Dang, 2 weeks ago was shed hunting and got a monster of a thorn stuck in the tip of my right middle finger.
Not a raging infection or anything, but still hurts like hell when I put pressure on it. Guess I wasn't expecting to not be able to shoot due to what I thought was a minor little injury. Having draw withdrawal!
Tried pulling back with just two fingers but just making a mess of things. But found 4 sheds here in Eastern Massachusetts, one on Cape Cod so at least got some good from it. :goldtooth:
Soak it in hot salty water. That will help draw out any infection and help relieve the pain. Puncture wounds can be hard to heal.
Keep an eye on it. I had a thorn poke me in the lip, it got infected, and it traveled into a lymph node in my neck. Cat Scratch Disease (Bartonella henselae) and I was sick as a dog. Lost 55 pounds. If you get fevers and chills in a few weeks mention that possibility to your doctor.
Lopped the last inch or so off my draw hand ring finger via a tractor accident, maybe 12ish years ago. Ouch! Happily it was reattached, but I could not draw with that hand for some time. I switched to left-handed (split-finger) for 18 months or so. An eye-opening experience. I did get so I could shoot well enough to hunt, but no shots presented. Teaching myself the new muscle "memory" knowing what I wanted, but mirror image, was a real learning experience and I think made me a better archer overall.
Worked up from squeezing balled socks on up to squeezing tennis balls until I got the strength and flexibility back. It is 100%, but the pinky side of the tip has less feeling than the other fingers. Even the nail grew back, which pleased both the surgeon and my GP.
That is a nasty turn of events! I will not complain after hearing that.
I did soak it in hot salt water last night and my wife told me to put some raw honey in it too.
I dropped a power take off shaft from a combine on my ring finger on my right hand . It split the finger, tore the nail off and broke the bone . This was just days before the bow season opened . I ended up shooting with two fingers under and I shot that way for seven years till I started to get arther in my middle finger. I found after all that time I had got feeling back in my broken finger so I went back to 3 under . Thorns can be very infectious you may need anti biotics. Ive had them before, soaking in Epsom's salts does help .
Funny story so about three years ago, I severely damaged my left hand, mainly the index and ring finger at the knuckles, however, I recovered eventually fully, but with nerve damage in between the two fingers, manifest as greatly reduced sensitivity and some impairment in mobility. So I cannot grip the bow as hard as I used to. Incidentally, it helps a lot to not choke the thing like a snake. I then injured my string index finger and it was so sore for so long. I forced myself to relax the index finger and not put much pressure on with it while pulling back the string and much to my amazement, I found my accuracy shooting improved about 1000%. I have never shot this well in my entire life and I think just the relaxation alone and using a slightly less heavy bow has made an amazing enormous difference so the index finger injury on the bow string hand was a massive game changer in accuracy. Oh, and watch out for Osage thorns.....
Funny this topic came up. 2 weekends ago I was helping my son on his room addition. I was cutting a piece of roof sheeting using my left hand( I'm a retired carpenter/contractor so this is not new to me) and went to grab the off fall with my right and somehow bound the saw up and it kicked and I cut the tips of my 2 middle fingers on my right hand. I'm healing up pretty good but just itching to shoot.