As an accident-prone home chef myself, I highly recommend a pair of kevlar "cut gloves" for anything involving a mandolin, peeler, or grater. They're just a few bucks and can save you a lot of tears.
My fingertip took over 3 years to regain full feeling, and it's still slightly flattened compared to the rest of my fingers. (I made the front page of reddit with an animation of the regrowth!)
Since then I bought cut gloves because I'm now semi-phobic about using the damn thing without them.
In practice, use bear claw technique (you might catch a knuckle but less flesh to lose), and use either a stop or a cut glove.
(For anyone keeping track in this thread: the sliced portion has feeling, but no finger print, it all looks like scar tissue. The urgent care doc used a gelatin sponge (gelfoam) to stop the bleeding. Dunno if that explains the outcome)