How to Safely Cut an Avocado

July 28, 2017

Oh, yes! There is a correct way to cut an avocado! And do you want to know why I feel it’s a good idea to share this? Because after cutting avocados for years, and being pretty comfortable with cutting up an avocado very quickly… I cut my finger… YIKES!

Two weeks ago I was getting dinner ready. The avocados were the last thing to prep before sitting down to eat. I was cutting into an avocado and slash! The knife hit the pit, the pit rolled and the knife went right through the avocado and sliced half way down the bottom of my left index, finger totally exposing my tendon. A few seconds later I couldn’t feel the top section of my finger due to nerve damage. Yep, it hurt! It hurt SOOOOOOO bad! I’m talkin’ a BIG 10 on the pain scale.

I wrapped up my finger in a towel and Nate drove me to the ER. When I got there do you know what the nurses and doctors all said? “Is this an avocado hand? We see a lot of people come in due to injuries from cutting avocados.” Evidently, there is an avocado related hand injury epidemic out there, people! Beware!

When the doctor was cleaning around my cut, she accidentally got rubbing alcohol IN my cut and HOLY WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!!! I screamed like a wounded cougar! To make matters worse, she had to give me a shot of novocain to numb up my finger before giving me stitches. So, between the novocain’s IMMENSE BURNING PAIN and the burning pain of the rubbing alcohol running over my exposed tendon, I had to do some serious Lamaze breathing to keep it together. That pain seemed to last FOREVER (but it was only a couple of minutes). Then, finally when my finger had gone completely numb the Doc stitched me up.

I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worst enemy. It was horrible. Admittedly, I have a very low pain tolerance, but still. OUCH!

Long story short, I barely avoided surgery! I cut right down to the tendon, but not into the tendon. That’s the good news. The damage and pain that I have in my finger will take about 6 months to a year to heal completely, and it could take a few months for the nerves to rebuild and for all the feeling to come back. Crazy!

So, let’s learn from my mistake, shall we?! I definitely don’t want you to injure yourself like I did.

I would also like to add, you can hold a towel in your hand as well for a better grip, and that will also protect your hand as shown in the image below!