychologically, but not physically. If I end up visiting my doctor in the near future, I will have him take a look at it.
IANAD but I am not sure being in pain (or not) is the only consideration here. Some health issues are not advertised to you by pain.
Is the ring very valuable? Does it possess some significant psychological value to you (probably does)? If not, it’s probably worth getting off. At the least go to a hospital and consult the doctors there.
I mentioned up-thread that my mom had her wedding band cut off. She was very upset about that. But, my dad had a new ring made that fit her and she was very happy. Point is, sentimental value can be managed.
The alternative is maybe losing a finger. Is that a dice roll worth taking?
Again, the main issue is whether the nerves or blood supply to the finger beyond the ring is threatened. The finger is not threatened if there is no infection, the sensation to the finger is normal, the finger moves normally, and if a simple test for blood supply is normal. This remains so even if there is significant swelling.
The test is pushing on the fingernail so that it turns a paler colour. It should not take more than a second or two to return to a normal colour. This is the same test any emergency doctor would do. However, if the test is negative, it would be important to go to an emergency room. As an approximate guide, most authoritative emergency texts roughly estimate that irreversible tissue damage occurs if the fingers are deprived of blood for more than six hours.
I don’t disagree with you. It’s almost always better to see the doctor and there is plenty of dangerous advice on the Internet. However, in this case there is not much doubt about the problem nor lots of alternative diagnoses. It would be different in the setting of other things that can cause finger swelling and quickly turn nasty, such as high pressure injuries, animal or human bites, tendon injuries, needle stick, puncture wounds, infections and so forth. Still, getting prompt care is essential if there are signs of nerve or blood supply concerns. It is also a good idea if things worsen, or do not improve within a week or so.
I have cut off more rings than you can shake a stick at. Assuming, of course, that your stickshaking abilities are limited in some way by the quantity of people experiencing ring tightness or misadventure at any given time.