Talk about no good deed going unpunished!

[JohnS_323]

I put a 35" TV on FreeCycle the other day and someone jumped right on it to come and get. We told them it was a big TV (yeah, duh it's a 35") and that it was pretty heavy. They were also going to take a pair of 4' tall speakers, a component cabinet and the TV stand.

At 10am a frail older man (probably mid to late 60's) shows up in a REALLY SMALL 2 door car. REALLY SMALL! OK, so I volunteer to throw all of stuff in my old truck and drive it over to his house. The guy has very little ability to help me carry the TV. He's trying but isn't doing so well. We get to his house and I unload all of the smaller stuff and ask him to give me a hand with the TV. As we pull it out of the back of the truck I say "You got it?." He says "Yep". We get it out and start to move and he starts getting lower and lower. Next thing I know BAM, he lets go of his end, causing the entire weight of the TV to drive the corner of it right onto my middle finger. SOB did that hurt! So now I have a black fingernail and a really swolen fingertip.

I often hear people say "Come with eveything you need to pick it up because we're not helping." I didn't think to do that but I will in the future.

 

[Brian]

Holy Hell! That really sucks!

Did he still take the tv?

 

[JohnS_323]

Yeah we were pulling it out of my truck in his driveway when he dropped it. Once that thing smashed my finger I yelled a few expletives and left him with a TV halfway into his garage. As far as I'm concerned it can rot there!

 

[JRodrig692]

I am sorry, but that story is great! Was laughing n as I read it and will be laughing when I tell it to my wife.

Again sorry for laughing, but you know how it is, when it happens to someone else besides you, you can't help but laugh!

 

[JohnS_323]

OK, so I remember hearing that when you get a blood blister under a nail you're supposed to drill a small hole in the nail to relieve the pressure. Let's just say that doing that hurts like HELL and makes a bit of a mess! I think it worked though and I should be able to keep my nail. But wow, that was no fun!

 

[JRodrig692]

Back in the college days, had someone drop a couch on my toe, turing the nail black almost instantly. As a man I figured no big deal, it will go away on its own. Well that night, the pain was intense. So I grabbed the lighter and a safety pin, heated that thing up and sent it through the nail. The fountain coming from the toe must have arched about 3 feet. Nasty! I feel your pain!

 

[malulu]

John,

thanks for sharing the great story...
but like JRob said, it is kind of funny, can'y help but keep laughing...
;D

to make you feel better:
Yes, we will all did the same thing as you do, if a OLD man shows up and wanted to take the TV, we will personally drive the TV to his home... and hopefully we will be smart enough to call someone else for help without trusting the old man, and will be cursing on the way back after the job get done.

 

[mikem]

Ouch. Being a framer, I used to smash my finger every month, Full swing.At that time, nail guns just came out and were $800. Guess what I bought with my next pay check? It's only about a 5% chance you would loose the nail, but the pain will be there for weeks.

 

[dflint]

OUCH! fingernail injuries are the worst! I remember when I was a kid on a camping trip I fell forward and had a lawn chair fold up on hand while I was sitting in it (don't ask how it happened). It cut through four of my fingernails right across the middle of the nail. I couldn't use my hand for a month it was so painful.

Nowadays when I whack my nail and know it's gonna turn black and fall off; I heat up an exacto blade and come at it between the side of the nail and the cuticle. It relieves the pressure and aint nearly as painful as taking a drill to the nail.

 

[Absinthe]

OK, so I remember hearing that when you get a blood blister under a nail you're supposed to drill a small hole in the nail to relieve the pressure. Let's just say that doing that hurts like HELL and makes a bit of a mess! I think it worked though and I should be able to keep my nail. But wow, that was no fun!

Its not any cleaner when you have it done in the ER.

Ice that finger pretty good. Depending on how much blood collected under there and how bad the swelling gets you might still lose the nail.

Make sure it doesnt get infected.

 

[Treadingwater]

OK, so I remember hearing that when you get a blood blister under a nail you're supposed to drill a small hole in the nail to relieve the pressure. Let's just say that doing that hurts like HELL and makes a bit of a mess! I think it worked though and I should be able to keep my nail. But wow, that was no fun!

I don't think I could sit there and drill a hole in my nail. I'd rather live with the pain and the increased odds of losing the nail. That's got to hurt as much as smashing it in the first place.

 

[JohnS_323]

I'll have to keep the exacto blade in mind. The drill did hurt a bit, mainly because it was hard to hold back the weight of it while still making progress. Once it popped through the nail I drilled into the raw meat a little. That sent me screaming! After that, though, the releif was fantastic. I'd definitely do something like that again (exacto blade or whatever) because it made the whole thing tolerable.

 

[Brian]

Once it popped through the nail I drilled into the raw meat a little.

Thanks for the details!!

 

[kabal2]

john thank you for the laugh, it hurts alot, like the said next time use an exacto nife, i hammer my left middle finger down, andi had to do that so i feel your pain man, and btw thank you for all the datails. next time post to bring a big friend with them to carry the stuff

Gabe

 

[Carlo]

Yea man, nail injuries hurt like the dickens. I remember when I was 13 or 14 "playing" in my dad's printing company with the new book binder/stapler. It can drive long thick staples through an inch of paper with no problem in very, quick succession. I wasn't watching what I was doing and before I knew what happened I had about 8 staples through my fingers and two through 2 different fingernails. The second to last one caught/jammed and the next one went in at about the same spot (fingernail) and basically stapled me to the machine.

I don't know what hurt more them going in or trying to pry them back out which wasn't easy and took a long time. My mom called the ambulance and they didn't know what to do. They pretty quickly called the fire department. Even these guys were puzzled because the machine didn't come apart to give them room to work. Meanwhile where ever a staple went in it pretty much flattened my fingers at the point of entry and they were worried about O2/circulation.

Finally, they had to cut the top of the binder off with torches to get access to free me. Then they basically had to pry the staples out. If you have ever tried to remove a nail with the claw part of a hammer you have an idea of how they had to remove each staple. Man did that hurt. I guess the only good part about it was that the staples went completely through the nail and fingers so the blood easily escaped and no pressure built up. I still lost both fingernails and one got infected which is a whole nother story. No fingernail on one finger for over a year.

I must say it did teach me a good lesson I'll never forget!

Carlo

PS I'm lazy and don't feel like reading the thread again. When the guy dropped his end did it break the TV or did your body "save it"?

 

[JohnS_323]

I have no clue. I left it right where it landed - half in the garage and half out - I grumbled a few expletives and got the heck out of there. I was quite woozy on the ride home, though!

On Super Bowl Sunday I dropped a sheet of plywood, edge first, onto my big toe. That was some unbelievable pain too. I didn't know about dillng a hole in the nail at that time. Had I known about it I definitely would have done it. I was in some serious pain for a few days. That nail is going to be falling off soon.

Carlo, wow, that had to be awful. I couldn't imagine sitting there, being stapled to a machine, waiting for some people show up and then try to work out a game plan which results in a claw hammer prying the staples out of my hand. . . now thanks. I'll take the 2' drop of a 200lb TV on my finger, thanks!

 

[Carlo]

It's one of the those moments that still sends shivers up your spine thinking about it even though it was almost 30 years ago. In a way it's funny because the pain was a lot worse then the broken bones & fractures I've had growing up but there was no lasting injury or treatment needed after the event (besides the infection that resulted).

John, I don't blame you for just leaving. I wonder if the TV still worked after that. Oh well, not your problem if it didn't.

 

[Subliminal]

Nothing I like better than someone dropping one side of something heavy without saying anything. A simple, "Oh NO, it's slipping!" would suffice, or something.

You're lucky you got out with only a finger injury. I used to move furniture and stuff like that would put people in the hospital with back injuries.

Those big CRT's are heavy!