My finger

My finger got caught in the pulley mechanism of the Honda small engine that drives our garden tiller. Why did I poke the pulley with my finger while the motor was running? I have no idea. I guess that’s what makes it an accident?

The email I sent my students from the hospital

Here’s the glove that got pulled into the pulley. The glove that pulled my finger into the tiller pulley

My finger was stuck where the arrow indicates. Surprisingly, not amputated.
Arrow showing where my finger got stuck

Note the groove cut into my finger bone. Xray showing bone that was ground away

The ER (plastic surgery) docs at Mayo decided I needed to have finger surgery to clean the dirt out of the damaged bone (visible in the photo). They said it wasn’t the worst (by far) thing they’d seen that night. April is apparently small-engine season at the hospital. If you ever get a cut and bone is showing, go to the ER right away. Bones are porous and it’s hard to get bacteria out of them once they’re contaminated. Don’t wait a week! The end result of the plastic surgery residents in the ER. Note the visible bone.

Thankfully, no gangrene (hooray for infectious disease docs!) and a mostly functional right index finger (Thanks Dr Bakri !). Using the toilet with your non-dominant hand is much harder than you’d think (try it!). Physical/Occupational therapy is great! It’s nice to have good health insurance and a nice family!
A few months later, pretty much normal finger