True statement. I lost a finger tip in a mandolin making potatoes lyonnaise. It mostly grew back. However, it has never felt the same. It's like the nerve endings in the finger tip throw unhandled exceptions. Some say properly cooked french food is worth it. i agree.
Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
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Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#12Whenever there's a post about regeneration, I always refer people to this amazing TED talk.
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#13Bone fracture healing is also, exactly, regeneration. Regeneration of fingertips in small children is almost universal, provided you don't stitch it up . George Becker's book "The Body Electric" is the most complete exploration of regeneration I have encountered to date. Becker's suspicion was that we gave up general regeneration in exchange for cancer resistance. Updates welcome! TBE deserves follow-up.
also "The Spark in the machine", as well as the Tufts University video showing how electricity forms the frog embryo
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#14True statement. I lost a finger tip in a mandolin making potatoes lyonnaise. It mostly grew back. However, it has never felt the same. It's like the nerve endings in the finger tip throw unhandled exceptions. Some say properly cooked french food is worth it. i agree.
How long is never? I have some cuts with nerve damage that slowly improved (or was it my brain gradually learned that the different feeling is not foreign?) over many many years, like more than 10. No serious ones on my finger tips though.
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#15Almost exactly a year ago I cut a 45 degree chunk off my thumb (box cutter working with drywall...). Straight cut, thumb looked like "Gumby". A year later you'd never be able to tell, rounded again with fingerprints as well. Quite amazing given I'm middle aged.
Similar to my own story, cut 3/4mm from the side of my thumb. Panicked and tried to reattach it, but later I read about the regeneration so, I removed the tip (ripped it) and just moved to wait and see. A few weeks passed and I saw how every layer of skin, grew back. Leaving a hole at the center first, and progressively all of it., was filled. I have pictures of it. You can’t tell know, pretty impressive I was 42 ATM
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#16True statement. I lost a finger tip in a mandolin making potatoes lyonnaise. It mostly grew back. However, it has never felt the same. It's like the nerve endings in the finger tip throw unhandled exceptions. Some say properly cooked french food is worth it. i agree.
As an accident-prone home chef myself, I highly recommend a pair of kevlar "cut gloves" for anything involving a mandolin, peeler, or grater. They're just a few bucks and can save you a lot of tears.
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#17Almost exactly a year ago I cut a 45 degree chunk off my thumb (box cutter working with drywall...). Straight cut, thumb looked like "Gumby". A year later you'd never be able to tell, rounded again with fingerprints as well. Quite amazing given I'm middle aged.
I did the same thing 40 years ago. Still hasn't grown back
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#18I chopped off around 3-4mm off the tip of my left index finger as a kid with a lawn trimmer. 20 years later, I punched a nice groove around 3mm deep into the tip of another finger tip while trying to get tea out of a tea tube [0] (don't buy these things). It took weeks, but both times, the tips grew back perfectly round and smooth, even the fingerprints are back. The regrown tips felt a bit numb for 1-2 months, but t…
Pure wild speculation: I suspect that an awful log of our biological form is fractals formed from chemical gradients, with our DNA controlling the amounts of each chemical, both how fast they're produced and consumed. Included in this are some wild "Programs" were Chemical A causes Chemical B to be produced, Chemical B produces Chemical C and chemical C shuts off chemical A - In wild patterns that eventually form the beauty of our bodies. On a mass scale, with dozens of signaling chemicals and switches flipped - Organelle A produces chemical B and C and they osmose. B spreads far and wide, and an organ grows wherever B is concentrated. C doesn't spread, and eventually it grows concentrated enough to shut itself off. Thus, the physical limits of a body are formed.
Fingerprints would then be where this all happens on a micro scale - Running the game of life in 3d on the cells of your body, until they reach an "end state" of a stable limit of your skin.
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#19True statement. I lost a finger tip in a mandolin making potatoes lyonnaise. It mostly grew back. However, it has never felt the same. It's like the nerve endings in the finger tip throw unhandled exceptions. Some say properly cooked french food is worth it. i agree.
What is the nature of the exceptions? Does it feel like something is still undefined?
Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)
#20I chopped off around 3-4mm off the tip of my left index finger as a kid with a lawn trimmer. 20 years later, I punched a nice groove around 3mm deep into the tip of another finger tip while trying to get tea out of a tea tube [0] (don't buy these things). It took weeks, but both times, the tips grew back perfectly round and smooth, even the fingerprints are back. The regrown tips felt a bit numb for 1-2 months, but t…
Any idea if your fingerprints are the same as before?