"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 08 Apr 2007 21:09:46 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Got me to thinking about how come such utterly ridiculous crap
never happened to me. The only real answer I can up with is: dumb
luck.

I've had a lot of hook accidents including picking a monster with more
treble hooks on it that you could imagine out of the back of my head
with a mirror. (That client never went with me again, I'll tell you
what.)

I've got to believe that the double thumb hook up is a tall tale - as
in urban legend or something.

I second Doug's scalpel trick, but mostly when I seriously hook
myself, as I do at least two/three times a year, I just cut one end or
the other off and pull it through. That's where a handy little can of
numbing spray can help a lot. :)


On a related note, for anyone lurking in this fascinating discussion: If you
ever go to an emergency room and the attending nurse or physician hesitates
when pondering which tool to use to remove the hook, leave immediately.
Once, I had an embedded hook in the heel of my hand. My whole family was
away, and I couldn't figure out a good way to stabilize the hook while
cutting it. The physician's assistant wandered off and came back with tin
snips, which would've torqued the hook in every imaginable direction, making
the whole process nastier. I left.

I mentioned this episode to a dermatologist of my acquaintance. He gave me a
prescription for some cream intended for people who need to inject
themselves, but can't handle the pain. Takes about 20 minutes to numb the
area. "From the same neighborhood as lydocaine", as he explained it.