So last night I was working on my shoulder rig – making the design too fancy as usual. I wanted to make it have a section I could swap out to put the camera closer or further away from my face. I decided to use small thumb screws to lock the sections together. So I was drilling them with my drill press, but reached a place on it where I just couldn’t use the press, so I went to drill it “by hand”. On the second hole, the drill broke through and went into my hand! Ouch!
I immediately went in a washed it out with cold water, then rubbing alcohol, and then betadine, and the wound only looked about 1/16″-1/8″ deep. But when I went back out and looked at the drill bit, there was tissue on the bit around 1/4″ – 3/8″ away from the tip. So I sat down, had Father’s Day dinner with my wife and kids, and then drove myself to the emergency room. The doctor wanted to do an X-ray to make sure I didn’t hit the bone, which, it turns out, I didn’t. But she also said I was very lucky – I missed one of my tendons by the barest fraction of an inch on one side, and missed a rather large vein on the other side by a little less! So there was a lot of grace in this… I should have full use of my hand within the next couple of days (I’m typing with it right now), and as long as there is no infection, this will end up being a very minor deal.
The funniest thing about the whole process is that I have ended up in the ER every 5 years in the summer/fall… And this is 5 years since the last one! The funniest part though was the inevitable question, “When did you have you last Tetanus shot?” To which I answered, “Last Wednesday!” I got this crazy look, and I could see that the nurse was thinking that this was my second ER visit in a week! I let the silence play out for a second – just for the drama, and then told her I was heading out of the country.
All in all, it was a very eventful Father’s Day. I’m not ready to share pics of the finished video rig yet, but here’s a couple from “the incident.”
Never thought I’d be here on Father’s Day…
Big bandage for a little hole!
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