Below is part of a dialogue that happed last Thursday when I called 911 after I almost cut my finger off while trying to cut a salmon in half.

JULY 4TH, 8:03 p.m.

911 -- "Dubuque 911, what is your emergency."

Me - "I just cut my finger, I think it is pretty bad. Blood hit the ceiling, is that normal"?

911 - "You cut your finger? Is it still attached?"

Me - "Yes, I think so, I'm afraid to look at it."

911 - "Did you cut your self intentionally?"

Me - "Yeah, I had nothing else better to do, there was nothing on TV..."

(pause)

911 - "This is not a joking matter, can I get your name."

Me - "Patrick Fore"

911 - "Mr. Fore how did this happed..."

Me - "I was trying to cut a piece of salmon in half, it didn't work like I had in mind..."

911 - "So you cut it with a knife? Was it clean?"

Me - "Yeah I got most of the rust off before started to cut a raw fish"

(pause)

911 - "Please sir this is not funny..."

Although somewhat paraphrased, this is pretty much what I remember saying to the 911 operator.

For those of you who haven't figured it out by now, I had a somewhat serious accident the Thursday previous. I was home alone and I cut the base of my index finger on my left hand with a sharp knife.

I was cutting a frozen salmon in half and the knife slipped on the wet fish and into my finger leaving a deep cut and blood squirting and gushing from the laceration.

I went by ambulance to Mercy Hospital in Dubuque where they put in 13 stitches and sent me home. The next day I got a call from the only hand surgeon in town, Dr. Edwin Castanada. He informed me that he needed to see me right away on account of him thinking that I cut a tendon.

When he got there he proceeded to remove all of the stitches any reopen the laceration. That hurt.

A lot.

After looking at stuff, he informed me that he thinks that I did cause some damage and he was going to schedule me for surgery the next day. Turns out I cut two tendons and the artery, the worst kind of laceration for an extremity I learned.

Surgery was bazaar, painful and very stressful Last time I had surgery I was 7, and I had my tonsils taken out. I'm not sure what my favorite part of this surgery was; I think is tied between sitting in my boxers with a gown an paper slippers or waking up to a HUGE cast on my arm and being completely doped up and thinking I was a member of the cast of 'A Chorus Line'.

I have been in that same cast till yesterday where they took it off revealing the damage Dr. Castanada had inflected on my hand.

They told me that they were going to put a splint on, but this isn't an ordinary splint, it is a splint from hell.

They drilled into my fingernail on my dead finger where they glued a small hook.
They then Velcroed a plastic splint that extends from half way up my forearm to past my fingers covering my hand from the backside. They then tied a string to the hook and attached a long and narrow piece of Velcro to the other end.

I am to keep my finger in a fixed bent position, which allows the tendons to relax, and heal away from the skin. I am to perform finger exercises sever times per hour while I am awake.

I don't really what to make of this whole experience. I mean I do like the attention and the sympathy I get from friends, coworkers and the cute girls who work at the Gap; but really I could have done with out the pain and other random annoyances.

Simple things like buttoning paints, tying shoes and even typing is very difficult and even painful. And I've learned how damaging one small inch wide cut can be.

How one moment, one random choice can affect my life in such an impacting way.