When I finished the brush pile had reached the size of an SUV, and burning season was far away.  Rather than watch it slowly rot I decided to rent a woodchipper.  The new Home Depot had a tool rental section so I made my reservation and picked it up Saturday morning.

After I wheeled it into place beside the brush pile I began chipping up all the brush I could.  Since I didn't rent the trailer unit I couldn't chip up the big branches (wrist sized+) so I had to use my chainsaw to cut the big branches into sections and brush clippers to take off the small ones.

By 5pm I was done chipping and all that was left was to cut the logs into fireplace length pieces.    I wedges the pieces into a makeshift cutting stand and began cutting.  Finally I was down to the last few logs.  At that point I was tired and got stupid.  I had begun cutting up the cutting stand itself so I had no way to hold logs still, and some were begining to roll and move under the chainsaw.

Rather than stopping I held down the logs with one hand while I began cutting with the chainsaw held only by the other.  That worked for a few logs, until the first time the chainsaw skipped out of it's cutting groove.  The saw bounced up, tourque shifted it about a foot to the left, and the blade came down on my left index finger.

As I looked down at the blood running from my finger I remember thinking first that the finger was still attached, then if I could just bandage it up and continue cutting.  It wasn't until I recognized that the white thing in the center of the wound was bone that I began to realize I would need to go to the hospital.  I still didn't feel any pain, something I am amazed about to this day.

I wrapped my finger in a rag I had nearby, stood up, walked into the house and found my wife.  "I'm OK, but I need to go to the hospital.  I cut my finger."  She insisted on seeing the gash before we went, so I unwrapped the finger and watched blood begin to run out into the kitchen sink.  That convinced her, so we set out to the hospital.

She dropped me off at the door and I walked into the emergency room.  "What's wrong?"

"I cut my finger with a chainsaw."

It's amazing how quickly those words bring the emergency room to life.  I was rushed into a room, and they began to examine the damage.  My finger was split from the knuckle to the next joint, diagonally for almost 2 inches.  Luckily the adjacent fingers went unscathed, and the tendon that runs across the top of the finger was not quite cut through.

After washing out the wound and injecting heavy amounts of antibiotics to counteract the filth brought in by the chainsaw blade they bandaged the finger and had XRays taked.  A small chip had been taken from the bone, but the finger wasn't broken.  More antibiotics, more washing, and a specialist was brought in.

He said I was very lucky, he had never seen a chainsaw injury so minor from a running blade.  After regailing me with tales of severed fingers, split foreheads and mangled calves he began to numb my finger with novacaine and sew me back up.  It's certainly interesting watching stitches being put in and feeling the tugging of the needle and thread but no pain.  Since the chainsaw had left such a ragged wound channel he was unable to close it tightly, but he did the best he could and sent me home with a prescription for percasets and antibiotics.

The next day I began the task of returning the woodchipper.  The size of the late fees actually made me stupid enough to try it.  By the time it was due back I had actually managed to get it onto the trailer and all that was left was securing it and driving there.

When I arrived I pulled past the main entrance and unloaded the woodchipper at the tool return area.   As I wheeled the woodchipper into the rental return area conversation stopped.  They all just stared at my arm in a sling and my hand bandaged tightly.  Blood had discolored the dressing making it obvious the injury wasn't just a pulled muscle.  Finally someone joked "Did you get all the blood off the woodchipper?"

"No" I replied, wiggling my arm slightly, "This was a chainsaw."  After I told the story conversation returned to normal, and they waived the late return fee.

When the splint came off I couldn't even bend the finger more than a slight amount but after several months of stretches (yes physical therapy for a finger) function is back to normal.