We all agree that thumbs are useful. That being said I seem to be punishing my left thumb.

When I was in the 7^th or 8^th grade it all started. Now we all know never to tie a horse low to something. They can use their size and cause trouble. Well I was in a hurry and tied my horse to some steps attached to a shed. I went into the shed and came back out. I stepped on the steps and the horse decided it was time to educate me. With a mighty heave the steps were no longer attached to the shed and I was airborne. I landed on my left side and injured my left thumb. It promptly swelled up and hurt. The steps were destroyed and did not make a soft landing pad. I got to skip school that day. Then the next day it turned cold, like 30 below zero and we had 5 or 6 feet of snow. The wind stopped blowing, but it stayed cold. We had 40 heifers in a corral. To feed them we put bales of hay on toy sleds and a sack of grain on a donkey. The heifers had pink eye so we had to catch and treat each one. No we didn’t have a squeeze chute so they had to be roped and wrestled. That meant we were outside in bright snow and cold. When we went to the house I discovered that warm was not my friend. I could not see in the house, snow blindness, so I groped my way to the bathroom and ran cold water on the danged thumb. It liked the cold. I really liked being outside in the cold because my thumb felt great. It was the warm that hurt. It eventually warmed up and my thumb got over hurting.

Skip several years. I was on a fishing boat, and it was a successful trip. The ocean was a bit sloppy. I decided to fillet the fish. Somehow I ran a knife into my left thumb. Not painful. Nice to have a brother in law for a surgeon. He towed me to his clinic and stitched the thing up. Yes I got a bill for the stitching, but it was worth it.

Then a couple years ago I was shearing some sheep. Old time sheep shearers always wear a glove on their off hand. Well I was not going to be bothered. Yup. I ran the machine into my left hand. No it would not stop bleeding. Off to immediate care for stitches and a tetanus shot. Well when they got done wrapping the thing it looked like a major injury. I had trouble getting a glove on that hand to I could finish the project I started. The only thing that hurt was the tetanus shot.

Now to present day. I was butchering a lamb and using a very sharp Montana knife. Don’t ask me how, cause I don’t know. I stabbed my left thumb. No pain, but again it would not stop bleeding. Off to urgent care. The medical staff remarked on the bleeding. I told them the cut was self cleaning. The nurse decided I needed stitches, and three were applied..It leaked for a couple days, but nothing drippy. The nurse asked me if I had been using a sterile knife. I told her that the knife had started clean, but I was butchering a lamb so it had never been sterile. Danged numbing shots were painful. A couple days later I took the lambs in for cut and wrapping. One of the cutters looked at my thumb and then showed me her left thumb scars. She told me that tap water for cleaning and self applied stitches were quicker than medical folks. I’m not that tough. She recommenced I go on Amazon and order some butchering gloves. I did that. Now the real question. Will I be able to find them when I butcher next.