I spent a few hours in the Seymour emergency room monday night. A buddy and I had just finished slicing our way through the dense woods when we came to the bank of the East fork of White river. I found what looked like a good place to step down close to the water. Machete in hand, I stepped down onto the shallow slope. The slope was much more slippery than it looked and I started sliding feet first toward the river. So I stuck my machete into the mud to give me something to grab onto. And it worked. I stopped and turned around to make my way back up. That's when I slipped and ran my hand down the blade. Thank God my buddy was there to help me up out of the mud. We saw that I was bleeding pretty badly. I wrapped my t-shirt around my hand and made my way back to the jeep. We rinsed it off, saw fat tissue, dressed the wound, and decided to go to the ER.
They saw me pretty quickly at the ER. I had to explain about three times that I wasn't "playing around" with a machete. Got a tetanus shot. Had the fingers cleaned, numbed, and sewed up. I ended up severing an artery and a nerve in my pinky finger. I'll probably have some permanent loss of feeling, but fortunately no loss of function. Hopefully I'll be playing guitar in a few weeks.
Overall, it was an okay experience. I definitely learned a few important lessons:
Don't go into the woods alone.
If in the woods; have a first aid kit on your person. So you don't have to walk all the way back to your car.
Don't hold a sharp object if you're on loose ground.
It only takes a a second for things to go bad.
Feel free to share your similar stories. Maybe then I won't feel like such a jack@ss.
Photos taken with my cell phone at the ER prior to the stitches. They really don't do it justice.
They saw me pretty quickly at the ER. I had to explain about three times that I wasn't "playing around" with a machete. Got a tetanus shot. Had the fingers cleaned, numbed, and sewed up. I ended up severing an artery and a nerve in my pinky finger. I'll probably have some permanent loss of feeling, but fortunately no loss of function. Hopefully I'll be playing guitar in a few weeks.
Overall, it was an okay experience. I definitely learned a few important lessons:
Don't go into the woods alone.
If in the woods; have a first aid kit on your person. So you don't have to walk all the way back to your car.
Don't hold a sharp object if you're on loose ground.
It only takes a a second for things to go bad.
Feel free to share your similar stories. Maybe then I won't feel like such a jack@ss.
Photos taken with my cell phone at the ER prior to the stitches. They really don't do it justice.
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