My Ever-Lovin' Hand

Well, I now have almost full hand-faculties back, so I can tell my story! I was building a set of steps for my brother-in-law's daycare. They have a set of steps that go up a hill behind their daycare. The hill is about a 65 degree incline. Pretty steep. Anyhow, I had cleared all the debris from the old steps away so that I wouldn't fall on a nail (ah, the irony!). So, I had constructed a piece of the steps and was going to drag it up the hill and set it in place, but it was so long (about 16 feet) that I had to drag it around and through the pile of cleared debris in order to get it to a point where I could drag it straight up the hill and set it in place.

Well, as I was dragging it around, I slipped and fell on the steep hill. I reached out with my hand to catch myself on the side of the hill. Catch myself, I did. I felt a funny feeling when my hand came to rest, and, looking down at my hand, I noticed that there was a nice, 6 penny nail coming through the back of my hand. Now, this was one of those carpenter's nails that's flared down along the shaft of the nail and twisted so that it holds the wood better. It certainly holds flesh well, too. I would find out later that it was also bent at a ninety degree angle just an inch down from the tip. This whole thing was shoved into my hand just so.

So, I knew from previous knowledge that if something is stuck in your body, you should never remove it, but let the doctor do that. So, I thought that I would leave the nail in. Then, I realized that this nail was attached to thirty feet of railing. The nail itself was in the base of a 2x4. So, I thought that I might just get my circular saw and cut the board at a spot where I could carry the remainder. Then, I realized that my saw was about 20 feet away, and I couldn't drag this railing that far. So, I called my parents on my cell phone, thinking that they could come and cut the board for me. I got their voice mail. So, rather than sit there all night with a board stuck to my hand, I decided that I would pull my hand off the board and go to the hospital.

I knew that it would hurt, so I thought that I might just quickly jerk the board off. I tried to do so. Much to my chagrin and hurt, the board came straight up with my hand when I jerked (remember, I didn't know that it was bent at a ninety degree angle in my hand!). So, I decided to do the only manly thing that I could do. I stuck my left index and middle fingers under my right hand and I pushed my thumb against the board and I pried my hand off the nail. Now, this act took a considerable amount of leverage, wiggling, and pain on my part. I can honestly say that it was the most painful experience of my life.

Anyhow, I got the nail off. I was surprised to see the twisted, mangled nail for what it really was. It was all corroded and covered in my blood and flesh. Pretty neat, actually. Anyhow, at this point, I realized that I could call my brother-in-law and have him come pick me up. He rushed over with my sister, and I instructed her to pick up all my tools and put them in the trunk of her mountaineer, and then move the wood off to the side. She gave me a few paper towels and a bag of ice to wrap around my hand, too (at this point, all I had was my filthy work shirt to wrap around my hand). On the way to the hospital, the ice melted all over the crotch of my pants, so I'm sure that people thought that I had driven a nail through my hand and then passed out from the pain and wet myself. How humiliating. But, I survived.

I thank God, because the nail could've easily broken bone (how it missed the bone attached to my pinky finger is still a mystery to me!), severed tendons, injured nerves, hit an artery, or maybe my eye, or anything. Yet, God protected me through it all and gave me a calm mind and peaceful spirit. So, all in all, it really wasn't that bad, and I now have a pretty exciting story to tell!