Yes, this is a request for medical advice. But that’s OK, as you’ll see shortly.
So one morning, my fiance wakes up and notices that her index finger is bleeding at the most distal joint. It’s just a trickle; nothing to worry about. But it just keeps on coming. She wraps it in a paper towel but it bleeds for hours. She puts a lot of pressure on it and it finally stops.
The wound looks like she rolled over onto a paper clip or something. It’s a perfectly circular puncture wound less than a milimeter in diameter. It appears to have caught the vein that runs on the inside of the finger.
Later that day, it just up and starts bleeding again. Again, it won’t stop for hours. It’s nothing fatal or dangerous, of course, but it just won’t quit. She said it seemed to happen when she straightened her finger, but she can’t be sure.
It’s been almost a week now, and every day or so, it starts bleeding again. We bandage it and apply pressure but nothing seems to work to keep the wound closed long enough to repair the vein.
So what should we do? It’s not big enough to get stitches. Immobilizing the finger doesn’t seem to work. It’s such a ridiculously small wound but it just won’t quit. Honestly, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever described bleeding as “annoying”. How do we get it to quit?
OR…If you are ballsy, heat up a paperclip and cauterize it.
For temporary stopping, you can use that styptic powder they put on dog’s nails when you nick them. I’ve used all three of these plenty of times with no ill effect.
Liquid bandage. Or, you can use super glue (seriously), since that’s more or less what liquid bandage is. I had a cut at the base of a fingernail once that just wouldn’t close (skin was too thin), and the super glue stopped it up immediately. Burned a fair amount for a couple minutes, though.
It’s on her finger. Hand wounds take forever, and open up all the time from too much movement of the area. I’ve had about a zillion puncture wounds on my fingers, and more than a few acted like what the OP described. Superglue did the job every time. Of course if they are at all unsure, consulting a medical professional is the correct course of action. I don’t think it crucial to high thee to the doctor for every tiny little wound.
Two suggestions: Ice and elevate the hand. Elevating it reduces blood flow to the hand, and ice constricts the blood cells.
I recently got my EMT certification, and the way we were taught to control bleeding was direct pressure, elevation, arterial pressure point. But locating the arterial pressure point would cut off circulation to her entire lower arm, so I wouldn’t recommend that strategy. And holding an ice pack over her finger has got to be pretty annoying, so elevating the hand would be the least annoying way to handle it. Unless you already tried that.
Also, for those of you who say this doesn’t sound normal, remember that it’s bleeding at the joint of her finger. The skin there is moved and stretched very frequently. This sounds like a normal reopening of a wound in a prominent spot that has been aggravated to me.
Because it’s the lamest freakin’ wound you could possibly have. What’s a doctor going to do about it, anyway? Look at it and go “hmm, yeah, that sounds annoying”? It’s not like he can stitch it. And what test could he possibly do? We know what’s wrong with it- it’s how to stop it that’s the question.
We’re not going to waste a doctor’s time and go “yeah, this bleeding is annoying.”
The wound is not the issue; the issue is that your fiancée sounds like she has a clotting disorder, and that’s a big deal. A doctor will probably order tests to find out why she doesn’t clot properly.
ETA: And treat the bleeding with the right treatment, based on what her disorder (if any) is.
No, it sounds like she has a cut on her finger, at the joint, which keeps opening up because the skin there is thin and constantly being stretched. Unless the fiancée has had a similar problem with cuts elsewhere, a trip to the doctor is a huge waste of everyone’s time.
All of which is expensive, particularly so if you have poor, or no insurance. It is also extremely improbable that there is a clotting disorder that she hasn’t found about before now. Occam’s razor points squarely at a simple puncture wound that is being reopened due it being present on a joint. An EMT upthread said as much. A doctor is a great thing, but going for something that trivial with no prior history is overkill, IMHO.
Moderator Note: This thread has been reported a couple times as seeking medical advice; I’m not seeing any life-threatening injury here.
DISCLAIMER: However, you should not take the advice of people on a message board as a substitute for the opinion of your trained doctor who has seen and examined the condition of your girlfriend’s finger.
That said, I believe we can continue to offer our suggestions; another moderator might feel differently of course.
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Have you tried immobilizing the finger? If it’s on the joint, put a bandage on it that keeps her from bending her finger. It sounds like she just keeps reopening the wound. The bandage should be rather snug in order to keep it from bending.
If you do this and she’s still bleeding, I would take her to the doctor. I have no idea about clotting disorders but if you’re not continuing to crack open the wound and it’s still bleeding, I would worry.
You kid, but that’s a better idea than going to the doctor. Gotta make sure to disinfect the paper clip first, though.
ETA: The appearance of a moderator has made me self-conscious enough to point out that this post is tongue in cheek. Don’t actually jab your girlfriend in the arm with a paper clip, Chessic.
This isn’t the first time she’s been injured, people. She doesn’t have a clotting disorder.
She’s not bleeding constantly, she’s bleeding repeatedly. We can’t figure out how to stop her from reopening it while still keeping the finger functional. Showers are difficult because it starts bleeding either when the skin puckers up or when it dries out again. I’m not sure which.
It’s so non life-threatening that it’s the type of injury that comedians use to show that a character si a hypochondriac or a whiner.
