I wore my wedding ring to work and could have lost that finger because of it.

I was in the motor pool (Army-speak for a place where the vehicles are parked), and my section was doing maintenance on our M109A2 Self-Propelled Howitzer.

One of the prescribed maintenance tasks is to inspect and clean, if necessary, the batteries and battery terminals.

The batteries on an M109A2 are located under a heavy, hinged aluminum lid that is inherently unstable.

I should have figured out a way to prop it up.

A standard piece of advice to mechanics and others working on equipment is to take off any rings.

That's good advice that I learned the hard way to take very seriously. (I don't recommend googling for pictures of injuries sustained by people wearing rings during equipment maintenance, etc.)

During the maintenance task, the battery lid that couldn't be propped up fell on my hand and slammed my ring finger, the second finger, and the first finger.

My fingers immediately began to swell up, and I could tell that my ring would start to dig into my finger and cut off my circulation if I didn't get it off.

I went to the hospital, and the doctor tried different things to get the ring off, including using soap and lotion.

He also tried using the string method (see examples on YouTube), which didn't work but was extremely painful.

Finally, he had to cut the ring off using a small saw.

I never had the ring repaired, but I guarantee I never wore it during maintenance again.

To this day, I have a scar on each of the three fingers to remind me not to wear it.