My 6-year-old grandson said it best. A chainsaw is not a toy! …
Some of you probably already are shaking your heads and saying, “What did Domke do now?”
This past Saturday, Nancy and I started our annual outdoor spring cleaning as we began to prep our property for the warmer months ahead.
We have a beautiful double lot that was a huge selling point in picking the house we did when we moved to Boerne. It’s full of trees, including three huge, beautiful live oaks in the backyard. The trees are so full and large they require some annual trims of low-hanging branches and branches that intrude on the roof of the house.
So …
I annually get out my small chainsaw and go to work, trimming those dead or low-hanging branches on those trees and the others in our yard. Then, when they’re trimmed, I cut some of the branches into smaller pieces so we can either dispose of them or use them in our firepit.
I enjoy most of the outdoor work around the house. Some of it is almost like therapy as I’m out in the fresh air and concentrating on the tasks at hand instead of the pressures of weekday life and the anxiety it causes.
I worked away trimming the trees and got that part of the job finished. Then I started cutting some of them into the smaller pieces.
My small chainsaw is electric and thus very light. I have a larger one, too, that is gasoline powered, but I prefer the little guy because it’ so light and easy to handle. In fact, I can operate it with one hand momentarily if I need the other hand to hold the branch steady.
Enter “the accident.” I’m always very careful around tools like this. When I was much younger and worked on similar projects with my dad, I witnessed him have an accident or two, even though he was using the tools properly and safely as well.
Anyway, I was cutting a branch into smaller pieces and using my left foot to keep the branch in place. I needed a little extra help with this branch to keep it steady so I also put my left hand on the branch and continued to use the saw, with my right hand only, to cut through.
The saw kicked back toward my hand.
I saw the blood immediately. When it jumped, the saw nicked my left palm below the pinky and gouged a piece of flesh out of the right side of my middle finger. The pain came shortly after the blood.
It wasn’t a huge gouge, but it was kind of deep. The slice on my palm was smaller.
Nancy and I headed into the house and to the bathroom to start first-aid duty. We cleaned the wounds and applied direct pressure on the finger before packing the injury with gauze and wrapping it with a bandage and tape.
Almost four hours later, when we checked it, the finger still was bleeding rather profusely.
We headed to a nearby urgent care facility.
There, I received excellent care from the doctor on duty. Both wounds again were cleaned and the finger required stiches to close it and stop the bleeding. X-rays revealed the chainsaw missed the bone – but barely.
The doc asked Nancy if she took the chainsaw away from me.
Her answer? Yes. During the X-ray, I had to give the technician the finger – sort of – but not by choice.
Since it’s my middle finger on my left hand, I had to hold that finger up alone, albeit laying it on a table, for the three images to be taken. I apologized. She laughed.
Shortly thereafter, we headed home to the remainder of the weekend with me in discomfort – without the blood – and a couple of oversized bandages that make the ordeal look worse than it really is.
I feel extremely fortunate it wasn’t worse. I very easily could have cut off my finger or severely sliced my hand – and I’d probably still be in a hospital minus something or another and/ or struggling to use my appendage. For now, I’m lucky it’s only slightly inconvenient to type as the Domke hunt-and-peck method is in full gear for a few days.
Oh, and the X-ray also revealed arthritis. The doc said it was from 40 years of typing stories, columns, captions and headlines.
But, at least I still have the finger to accompany that arthritis.
That’s a very good thing.
So, here’s to our health and good fortune – and to God always watching out for us every step of the way. And if you happen to stop by
And if you happen to stop by the office in the near future and I give you “the finger” with my left hand, I won’t mean it.
Really!
As always, thanks for reading.
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