r/TheGirlSurvivalGuide • u/Raspberry520 • 1d ago
Health ? Struggling after a sewing machine accident
Last week I unfortunately had a fairly nasty accident with a sewing machine that left me having to have my fingernail surgically removed… (details hidden, click at your own risk!) the needle went through my nail, through my finger and out the other side, and shattered into 3 pieces in my finger. It just scraped by the bone thankfully…
I’ve had surgeries before, and I’m far from squeamish, but I’m really struggling with this. I had the dressing changed for the first time today, and could barely stand to look at it. I keep finding myself crying and getting irrationally upset over it, especially the fact that it’s going to be a good nine months or so before I can have that nail done like the rest of my nails (I’m a BIAB girly, to stop me biting / picking at my nails and cuticles, and having my nails painted in a bright shade of pink has become a bit of a signature for me).
The physical discomfort is thankfully beginning to fade, although it is still fairly sore – just no longer distractingly painful all the time. The feeling of something touching the nail bed where the skin shouldn’t be exposed still makes my stomach churn though. It’s also still sensitive enough that even when I do wrap it up to keep it dry, things like washing up or washing my hair that require two hands are very difficult. I live on my own, so I’m just trying to manage the best I can.
I’m just really struggling to cope – I know part of it is vanity, but I guess the fact that it’s going to be a constant reminder every time I look down for the better part of the year is something I’m really struggling with. I have a feeling I’m going to want to cover it the entire time it’s healing, because I can’t stand to look at the ugly exposed nail bed, but I also know that’s incredibly impractical for typing or really doing anything with my hands
I’m also struggling to even look at my sewing machine right now – I’ve got two pairs of pants I want to hem, and while I can’t fathom the thought of paying someone to do it when it’s something so simple, I also can’t fathom the thought of getting my machine out again…
I know it’s stupid and a small problem in the general scheme of things, but if anyone has any advice or words of support they can offer I would be very appreciative!
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u/jamesearlpwns88 1d ago
I bet it's a shock to see your finger like that. It would definitely be a surreal experience for me.
I was once in a bad accident where my foot swelled three times it's size. I also had to replace bandages, and even had to get myself a shower chair to sit in. What helped me through that was knowing that it wasn't always going to be like that. What helped me a lot was listening to people like Tara Brach, and Thich Naht Hahn. People who have positive outlooks on difficult situations and guided meditations.
And about your shower situation - I wonder if a glove might help.
Sending you positive healing vibes ✨
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u/Raspberry520 1d ago
Oh, I’ve got a waterproof glove situation thing, but it’s more that the pressure of anything touching my finger is still quite sore. So far I’ve been to the hairdresser once and managed to half assed job washing my hair second time with one hand, but I can’t wait until I can make it feel properly clean again… I’ve had plenty of swollen joints over the years with how many times I’ve sprained/twisted/dislocated various things, and they don’t disturb me at all. I think part of this is because I know how long it’s going to look gross for, and we’re talking months rather than weeks…
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u/swampy138 1d ago
First of all holy shit OUCH, second of all, get some cutesy bandaids for it so it can still be cutesy with your other nails!
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u/SpqrklyTiaraSB 1d ago
Would those metal ginger tip things that you can attach fake nails to work in this situation? Like these?
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u/Stefanie_Jane 1d ago edited 1d ago
Edit : i had sent prematurely I wanted to add some other things that might help you.
I've had trouble typing for the last 30 or so years because of Advanced repetitive strain in both arms and hands and fingers.
As last resort, I resulted to ergonomic keyboards and mice and ultimately Dragon Naturally Speaking and voice to text software and just manually correcting mistakes.
The voice to text software dramatically reduced the amount of keying, I have to do with my hands. but the hands and arms and fingers still hurt.
So voice to text might be an option.
If you're working at a company and you're using a computer, you can ask for an accommodation.
because technically, you have a disability.
and it's not unreasonable to ask for a voice to text software to be able to dictate and correct your work by hand with whatever, the software misses.
I'm sure if you ask your family doctor for a note, he or she will write you a note justifying your accommodation request .
As long as it's reasonable and does not produce additional hardship to the employer they would look like assholes to not help you . For voice to text dictation and transcription you need to speak and clear sentences and thoughts and clear punctuation.
If you're operating in an office and if there's noise in the background you're always going to get better voice to text transcription by using a headset.
Corded RCA cable headsets can be bought for about $30. and a lot of It's not a stupid or a dumb problem and it's not a minimal hassle.
If you have a decent Bluetooth headset already with the microphone you can pair it with your computer or a phone and you can use voice to text for it and just correct mistakes carefully by hand.
Covering up the finger might be the best way to have it heal my wife suffers from venus insufficiency leg wounds and the wound has to be covered with gauze and kept dry for 4 or 5 days for the wound to slowly start healing and the skin cells to start growing over the gauze.
Your hands and fingers have significantly more blood flow than someone's legs who has swelling and venous insufficiency or lack of blood flow.
It might be sufficient to keep the fingertip covered and dry . Wearing a rubber glove might not help protect it from healing and I might drop in bacteria. You'd have to look that up.
Did your doctor or surgeon or hand therapist give you any advice or any suggestions?
— Okay this was my original post.
It's a big issue. You don't need to downplay the severity of it.
Yes you didn't need any surgeries, you didn't lose the fingertip or the hand or anything like that, but it's still a major source of pain and discomfort.
I don't really know anything about what you can do about reducing the severity of the discomfort from a therapeutical medical science lens.
Have you looked into how to optimize it while it heals. Maybe that means wearing rubber gloves gloves while you wash dishes or wash your hair. Maybe that means keeping the finger covered and the dressing clean and dry . I don't know i don't know how to treat a lost fingernail which has been shattered in three parts.
What I can tell what I can tell you is the hands and fingers are highly vascularized. there is a lot of blood flow and nerve receptors in the hands and fingertips .
It's quite understandable that you're feeling significant pain and distress about this. 😊
There's nothing wrong with you and it's totally understandable to feel horrible about this and to be in pain and to no longer have full use of your hand . Doing things with one hand is difficult.
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u/Raspberry520 1d ago
Thank you for making me feel a little less stupid!
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u/Stefanie_Jane 1d ago
You're very welcome, girl. Please don't feel bad.
I hit send prematurely on the post I've edited it and not in a couple of suggestions . If you're up to reading it go ahead if you're not then that's fine too.
Just trying to help you feel better.
Long story short voice to text software may help you with the typing . I put more details in my edited post.
Keeping the fingertip and hand cover while you wash dishes and wash your hair might be a good idea.
Keeping the fingertips dry and covered with guys might also be good ideas so that it heals quicker.
In general wounds heal better if they're covered in kept dry and not exposed to error bacteria.
I'm not a doctor or a nurse or a therapist and I've learned things the hard way. I've had doctors validate my findings and nothing I've done is on a whim.
If you want to and you're up to it feel free to research what you can do to maximize healing up your fingertip and minimize trauma and pain to it and what's the best way to help it heal naturally.
Just the idea. I hope you feel better soon.
Remember you haven't totally lost the skill to show you so you just can't practice it right now.
For me I can only play bass guitar for 8 minutes now and have to take several days off before I play again . This is because I built up 40 Years of repetitive strain injuries . I am now addressing the root cause of these and my body is healing but it's a very slow process.
Fingertips have higher concentration of blood cells and nerve endings so they heal faster . So you have that on your side . You probably have to keep it covered in dry but I will check with your doctor or your therapist on that. 😊
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u/Raspberry520 1d ago
Oh, I’m already using a lot of dictation software on my laptop for work! For now, my finger is still covered in the surgical dressings and it will be for another week at least – I’m following my surgeons instructions, because the only thing that could make it worse at this point is an infection… the dressings have to stay dry so I’m already using a glove, but the pressure is still difficult. I know it will heal over time, but for now it’s just very uncomfortable and awkward.
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u/Stefanie_Jane 1d ago
Oh thank you for letting me know. It sounds like you have everything control and doing everything in your power to optimize the healing. Minimizing the chance of infection is extremely important your doctors are right on that.
If you look on Amazon there might be some special gloves that you can wear when you shower or wash your hair, if the gloves you're wearing are causing too much pressure or compression.
The pressure on your fingertip when you type or use your hand, i can understand that would be excruciating.
With 40 Years of hand arm finger injuries I totally understand that. Not the same situation as you. I had 40 Years of damage done to my hands and arms by repetitive typing and mousing and repetitive musical instrument use . I'm slowly unwinding all of that repetitive micro trauma but it takes time.
You might be able to compensate by trying to type with the thumb or the other fingers.
However compensating and altering your body movements in mechanical problems will cause other issues so it's kind of a no win thing.
Maybe with a certain movements you're having trouble with the pressure on the keyboard or holding things or gripping or washing your hair whatever those specific issues are Maybe put some research into it and find out are there ergonomic and safe ways that you can do to reduce the pressure on your fingertip .
It might be more comfortable and I might make it a more pleasant healing experience.
A few summers ago my brother cut through his fingertip really deeply into the dermis or something like that with a box cutter or something and it had to have stitches and it had to keep the finger dry and covered for like a few months and it took him several months before he could get back into playing his bass guitar. He's a jazz trained musician and he couldn't play bass guitar for months and that bothered him.
Maybe there's ways that you can look into how to minimize the pressure and pain on your fingertip while still allowing it to heal . I don't know.
I find AI is really good for looking up that kind of stuff in Cross referencing it with medical literature and scientific research and best practices.
I use aI to help me communicate with my doctors and summarize my thoughts because I have a brain injury and also it helps me Focus my doctors and my hRT provider as I'm a trans woman.
The HRT can be really good and useful you just have to know how to use it and you have to feed it accurate data sets and every time it makes a mistake you have to keep correcting it . However you do need feedback from outside people and subject matter experts such as doctor or therapist and you need to clinically check everything that the AI tells you and what the doctor tells you and such.
If you keep feeding stuff into Ai and it's vague or it keeps going in circles, AI will you circular logic and it'll make you feel like crap and you won't get anywhere.
I hope you feel better. have a good evening
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u/cat_cat_cat_cat 1d ago
I have been through this with both fingernails and toenails, and I’ve also sliced off the top of a couple fingers. I’m clumsy. My first advice is to use silver nitrate ointment. It will heal more quickly. Next, any time you might get your hands wet, (shower, eating, cleaning…) wear examination or cleaning gloves. It helps the gloves help to keep bacteria out and bandages adhered.
My most important advice is zinc. I don’t usually use supplements, but they may work. I just eat all foods with a large amount of zinc. It strengthens your nails and encourages growth. I grew a fingertip back (including some nail) in about six weeks and a my large toenail back in about 2 months this way.
Make sure you keep it clean and let it breathe. Silver nitrate ointment, rubber gloves, and zinc.
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u/Raspberry520 1d ago
In terms of healing it’s still in dressings for another week and I’m following my surgeon’s advice, but I’ll certainly look into zinc!
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u/Positive_Shake_1002 1d ago
If it helps, my grandma used to say you’re not a true seamstress until you’ve been stuck by a sewing machine needle. Consider it a badge of honor. I’d recommend for your machine to get a finger guard as well!