Your finger can bleed a remarkable amount. It had soaked thru the bandage A&E had given me, and then again the bandage our local GP wrapped it in. But I was back at the hospital so someone would deal with it.
⚠️ WARNING ⚠️
This post contains some graphic injury photos. Don’t look at them if you’re a little queasy about blood… You’ve been warned.
Staffordshire county hospital has a specialist hand unit. It’s housed in a portacabin in the carpark, but you wouldn’t know from the inside. Shown to a waiting area, i filled out a form about the risks of surgery and had some questions answered. Striped down to my boxers and donned a fetching blue hospital robe. Then after a short wait i met the anaesthetist who prepped me.
I was having a local anaesthetic, which was a little worrying. My finger was pulsing with pain whenever it was jostled by a bump in the road or walking. I was a little fearful I’d still feel what was going on. But I needn’t have been. He used an ultrasonic imaging machine to look inside my arm, right up in my armpit, to find a cluster of nerves. Then he injected the anaesthetic around the nerves and I had a weird cool sensation spread from my arm as parts of it went dull. A few more injections in my elbow crook and 5 minutes later I couldn’t use my arm or feel anything. The anaesthetist asked me to look away so he could test if there was any sensation left in my arm. I assumed he would be poking parts of my hand and arm, but I couldn’t feel anything. What he actually did was lift my whole arm up and wave it around. I had no idea till I looked back, it was incredible!
The surgery went fine, as far as I could tell. They put up a big sheet so I couldn’t see what was going on. I was grateful for that. I’m sure I didn’t need to see just how mangled my finger was or how roughly they needed to scrub it clean. As you would expect, a dog has a dirty mouth so it needed a good clean. But according to the nurses who changed my bandages later, cats are worse and children are even worse still!
Discharged with a completely useless arm, Aimi picked me up and brought me home. It was completely useless but I had zero pain, which was nice. I just had this big lump of meat hanging off me, like the most realistic Halloween prop you’ve ever seen. At dinner I was struggling to eat while leaning over my arm in its sling. I took it out and propped it on the table with my hand up and I forgot I had no control. It flopped straight down on the table with a thunk. Luckily still fully dead, I didn’t feel anything but Aimi was mortified.
That night, and for a month following, I had my arm propped up on pillows on the bookcase next to my bed. It was not very comfortable, but as the feeling slowly returned along with the pain, any movement or touch was even less comfortable so I dealt with it. I got into a routine of taking Ibuprofen and co-codamol thru the day and then once in the middle of the night to keep things manageable.
Every week I had the dressing changed. The first time was incredibly painful, but it was easier after that. I’m not sure anyone needs to see how manky it looked, but after 6 weeks the bandage was removed and not replaced. I was told to touch it and start bending it. Up until this point i had basically not used my whole arm for a month. This was really hard because the first thing you want to do in the morning is stretch, which you don’t realise also includes your fingers. I accidently did it once when it was fresh and it was so painful I tried not to do it again. But of course, this left my arm to atrophy. After a month of no use, it was noticeable thinner then my right arm.
The new skin and lack of nail was also incredibly sensitive, like being electric shocked when touched in stone places and completely dead in others. I was told the hypersensitivity would calm down as it was exposed to sensations and feeling may come back to the missing areas. Apparently, fingers are the only area that grow back nerves. So I did what I was told even tho it was uncomfortable. The worst bits were when i forgot it was still injured, a testament to the effectiveness of painkillers, and used that finger for typing or trying to grip something. It was like an electric shock running thru my finger. This went on for about 2 weeks, gradually getting less intense.
Now, I mostly have full use of my finger back. My arm is still weak and I dont like trying to grip things hard yet, but its nearly a fully functional hand again. I wasn’t worried, but had accepted that I may not have a nail on that finger again, but recently it’s started to come back. Kinda wonky, but it’s growing.
As far as having a finger nearly bitten completely off, I got away lightly. It was a non-critical finger, not completely bitten off, relatively cleaning cut thru and only the very tip of the finger. It could have been mangled so much worse, more of my finger or even multiple fingers. I was very stupid to have put my hand into that scenario and very lucky to have come away with such a minor injury. I’m also incredibly grateful for the doctors and nurses who treated me. Honestly, from this experience I’m not sure why people complain about the NHS, they were wonderful to me. The only down side is that my finger looks like it’s been put back on a little wonky
