Will missing chunk of finger grow

Howdy-

This is my chopping off a chunk of your finger story. I was
installing a hardwood floor in my home. My wife had called me to let
me know that she would be home in about an hour. Great I thought
thats enough time to finish up to the doorway and make a temporary
threshold. As I was chamfering the edge of the last piece of wood I
could feel it start to bind up and, of course, as soon as I felt it,
it did just that. The board bound up between the guide and the saw
blade (I was making this cut on a small table saw) and was yanked
out of my control dragging my right (not dominate) hand over the
spinning blade, cutting both my thumb and forefinger. Fortunately,
because of the angle of the blade only a small portion of the blade
was exposed above the wood somewhat limiting the damage to my
fingers. As I turned my hand over to see what had happened the cuts
opened up and started bleeding like the black knight in Monty
Pythons Holy Grail, it was squirting everywhere. At some time my
wife had taken a naturopathy first aid class and learned that
cayenne pepper will stop bleeding. Yep, you read that correctly,
cayenne pepper. All you have to do is dump it in the cut and usually
with just that one application it will almost instantly stop
bleeding. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at
it, I had firsthand experience with this first aid technique and
immediately went to the pantry to get the pepper. Yes, we usually
use it for cooking so it was in the pantry, not in the bathroom with
the band aids and other first aid supplies. In this case it took a
couple of applications but I had the profuse bleeding stopped in
seconds, long seconds mind you but it was seconds and not minutes. I
had a medical doctor explain to me later that the capsicum in the
pepper actually cauterizes the blood vessels closed. I did all of
this over the sink while flushing the wounds under running water. I
then applied calendula ointment (another first aid staple in our
house) to a piece of gauze and wrapped up my finger. The thumb
turned out to have just a cut that a band aid worked fine on, my
finger was another story. The blade had cut about a 3/8 gash into
the inside tip of the finger leaving a flap of skin and sliced off
the side of my finger nail. I probably should have gone to the
Emergency Room at this point, but I hate the E. R., not out of fear
but because it always takes sooooo long to get in and out of there.
At this point with the bleeding stopped and every this wrapped up,
Im pretty sure I started to go into shock and the bottom of my
stomach dropped out and I was feeling sick. The pain was starting to
kick in at this point as well. I will mention here that the cayenne
will sting but only in pinpoints where it hits exposed nerves,
really not as much as you would think. This is why I was glad I had
an opportunity to use it before because I knew it wouldnt be too
painful and I knew how it would react with the blood (it sort of
blobs up and if it doesnt stop the bleeding right then new blood
swells out under the blob, and you just dump more on). So I standing
there feeling sick to my stomach thinking if I take aspirin I will
probably throw up and it would take too long to help me feel any
better right then. Then I remembered we had an unopened whipped
cream canister in the fridge. Nitrous Oxide is what is used to make
whipped cream and what is used by dentists as an anesthetic, so I
got the can popped off the top, sat down and sucked up all of the
gas, right as my wife walked in. As my stomach settled down I
explained what had happened. She asked if I wanted to go to the
Emergency Room and again I declined. Through the use of comfrey root
(promotes healing), golden seal (a natural anti-inflammatory and
anti-microbial, and calendula ointment I had the wound healed, not
just closed but healed over in a little more than a week. At this
point the flap (really a chunk) of skin had not reattached (this is
the only reason I regret not going to the E. R.) because the wound
had healed underneath it, and was becoming annoying, so I cut it
off. I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

My pointer finger is sort of pointed. The nail grew back fine. The
feeling in my finger is fine but if you look at my finger the inside
tip has a definite straight edged angle to it. In my case it didnt
grow back, but like I said it is probably my fault for not having it
stitched closed. If it happened again I would be tempted to try
super glue after I got the bleeding to stop and the wound was clean.
If nothing else I hope anyone reading this remembers, cayenne pepper
will stop profuse bleeding, and being able to remain calm and
perform first aid on yourself when alone is a very important life
skill.

I hope this helps.
Be well,
Dana Gifford
houseofbubba.com