Well, the C-19 crisis arrived & work, such as it was, more-or-less came to a halt. Five months later, I decided I had lost enough income (I’ve been un-successful in getting the NC unemployment application filed–their computer system clearly cannot handle the volume of applicants). So…I decided to go back to work, doing a small install (50-ft of Rohn 25G for NI4E). We had re-galvanized the tower & Eric handled the base & guy post installation with some friends. He’d already purchased & assembled a JK Antennas Navassa Five, so…with good weather upon us, it seemed like an easy weekend project.
The first few sticks went up all right, but then somehow, I found I had missed a huge glob of slag from the re-galvanizing process on the tapered end of the topmost section. Filing those never works very well, so I hauled up the DeWalt grinder & within a literal few seconds had nearly severed the middle finger of my left hand! Blood was splashing everywhere & I could see the pretty white bone & what I assumed to be a tendon down in the wound. The grinder speed (10,000 RPM) probably contributed to not feeling any pain from this mishap, so I persevered, wrapping the finger in a paper towel & securing it with some Scotch 33. But when the blood soaked through within a few minutes & kept falling on Eric, he demanded I quit. I allowed myself to be talked down…
At the hospital back in Charlotte, the ER doc spent three hours sewing my finger back together–using three layers of stitches, six per layer. There was still no pain, especially once he’d given me two shots (I think it was lidocaine) in that finger to deaden it. He told me it was a good thing I came to the ER, too. But recommended I see the Ortho Carolina hand specialists within two days. I did that & learned even more about hand anatomy (fascinating, to be sure!). Yesterday, I was back there to have the top layer of stitches taken out. Four came out easily but two were somewhat painful; I sucked in two big gulps of air as the PA tugged them out. But everyone was pretty amazed at the range of motion I have, even asking me what exercises I’d been doing. Naturally, I had not been doing anything, other than acting normal. I’ve left the wound open to the air & it’s scabbed over nicely, another plus for the hand specialist folks.
I’ve been given a couple more weeks before I can supposedly go back to work again, which I’m looking forward to doing. Not only am I running out of money, I’m bored.
stay tuned
