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Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

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Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#51

Post by tempestn »

jl2718 wrote: post #43

I chopped off the tip of my index finger about 20 years ago and then got it sewn back on. Another dude I was working with did the same and didn’t get it sewn back on. Four years later, his was good as new, and mine was healed but I couldn’t press on it without a lot of pain. I had to give up playing the guitar, and still can’t press on the strings. Typing is a little bit weird because I can’t feel the keys, and I end…

I suppose... in theory you could chop it off again. (Presumably not worth it if it's only in pain under significant pressure though.) Probably not something you'd want to do yourself. I actually kind of wonder if you could find a surgeon willing to do it!

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#53

Post by lqet »

frogulis wrote: post #30
lqet wrote: post #5

I 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…

> 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 Out of curiosity, how did this happen? Is the opening sharp?

Its not that sharp, its a tube of brushed aluminium around, around 2cm in diameter, the walls ca. 1 mm thick. It's tapered at the top (which can be seen in the image). I put tea in there and coudldn't get it out after it had swollen in the hot water. I opened the bottom, put the handle of a wooden cooking spoon in, hold the cooking spoon with both hands and pushed the tea tube against a wall. The tea suddenly gave loose, and the tea tube shot down the cooking spoon to where my hand was holding it. It only hurt after the shock of seeing a groove in my fingertip was over, and it seemed like and eternity until there was blood (but then lots of it).

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#54

Post by spyder »

l2p wrote: post #41
lqet wrote: post #5

I 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…

Regarding how the body "knows" how to form missing pieces, might be worth checking out Michael Levin's research regarding bio-electricity. Most interesting finding to me is that once modified, the animal bodies continue to produce different parts as if there is some electrical "memory" in the cells. Here is an overview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XheAMrS8Q1c , though there are much longer lectures and pape…

Another related article:

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2020/how-d...

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#55

Post by andrenotgiant »

My 3yo daughter got a blood clot in her thumb that caused the entire tip above the last knuckle to get purple, then black, then essentially die off due to lack of blood flow.

She was in the hospital for something different at the time so doctors were able to watch it closely. It looked really bad: blackish grey and stiff like she had gotten frostbite.

The hand specialists warned us that amputation might be necessary if it gets infected, but said ideally they just "wait and see."

Sure enough, three weeks later they were able to literally just pull off the dead part and find a new thumb growing underneath!

Here are before and after photos: https://imgur.com/a/S8hlhKz WARNING: GRAPHIC

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#56

Post by johnwalkr »

galangalalgol wrote: post #9
lqet wrote: post #5

I 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…

I caught my finges in the chain of a swing as a child and tore about half the pad of my pinkies away to a similar depth, one narrow strip was still attached so I held it on with bandaids after washing it. It grew back together but now there is an offset or fault line in my print.

At first I thought you meant to write fingers, then I realized your must have been referring to the truncated fingers, that is “finges”.

Did you just do that on your own without telling an adult? I totally did similar things.

I cut my thumb to the bone when I was 10 by whittling a stick towards myself, and I also have a fault line there now.

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#57

Post by agumonkey »

andrenotgiant wrote: post #55

My 3yo daughter got a blood clot in her thumb that caused the entire tip above the last knuckle to get purple, then black, then essentially die off due to lack of blood flow. She was in the hospital for something different at the time so doctors were able to watch it closely. It looked really bad: blackish grey and stiff like she had gotten frostbite. The hand specialists warned us that amputation might be necessary…

A new children lullaby in the making

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#58

Post by selimthegrim »

lurquer wrote: post #39
GauntletWizard wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Turing’s diffusion/reaction algorithm involved this. As you intuited, it is a good system for making fractal-like designs and patterns. Cheetah spots, zebra stripes, maybe even 3D structures like capillaries... But, such a system can’t make discrete forms—like a nose. There’s something else going on. For instance... deer grow antlers every season (antlers are not horns; rather, they are complex structures with tissue…

It may be a way for deer especially with high status to recognize each other. Also marks of trauma or injury often persist in human nailbeds.

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#59

Post by bena »

I wonder what would happen to my right pinkie. When I was young I accidentally burned the fingerprint off on a curling iron. It's not a large section and there's no scar tissue, just a spot on my pinkie which looks more mosaic than swirly.

It's been that way most of my life as it happened when I was a single digit age.

If it would grow back, it should grow back with the original fingerprint.

Re: Amputated fingertips sometimes grow back (2013)

#60

Post by TaupeRanger »

ncmncm wrote: post #7

Bone 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.

Came to mention this book - the author is Robert O. Becker and it was published in 1985. Mike Levin (mentioned elsewhere in this thread) was greatly influenced by this book.
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