I just pulled a stupid *now with pics*

[mgdavis]

Cut a sandwich with my pocket knife, then went to wipe the mayo off with a napkin. Had the blade turned a bit, cut the heck out of my left pointer finger. Lots o' blood, had pressure and elevation going for 30 min or so but it's still going. I'm probably going to have to go home from work, dripping blood on patients is frowned upon.

The cut's at least a quarter inch deep, doesn't hurt too bad at least. I'm kind of mad at myself, I haven't done anything like this in quite a while.

CRK&T M21-04.

[K Frame]

Have any corn starch or flour?

Put about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch in the bottom of a dish and push your finger into it nice and hard.

The starch will gelatinize and help seal the wound temporarily.

[Balog]

That seems somehow.... unsanitary.

[K Frame]

Flour or cornstarch coming out of a sack is quite sanitary.

[Balog]

But wouldn't having food type material imbedded into the wound foster infection?

[mgdavis]

Well, my coworker talked me into walking down to the Emergency Department. First time I've been a patient at a hospital since shortly after I was born. By the time I made it down there I was working on pretty embarrassed, especially because it wasn't doing more than just oozing when I unwrapped it. If I'd been at home I would have just used a butterfly closure and a bandaid, I didn't get much more than that as it was.

[member1313]

This reminds me of when I was playing with an Exact-O knife blade in middle school, and went to carve something into a desk. I used the wrong side of the blade, and pushing the razor into my pointer finger almost to the bone.

Fun.

[mgdavis]

On the plus side, it was a dang good sammich.

[Fly320s]

Let me get this straight.

You cut yourself while at work in a hospital, yet you didn't seek medical attention because you were embarrased?

What would you say to a patient who did that? 

[grislyatoms]

On the plus side, it was a dang good sammich.

I hope so, if cutting the bejeebus out of yourself is part of the recipe.

Ahh yeah, X-Acto blades. I stuck one into my finger one time trying to clean the molding flash off a metal figurine. Opened up the knuckle pretty well and it bled like crazy.
We had a drunk guy here at the hospital try to lance an abscess in his mouth with an X-Acto blade. I didn't see it but heard about it. Apparently, he did a good number on himself before he decided to come on in.

[K Frame]

But wouldn't having food type material imbedded into the wound foster infection?

We're talking purified starch -- carbohydrates -- and some protein, not a ham sandwich.

Essentially what you're doing is making your own ersatz gelfoam (gelatin based).

I would not want to, however, spread the cut wide and force the material deeply into the wound, and that's not what I was suggesting.

Pressing your finger straight down into the flour will cause a little of it to be packed into the upper surface layer of the wound, but the blood will gelatinize that layer very quickly, essentially forming a seal that will help hold blood and and keep more of the flour from being forced into the wound.

In essence, if it's bleeding heavily enough, you make your own compaction dressing.

[K Frame]

Don't feel bad, MG. One of the women I work with used to be a nurse.

She was at work one day when they were still using replacable-blade scalpels.

As she was changing the blade, it slipped and put a VICIOUS gash across her palm and partially severed the one tendon in her thumb. She said the rush of blood was as if someone had dropped an IV.

[The Viking]

Don't feel bad, MG. One of the women I work with used to be a nurse.

She was at work one day when they were still using replacable-blade scalpels.

As she was changing the blade, it slipped and put a VICIOUS gash across her palm and partially severed the one tendon in her thumb. She said the rush of blood was as if someone had dropped an IV.

I work at a slaughterhouse, so there is often someone who cuts himself. One guy managed to do it seven times. One time he blamed me, after he cut himself on the inside of his lower left arm. I was standing on his right side. No one believed him . Poor guy was terribly frightened of needles and such . Too bad he needed to be stitched back together on all occasions .

Though there's been some more nasty accidents. One guy almost killed himself when he slipped and made a nice, long gash, running along most of his arm...one guy cut some tendons in his hand, after finding a knife in a drain that was plugged...

[Thor]

I use superglue.   I DID learn to check for tendon damage before doing that. Cut into my thumb with a hacksaw (The piece I was cutting on sheared before I realized it). I was tempted to superglue it, but something told me not to do that. Turns out I cut both tendons in my thumb. I have used it on other cuts that probably would have required a suture or three.

[BobR]

Superglue and duct tape. As long as the finger still flexes and extends, that is all it takes. The last time I sliced myself was with a brand new Shun knife as I was distracted while removing some fat from a brisket. That cut oozed for about 3 days, probably should have had stitches, but why? It healed very nicely, no scarring, no loss of function. I did change out the superglue daily. Just peeled off the old and put on some new. Probably didn't need to do that either.

bob

[mgdavis]

I ended up leaving work, I didn't want to bleed on any patients. I oozed blood under one of the Tegaderms, and it was looking pretty nasty:


When I got home I peeled everything off so I could just throw Bandaids on it. When I got the Surgi-foam and Steri-strips off it looked like this:


It looks like it should heal well, I just hope it doesn't interfere with using the bike's clutch.

[Brad Johnson]

Ya big whiner. Why I've had worse cuts on my eyeball!  Heck, there was this one time I was using a wood chipper...

 

Brad

[mgdavis]

It's really deep, I swear. 

I never did get a good look at it before I checked myself in, every time I tried it would just start dripping blood again. After doing compression & elevation for a good 30 minutes with not much effect I started thinking about how bad it *might* have been, then my co-worker talked me into getting it checked out pretty easily. I really wish I'd been at home, I just would have done bandaids to start with.

[Paddy]

That's it?  No tendons or arteries cut?  No chunks of flesh separated from your body?  No stitches, even?

Did I ever tell ya bout the time I cut the end of my thumb off closing a liner lock folder?   SWMBO was yammering at me while I was putting up some Christmas stuff for her, and I closed the blade fast and hard.  The inside serrated part of the blade took the end of my thumb, almost to the bone, clean off.   I didn't figure that out until about an hour later, when it wouldn't stop bleeding.

[Werewolf]

30 minutes for small cuts like that and no clotting.

You've got bigger problems than those cuts. Been taking a lot of aspirin or other anti-coagulants lately? If no you might wanna run that 30 minute thing past a doctor because a cut like that ought to be done with bleeding within just a few minutes - especially with pressure applied.

[Thor]

That's why I quit going to sick bay for cuts. By the time they finally got to me, most of them had started healing. Electrical tape, duct tape, superglue, band aids, and maybe a splint to keep me from moving it and I'm done. I'd be inclined to agree with Werewolf on the bleeding issue, but I'm no medical professional.

[Mabs2]

pix or it didn't- er, oh yea.
Neat.

[mfree]

Ahh, you've not cut your finger until it's deep enough to spurt. BTDT, got the stitches *and* the "how lucky you are" speech because I cut straight down behind the kuckle of my left index finger, to the bone, and hit NOTHING but an artery.

Deepest I took care of on my own was one where I was hogging out the base of a plastic nose cone and the cheap plastic xacto knife I was using snapped and I zipped the base of the blade in a nice arc along the side of my finger. Pressure, tape, curse words, all OK in about 5 days.

And then there was the time I poked a finger while working on a motor and the reflex jerk managed to skin a few inches of the back of my right hand on a sharp bracket...

[280plus]

Real men use electrical tape and a piece of paper towel or napkin or something. I can't tell you how many times I've put myself back together with electrical tape. Just don't pull the tape too tight or your finger will start to turn purple. 

[member1313]

What--you don't like purple? It's a perfectly fine color.