Anyone missing a portion/all of a digit(s)?

[thestrangebrew1]

Lost part of my left thumb from the nail up in a shooting accident and wondering what to expect moving forward. I had surgery last Tuesday and follow up is a week from today. That's when the bandage comes off. Right now, the pain comes and goes, mostly throbbing, numbness, and the feeling that the tip has fallen asleep x100. Pretty annoying. Sometimes I'll feel like an electric shock hit it also. Just curious if these are things I'll have to deal with temporarily or permanently. Anyone with experience or know someone who qualifies want to chime in?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Housemate works with a woman who lost the end of her finger chopping wood. She's never complained about phantom pain, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have any. The electric shocks sound like what I've heard amputees talk about.

Since you just had surgery, I'd expect most of the throbbing is from that (and other damage to the parts of your thumb that are still there.)

 

[zinfamous]

sounds like phantom pain, but I'm not sure if it effects partial digits like it does entire limbs, but I don't see why it wouldn't. Basically, your body is constantly sending neural signals back and forth, expecting a reply--"all systems check" sort of thing, which has an expected delay when the limb in question is idle. People that have lost limbs often suffer from phantom pain where, when the signal does not return, the brain interprets this as the limb being in use for some purpose. Say you are missing a hand, the brain will adjust to the delayed signal and think "Oh, it is a fist," and you get the sensation of a clinched fist. Unfortunately, since you can not un-clinch a fist that you do not have, this sensation persists and is difficult to remedy.

Painkillers and other drugs can work, but of course don't solve the problem and are usually quite addictive.

One rather cool, and very successful treatment has been to place the remaining limb in a mirror box, have the patient stare into the box and look at the reflection of the limb for a set amount of time, over a period of several days. Whatever the treatment schedule. Actually seeing the reflection, as if telling your brain that you have two limbs instead of one, tends to trick it into releasing those signals and alleviating that pain. I think it even manages to remove the accumulation of those signals over time.

FYI: my granddad lost his leg killing Nazis in Normandy (crashed his glider on D Day), and so he had a wooden leg for as long as I knew him, and dealt with phantom pain his entire life. I was still young when he died (11, I think), so didn't really appreciate all that he went through because he kept the drinking and pain killers away from us, but this is something that he dealt with for 50 years. However, treatment for this has progressed well beyond that and has become more sophisticated. Basically: yes, it can persist and might be a permanent issue, but I think there are treatments. At the same time, severed nerves can be very tricky. It's hard to predict how or if they will fix themselves.

I seem to recall there being some effective stem cell treatments for severed pieces of digits in recent years.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Yea the Dr. cut a v into a portion of my thumb for the skin and pulled it over. Shit still hurts, but it's becoming manageable. The tip only hurts if I bump into things, and my bandage, and whatever is is wrapped up feels like its giving me a blister. The throbbing is probably the worst. And the shock feeling. That sucks too. Dr said not to remove the bandage unless it gets wet though.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

sounds like phantom pain, but I'm not sure if it effects partial digits like it does entire limbs, but I don't see why it wouldn't. Basically, your body is constantly sending neural signals back and forth, expecting a reply--"all systems check" sort of thing, which has an expected delay when the limb in question is idle. People that have lost limbs often suffer from phantom pain where, when the signal does not return, the brain interprets this as the limb being in use for some purpose. Say you are missing a hand, the brain will adjust to the delayed signal and think "Oh, it is a fist," and you get the sensation of a clinched fist. Unfortunately, since you can not un-clinch a fist that you do not have, this sensation persists and is difficult to remedy.

Painkillers and other drugs can work, but of course don't solve the problem and are usually quite addictive.

One rather cool, and very successful treatment has been to place the remaining limb in a mirror box, have the patient stare into the box and look at the reflection of the limb for a set amount of time, over a period of several days. Whatever the treatment schedule. Actually seeing the reflection, as if telling your brain that you have two limbs instead of one, tends to trick it into releasing those signals and alleviating that pain. I think it even manages to remove the accumulation of those signals over time.

Good info thanks. This is all new and the last time I saw the specialist, I was drugged up so on my follow-up I can start asking questions. I'm trying to ease myself off the painkillers, it's only been a week since surgery but I'm able to get through days with just Ibuprofen. At night I'll take the painkillers to sleep, but I'll probably stop by this weekend.

 

[Humpy]

You don't get to just skip over the part where you provide details of shooting yourself in the thumb and sharing pictures of the results.

Were you drunk? Did you mistake your thumb for an intruder? Did you try to shoot off your dick and miss? And LOL @ shooting yourself and living.

 

[Dranoche]

I lost 3/8 inch off my left index finger almost 10 years ago. Smashed it off on a Wednesday, had surgery on Thursday, was back at work on Friday. It was pretty sensitive to small bumps, I couldn't grip things well with the hand, and I had to keep it elevated above my heart otherwise it would throb and hurt. This lasted a couple weeks and then steadily improved over the following month. I don't recall taking any prescription painkillers for more than a couple days. I think I had a month of changing the dressing before it completely closed up. After that I had a series of exercises with several samples of therapy putty of varying stiffness to help break down scar tissue and help with the sensitivity. Kept up with that for a couple months I think.

It was still sensitive on and off for a couple years. I don't have the nub at the end of the bone anymore, so I can't press hard with the end. Occasionally I will hit it wrong, and sometimes it tingles a bit, but I haven't had any serious or ongoing issues. The cuticle goes far enough back that even though I first thought I lost the entire nail, the skin receded and I still have a finger nail. Most people never notice.

 

[BudAshes]

Do you happen to live in Arizona? Seems like most people here have managed to shoot themselves at some point.

 

[cbrunny]

io mamm midsddi89jgf apolpo nmky drigfitrs lawnmowqer bglade seo mucxh blood bofh hasnds!!

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Yea I was waiting to tell the story, but it's kinda hard to explain considering I didnt shoot myself. I had already been shooting a buddy's 460 revolver and reloaded. Went to aim, finger on trigger, and decided I wasnt comfortable with my grip or stance. Shuffled my feet a bit, and stretched my hand open. Apparently I brought my hand forward enough to where my thumb was even with the front of the cylinder, just to the side, and accidentally pulled the trigger. The air and gas shot out the sides and took out the top portion of my thumb. At least thats what was explained to me as to how it happened. No I was not drunk, although I wish I was so I didnt feel the pain as much!

 

[bruceb]

Almost lost an index finger when a piece of stainless steel we were drilling a hole in, the bit caught and the metal spun around. Luckily, it did not hit the tendons or the bone, but it was a good slice that needed 3 stitches to heal it. That was back in the 1970's area

 

[BudAshes]

Yea I was waiting to tell the story, but it's kinda hard to explain considering I didnt shoot myself. I had already been shooting a buddy's 460 revolver and reloaded. Went to aim, finger on trigger, and decided I wasnt comfortable with my grip or stance. Shuffled my feet a bit, and stretched my hand open. Apparently I brought my hand forward enough to where my thumb was even with the front of the cylinder, just to the side, and accidentally pulled the trigger. The air and gas shot out the sides and took out the top portion of my thumb. At least thats what was explained to me as to how it happened. No I was not drunk, although I wish I was so I didnt feel the pain as much!

Well that seems like a bit of design flaw.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Well that seems like a bit of design flaw.

No, definitely a flaw in how I handled the gun. I know never have a finger on the trigger unless you're ready to shoot. I wasn't ready, should've taken it off. Was only a matter of 1-2 seconds or less. Not too sure what I was thinking at the time.

 

[bruceb]

The same thing can happen with the Smith & Wesson .50 caliber revolver if you are not very careful. You must keep your fingers away from the cylinder at all times.

 

[stargazr]

I lost a good chunk off the end of my thumb in a work injury (machine shop). I still have most of the nail though.

 

[lxskllr]

Not nearly the same scale, but I smashed my thumb with a hammer a couple years ago. I pushed the pieces together and put a bandaid on it. I guess I didn't put them together right, and there's a noticeable(to me) point to my thumb, and it won't work on capacitive touchscreens.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

... and it won't work on capacitive touchscreens.

That's particularly odd. It might be scarred up, not-factory-issue meat, but it's still meat.

 

[snoopy7548]

One rather cool, and very successful treatment has been to place the remaining limb in a mirror box, have the patient stare into the box and look at the reflection of the limb for a set amount of time, over a period of several days. Whatever the treatment schedule. Actually seeing the reflection, as if telling your brain that you have two limbs instead of one, tends to trick it into releasing those signals and alleviating that pain. I think it even manages to remove the accumulation of those signals over time.

When I started reading this I thought you were going to say that after a certain amount of time, the patient would be able to make the limb move. Then I thought, "why the hell would they save the amputated limb just so the patient could stare at it?" And then I was like, oh, I must be missing a portion of my brain.

 

[Darwin333]

I'm surprised that no one has asked the important question. Is said thumb on your jerkoff hand or your non-jerkoff hand?

 

[thestrangebrew1]

Non-jerk off hand. Funny ER story. When it happened, we were actually up in the mountains on a guys trip. Got down to the ER and when my wife showed up, my buds and I though she was going to rain hell on us. I was apologizing profusely and she said it was an accident and what do I need my whole left thumb for anyways. I said "To jack off" really loud (drugs were kicking in). Then I said "Wait, I'm right handed." That's when she lost it. Half the people in the ER were laughing.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Got, or had, a neighbor that lost her thumb while investigating her garage door opener. She hasn't said anything about pains, phantom or otherwise. But I would imagine the nearve would continue to be a problem.

 

[ra1nman]

I lost .5" off my middle finger on my right hand. When I was 5 I was goofing off at Montgomery Ward (retail store similar to Sears) and found the exercise bikes. In the mid/late 80's the bikes had an actual chain that when around the crank-set similar to a normal pedal bike. I was cranking the pedal with my hand and you may have guessed that managed to get the tips of both my index finger and middle finger caught in between the chain and crank-set. The Dr essentially pulled the excess skin over tip of my middle finger that was salvageable. My index finger looks and operates pretty normal except for a clean scar that runs straight across it. I don't have much sensitivity on my middle finger so no weird pains whatsoever. But that doesn't bother me as much as the fact the nail will never grow back properly and I end up filing my nail completely off so it doesn't get snagged on things.

 

[AdamK47]

Man, I don't know what I'd do without my jump thumb.

 

[who?]

If you lose the whole thumb they can put one of your big toes in its place although that may hurt your balance.

 

[Charmonium]

Despite being fairly clumsy and not always taking appropriate safety precautions (now a thing of the past), I've managed to stay in tact so far. Although I do have osteoarthritis in the last joint of one pinky finger. I've never been able to figure that out. How do you get something like that in a single joint with no hint of it anywhere else on your body? It makes that hand look slightly gnarly so I sort of like it. And it's fairly mild so it doesn't affect functionality. Still very weird though.