my finger had it out with an immersion blender yesterday and i nearly cut it right off. it was gruesome! 8 injections of litocaine and several stitches later, i was back home and feeling okay. i am not keen on using pharmacuetical drugs for several reasons, but i knew that this feeling of uphoria would be relaced with agony when the drugs wore off. it was under these circumstances that i stumbled upon (i prefer was inspired to discover) the most amazing non-pharmaceutical topical pain reliever i have ever heard of. habanero peppers. i knew that cayenne peppers relieved pain from burns caused by hot pans and curling irons because i've used it before, but i wasn't sure that it would be good for cuts let alone amputated fingers. after a little research, i decided that habenero peppers (which are at least 5 times hotter than cayenne peppers) might do the trick. fortunately, my husband was the doctor who stitched me up and he could give me anothet shot if the experiment went awry. so, i bought some habenero peppers, blended them up (well, my husband did, as i was feeling a bit skiddish around blenders), put them in a jar and went to bed. about midnight, i woke up in terrible pain! throbbing, burning, aching pain! screaming, swearing, pulling my hair out kind of pain. i nearly vomited and felt inclined to go straigh for the shot. but i kept my nerve long enough to try the peppers. my husband dripped a few drops on the wound sight and it sort of worked. then i asked him to please soak the entire gauze pad in the juice and wrap it around my finger (i may have thrown in a few explitives...i can't remember :)). he did so and then bandaged it up again. within 5 minutes i had significant relief and we were both back to sleep within 20 minutes. i woke again 2 hours later because the juice had gotten on some healthy flesh and was burning it. i removed the gauze pad, rebandaged my finger and slept for another 5 hours before the pain woke me up again. i've been using the pepper juice today and my finger is healing well. i'm drying the remaining peppers and will powder them and mix them into an ointment to see how that works. wish me luck! p.s. i apologize for the poor grammar and misspelling of words. one handed typing on a smart phone is a bit tedious and frustrating!