This is from a book, "Reeds Promise". This person pretty much nails it on the head as to how I feel about my thumb being amputated. The guy in the book had just lost his leg by some dumb accident. Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

"My amputation, I didn't have time to prepare for it. Most amputations, people know it's coming. They set things up, get their heads straight. I didn't have that....."

"The problem is basically the stump. It keeps changing. Getting smaller. You go through physical therapy and working with the prosthetist. It's very trying. It's trial and error and pain......"

"Then there is the lovely zing of phantom pain when I do something wrong. That is not to be confused with phantom sensation. Phantom pain is a beaut- That's when it feels like someone shoved an electric cattle prod into my shin...which isn't there....."

(Someone asks him if he is then coming out of it. He responds)....No, I'm not coming out of it. There is the whole finality of it. The damn, never ending permanence of it. One second I have two legs, the next, just one. Forever. It's very hard to resist obsessing over it. Everytime you make a move, you can't escape it, and I don't really think that you, or anybody who hasn't experienced it, can grasp the forever part of it. The loss. The permanent loss. With no fu--ing warning, no chance to relegate yourself to it and no way to ignore the stupidity of it.

(The guy in the book lost his leg to an SUV that backed up into him- seems just as stupid as Taba the Tiger trainer cutting my thumb off with a forklift.)