Fish fin poke gone bad.

[Tawn]

Please excuse typos ....typing with one finger. On my phone, under the influence of Percocet!

We had trips Thu, Fri, Sat & Sun last week so my hands were fairly nicked and cut up headed into Sunday morning. We did the usual, go catch spot , live line for Rockfish and then perch fish after we limited out on Rockfish. When spot fidhing I usually wear one of those rubber palmed gloves on my left hand for unhooking the inevitable small perch and/or croaker. I cut about 1/4" off the thumb and index finger so I can still bait spot hooks with the glove on. Well Sunday, we weren't really catching anything but spot so I ended up taking the glove off. The spot were coming in pretty quick and when a customer hauled up a small perch, I didn't take the time to put my glove on and you guessed it, I got stuck. At the time it didn't seem any worse than the thousands of other times we have all been stuck ... I didn't stop and wash it and continued baiting hooks and taking fish off hooks.

When I got home that afternoon my hands were pretty beat up after four days straight but no worse than normal.

By Monday my left index finger and thumb hurt worse than normal. ... I inspected them for any fins broken off in the skin, couldn't find any and soaked the hand in Epsom Salt (according to my mom, that cures everything).

By Tuesday morning, the finger & thumb was swollen to the point it was "hard", discolored and painful to bend. I got in to sick call and was given 800 mg Spectra antibiotics to take twice a day.

The oral antibiotic had no effect and by Wednesday afternoon the affected area was purple, hot to the touch and hard as a rock and spreading.

I went to the AAFB ER, they immediately transferred me to Bethesda. They admitted me and began IV antibiotics and made two incisions to relieve the pressure. By Saturday morning not enough headway was being made on getting rid of the infection so the put me under and operated on the finger & thumb.

Basically what they did was open it up enough they could scrub the inside of my finger. Then they put in drainage tubes and left the incisions open so "they can heal from the inside out". I am still receiving IV antibiotics and have been told I will have to remain hospitalized until al least Monday evening.

My lesson learned is that I wil never again get in such a hurry that I will attempt to unhook multiple small croaker & perch without a glove. I will also make the time to thoroughly clean any and all fish fin & hook puncture wounds immediately.

[Chessie27]

Jesus!! That's a scary thought considering how many of us just "grab and go" when it comes to taking fish off. I think I will go dig those gloves out 'cause that doesn't look like fun.
A little later today, I will raise my glass to wishing you a speedy recovery!

[Chessie27]

Originally Posted by Tawn

Please excuse typos ....typing with one finger. On my phone, under the influence of Percocet!

Actually quite impressive! Please avoid operating heavy equipment though

[Tawn]

The most humbling part of this entire ordeal is being at Bethesda with a fishing related injury when everywhere you look are kids missing limb(s) and other horrible combat related injuries. It really puts my minor inconvience in perspective!

[garlien]

Looks terrible, but I know it will provide a good lesson for many of us...Guess the guys won't give me as much of a hard time for wearing gloves anymore...

I know its gotta be hard to see all the folks there that have come back with injuries that are so hard to see, but on the positive side, they made it back home and will get to see their friends and families again....In the end, that is what is really important....

Get better !

[Tawn]

Drain holes.. Must heal from the inside out. No stitches to close them up.

Does Grundens Make the gloves the guys on Deasliest Catch wear. Seriously, if the stand up to commercial crab work, surely they would work on the Bay.

[5th Tuition]

In about two weeks; that hand is going to feel much better with a cold beer in it

If it has to heal from the inside out; the alcohol (beer) should help

So sorry to see that hand in that condition.

5th (Marty)

[Skip]

So what you are saying is - If I go fishing they'll give me Percocet ?

Seriously - thank you for posting , think we'll all be more careful.

When you heal up - stop in Marty's. Jim has a gift from me to you - hopefully help prevent this from happening to you again.

[mlag]

Dang Tawn that's tough. Thanks for sharing. Obviously we all need to be more careful.....................Mark

[one fish]

Hope all goes well. I am paranoid about that crap, ever since wino talked about it years ago.

in cold wx I always wear thin gloves and grab the leader and use a dehooker to flip the rock.

fri we were LL with spot. i did not have gloves on and got pricked by a spot fin. put on the liquid disinfectent a couple times. and oinmt at home for the two days. looks ok. don't know if spot can do it to you, but don't want to find out.

not LL without gloves on again.
good luck. ron