Once and for all the Hand Story. So I cut my hand pretty bad about a month ago. Bad enough that it was a bit like an E.R. episode and was easily the worst injury so far I’ve had.
It was late and I was getting a glass of water before bed. I was reaching over the baby gate, very dangerous item, and slipped forward. The glass broke under my hand and like a Ginsu knife cut the ligaments, nerves and artery between my pointer finger and thumb. It didn’t hurt as it was a clean cut but blood started shooting everywhere which is not something you’re use to seeing. You immediately react and try to stop that from happening. When it’s an artery stopping the flow is difficult and a bit worrying as it continues to leak out pretty quickly.
I woke Christina up and you can imagine her reaction as I hold a dripping hand wrapped in a red towel and attempt to calmly explain that “I need to go to the emergency room now please”. She jumped in the car and rushed me to the hospital. There was a short discussion on what to do if I passed out which Christina resolved by saying she would kill me if I did so don’t pass out.
We arrived at the emergency room 5 minutes later and it didn’t take much to get attention. A doctor started to sort me out and in fact thought I had been in a car accident at first given how I looked. This is where being in Singapore is awasome. 25 minutes from when I arrived at the emergency room a Hand Surgeon was there attending to me. I was prepped for surgery and 3.5 hours later it was all stitched up. From at home with my hand cut to in surgery with a hand surgery specialist trained at the Mayo Clinic was about 2 hours, amazing. Dr. Looi Kok Poh, the hand surgeon, was awesome. He even called Christina personally when the surgery was over to tell her that my thumb was going to be fine.
The damage is really only to my right thumb. It’s been just over a month since it happened and my thumb is doing fine. There is lots of scar tissue so the ability to use it is still tough and the nerves need sometime to heal but with some therapy it should be working fine in 3-4 months.
One photo is after the surgery with my big claw and the other is after the stitches came out. It looks normal now except that the thumb doesn’t move so great.