# FRIs - Firewood related injuries



## Badfish740 (Jan 12, 2015)

Yesterday I was stacking some of the load I brought up in the rolloff dumpster.  A lot of it was just laying in a muddy part of the yard so during this last cold snap it froze hard.  I grabbed a piece and yanked on it and it came loose a lot easier than I thought it would and * BAM * I managed to sandwich my middle finger between it and another piece so hard that I saw stars.

I spent the night with it elevated, ice, advil, the whole bit, but the nail is turning blacker and blacker and the swelling and throbbing won't let up.  Going to see the doc at 2:00 to see if they can do something to relieve the pressure.  Anybody else's firewood get the best of them lately?


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## Fsappo (Jan 12, 2015)

Ouch!  May have to drill a hole thru the nail into the finger.  I've had to do it before.


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## maple1 (Jan 12, 2015)

Har - that's the extent of my injuries too the last couple years, aside from some slightly bruised shins once in a while or slightly tweaked back if I get ahead of myself.

Always my left hand, always the left 3 digits.

Currently, my middle one is about 3/4 grown back after the black part fell off a couple weeks ago, the pinky is about 1/4 blue from the root up, and the one in between is about 7/8 grown back. This is the second go-round on that one in a year and a half - and man it takes some long time to grow a new nail. I didn't do anything about them at the time, the pain went away after a while. But mine were more glancing blows than it sounds like yours was.


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## Badfish740 (Jan 12, 2015)

Doc says I hit it the wrong way   Most of the blood is pooled in the finger pad-not the nail.  He said he could drain the nail but it wouldn't help-I'd still be feeling the pressure   He said the only thing that's going to help it is time.  At least I got a split and some padding for it so I don't keep banging it into things along with an order for an x-ray if it doesn't start to get better.  If its any indication of how bad it hurts, I was disappointed to hear that the doctor WASN'T going to drill a hole in my nail


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## MishMouse (Jan 13, 2015)

This year when I was splitting some wood with the wood splitter, the log moved causing me to squash my hand.
Took a second for my brain to tell my other hand to stop pulling on the handle.

Left Hand says to the Right Hand ... "Hey fool your squashing your hand!!"
Right Hand "Gotta keep splitting to get this done..., what..., oh.. oppsss!!"
Left Hand "OUCH!"


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## Ncountry (Jan 13, 2015)

Fsappo said:


> Ouch!  May have to drill a hole thru the nail into the finger.  I've had to do it before.



If you do this yourself , just use your fingers, NOT a power drill,  to "power "the drill bit. Lol. Don't ask me how I learned this...


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## Fsappo (Jan 13, 2015)

Ncountry said:


> If you do this yourself , just use your fingers, NOT a power drill,  to "power "the drill bit. Lol. Don't ask me how I learned this...



Yeah, I did it on my dad a few years back.  When the drill bit caught the nail....and torqued..No son wants to see his dad in that much pain, but I still laughed so hard I was crying.


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## j7art2 (Jan 14, 2015)

Yep, I've got a shiner too. Two months old now. Lol


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## SKIN052 (Jan 14, 2015)

Possibly had to do with a few beer but I was checking the stove once and for some reason did not bother opening it the whole way. For some reason I bent over to take a better look at the fire and burnt my forehead on the nickle door. Yes, I did feel like an idiot.


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## Ncountry (Jan 14, 2015)

As a kid we had no running hot water and it was a poorly insulated old farm  house. After taking a bath with the boiling water off of the pot on top of the stove mixed with the cold in the tub, I would run out and stand next to the stove (just outside the bathroom door) to finish drying off and getting dressed. I remember burning my wet @$$ more than once when I backed up too close to the stove .... sssss... lol


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## Shari (Jan 15, 2015)

SKIN052 said:


> Possibly had to do with a few beer but I was checking the stove once and for some reason did not bother opening it the whole way. For some reason I bent over to take a better look at the fire and burnt my forehead on the nickle door. Yes, I did feel like an idiot.


 
Minus the beer reference I can relate to this.


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## fbelec (Jan 22, 2015)

i guess i'm the opposite when i was splitting with the maul a piece came up about 900 miles an hour and got me right above the eye on my brow. needless to say i wasn't fast enough moving. i now have a piece of my eyebrow missing where i got the 4 stitches. i now use a splitter with no problems.


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## valuman (Jan 22, 2015)

SKIN052 said:


> Possibly had to do with a few beer but I was checking the stove once and for some reason did not bother opening it the whole way. For some reason I bent over to take a better look at the fire and burnt my forehead on the nickle door. Yes, I did feel like an idiot.


Thanks so much for sharing this; you made me feel better about the two burned lines I've got on my right forearm from reaching into the stove with short sleeves on and hitting the top of the opening. I'm really glad I can wear a long sleeve shirt all day to hide them.


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## SKIN052 (Jan 23, 2015)

Lol, i have so many scars I forget where half of them came from. Only a few are firewood related.


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## ChipTam (Jan 23, 2015)

fbelec said:


> i guess i'm the opposite when i was splitting with the maul a piece came up about 900 miles an hour and got me right above the eye on my brow. needless to say i wasn't fast enough moving. i now have a piece of my eyebrow missing where i got the 4 stitches. i now use a splitter with no problems.



I've used a maul to split my wood for years without an issue.  Then, last fall, I borrowed a buddy's gasoline powered splitter.  For two days I would pick up the fallen splits with my left hand and toss them backwards into the wheelbarrow.  On the third morning I woke up and couldn't move my left arm without pain.  It was my rotator cuff.  I'm now finishing up a month of physical therapy.  The therapy has helped but I'm still not at 100%.  Hope all who responded to this thread are on the mend.

ChipTam


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## fbelec (Jan 23, 2015)

chip i did the same thing this past fall. although i have had left shoulder problems for about 40 years. this time it's not going away. throwing the splits into a big pile for stacking later is what i did. still can't move the left are with even a gallon of milk. found out i got two tears and spots of junk in the socket plus severe arthritis. dam firewood. gettin old stinks


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## MattFoley772 (Jan 24, 2015)

Split 3+ cords by hand last year. Lifting the logs and swinging the maul hundreds of times caused sore forearm and bicep that lasted months. They still haven't fully healed and get aggravated even today when I carry in the wood. I enjoy the workout but don't know if my arms will be recovered in a couple of months when I have to split all the logs I have waiting for me.

When splitting I always wear pants, gloves, goggles. I put the logs on top of another log to split them. The one time I wore shorts a huge log fell off and hit my leg and cause a huge bump and cut that is now a scar.


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## xman23 (Jan 25, 2015)

For a lot of years my fore arm had burn marks from side door loading. Then I discovered long stove gloves.


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## Adios Pantalones (Jan 26, 2015)

MattFoley772 said:


> Split 3+ cords by hand last year. Lifting the logs and swinging the maul hundreds of times caused sore forearm and bicep that lasted months. They still haven't fully healed and get aggravated even today when I carry in the wood. I enjoy the workout but don't know if my arms will be recovered in a couple of months when I have to split all the logs I have waiting for me.
> 
> When splitting I always wear pants, gloves, goggles. I put the logs on top of another log to split them. The one time I wore shorts a huge log fell off and hit my leg and cause a huge bump and cut that is now a scar.


I figure it's more about gripping pieces to move them or throw them than anything- I get the same thing. It lasts longer than I'm comfortable, and I get numbness in my hands when driving on occasion.


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## fbelec (Jan 30, 2015)

Adios Pantalones said:


> I figure it's more about gripping pieces to move them or throw them than anything- I get the same thing. It lasts longer than I'm comfortable, and I get numbness in my hands when driving on occasion.



i had numbness for years when driving. just had carpial tunnel surgery last july numbness gone


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## xman23 (Jan 31, 2015)

When I cleared my lot for the cabin, I spent a summer hand splitting, maybe 6 cords of oak. I developed a fast powerful swing. By the fall I had a hernia. I put off the surgery for years, which was a big mistake.


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## MishMouse (Feb 3, 2015)

Yesterday when loading the stove my shirt caught on fire.
I grabbed it with my other hand trying to put it out burning my hand, after my brain kicked in I grabbed a glove and was able to put it out.
Luckily I only burnt two fingers on my left hand, I could have been in serious hurt.


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## firefighterjake (Feb 3, 2015)

MishMouse said:


> Yesterday when loading the stove my shirt caught on fire.
> I grabbed it with my other hand trying to put it out burning my hand, after my brain kicked in I grabbed a glove and was able to put it out.
> Luckily I only burnt two fingers on my left hand, I could have been in serious hurt.



Great ... now we're going to have to encourage our members here to only load their woodstove while shirtless.


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## MattFoley772 (Feb 5, 2015)

Adios Pantalones said:


> I figure it's more about gripping pieces to move them or throw them than anything- I get the same thing. It lasts longer than I'm comfortable, and I get numbness in my hands when driving on occasion.


Yes, gripping the wood adds to the strain already done from gripping and swinging the maul. I am bummed to be injured because splitting wood is a great workout and I love the sense of accomplishment from getting a workout while actually accomplishing something, as opposed to, say, running on a treadmill. And it feels good to look at a pile of splits knowing I did it myself without a gas-powered machine.


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## fbelec (Feb 7, 2015)

firefighterjake said:


> Great ... now we're going to have to encourage our members here to only load their woodstove while shirtless.



 i always knew that loading a stove could be a good thing     (depending on who it is )


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## Badfish740 (Feb 16, 2015)

firefighterjake said:


> Great ... now we're going to have to encourage our members here to only load their woodstove while shirtless.



That's got it's own risks...as a frequent first-thing-in-the-morning loader I have gone down to the furnace shirtless right out of bed in the past, until I got tired of dodging those little cluster bomb type sparks that tend to pop out when you open the door for the first time in a while   You know what they say, "DFBN" (Don't Fry Bacon Naked)


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## BIGDADDY (Feb 22, 2015)

Sorry about your finger. I found the best thing to do for a finger nail like that is to heat a needle very hot and push it through the finger nail. it won't hurt until you get through the nail. You will know when its through from the burning sensation. Don't worry it won't hurt very much. The blood under the nail takes a lot of the heat out. If it begins draining immediately , then then gently squeeze to help it drain most of the blood out.You can press the finger down on a table top or similar object also to drain it. It will feel better right away just getting the pressure off the nail.
If it doesn't immediately start draining after you push the hot needle through the nail and you did feel the burning sensation do Not reheat the needle. The heat may have caused the blood to coagulate basically causing a damn. Take a unheated cool needle and push it into the hole in your nail to open up the "damn".

I know this will work because I have done it. The sooner you do it the better.


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## BamaScroungr (Feb 23, 2015)

Forearm burns from opening the hot woodstove door with my forearm--I don't do that any more.  And tried to split a log once, propelling the log into my left shin.  Hurt for months, and there's still a purple dent there.


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## TreePapa (Feb 26, 2015)

A year or 2 after we bought our house, I nearly cut off 1/3rd of my left thumb cutting firewood. With a wormdrive (Skill 77). With the guard jammed. Yeah, that was DUMB. I still have that saw. I don't use it for firewood.


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