On Thanksgiving Day I cut my thumb bad enough to need stitches while washing a knife at my sister’s house. It was almost deep enough to see the bone most likely because I had just honed the knife to a razor sharp edge. The pain was intense and strong initially but it went away as soon as the adrenaline got pumping into it, though it bled pretty horrendously.
My sister and I went to the hospital and got 3 stitches right away. The doctor suggested that I take the stitches without anasthetic. I was thinking, “FOOL! You want to stick sharp little pokey pokey things in the place that is now really tender and sore?” But I really said, “Please use anasthetic.” I got 4 shots in my thumb. The third one, scraped the bone and caused it to swell painfully immediately. That hurt just as bad as the initial cut did even though it was anasthetized.
I went home after that, finished cooking, and ate. It was a great meal.
So they were bothering me a little. My thumb kept feeling like it was unusually dry, so I took the stitches out. It didn’t feel better immediately but today it does.
While I was sleeping last night, I had a dream that the wound was filled with pus and oozing. It seemed very realistic and I had to check my thumb after waking up. It was fine. In fact it felt perfect. It is a little tender to pressure still but it is not achingly painful like it was the moment I cut it.
I sliced my head right next to my eye with a ski edge after boda bagging before a black. Pulled what stitches I could a week later with a pair of nail clippers, then I had a vet friend pull what I couldn’t reach. Cheap scars rule.
Yeah, the doctor said I could take them out on my own in 7-10 days. I cheated by taking them out a day early. It is actually closed pretty well since I typically heal pretty quickly. It seems stitch work heals faster than normal cuts though. I guess since it is closed tight enough and cleansed well that your body doesn’t have to spend as much energy fighting infection and can then focus on healing. I don’t know if that is a fact, just speculation on my part.
I had surgery on my arm on Oct. 30 and they took the stitches out Nov. 7—the nurse was hacking away, cursing and saying, “I have never seen such tiny stitches! How did he expect me to remove these things?!”
Happilym, that means I probably won’t have too horrible a scar. It’s stillquite nasty-looking, and people in the office go “eewww” when I walk by (at least, I assume it’s the scar they’re talking about!).
I worked in a factory and got a cut on my hand that required stitches. After a week or so they were realy starting to get in my way. I had an appointment to get them taken out and they wanted to reckeck the soft tissue injury I had from the same incident. They were really starting to bother me, so I cut the knots to get them out of my way.
When I went to the doctor a few days later for my recheck appointment, they were mad that i had removed them myself. Really mad. They told me to never do this myself again. The problem was I had cut the knots, but the rest of the stitches were still under my skin - so they had to dig a bit to get the ends to pull them out.
So whatever you do, make sure they are all the way out.
I did same on my hands twice, and my foot once. Just snip on one side of the knot, and then pull the knot. Just one more reason to go for stitches instead of staples.
(Tho I could have done as good a job of wrenching those staples out as that purported doctor!)
Heh, I managed to nicely slice open the palm of my hand some years ago in a drunken injury.
Went home, slept it off, got told off the next day at the hospital as some of the flesh of my hand had already started to die due to the angle of the wound.
Still they chopped a coupel of lumps out, stichted it up for me and off I went.
I pulled those stitched out after a week or so, bloody annoying on the palm of your hand.
Never tried stitching myself though, unless you count piercing my own ears with a needle and thread?
I had an incident with a brand-new knife a coupla years ago that probably would’ve severed my big toe if it’d hit at the joint instead of hitting the bone. The doc who sewed me up seemed to be rather disconcerted by the anaesthetic’s lack of effect on me, because he gave me one fewer stitch than I think the wound needed, and when my orthopedist took the stitches out a week later (I’d had an appointment with him anyway, since we were planning knee surgery, figured I might as well get the stitches done while I was there) he said they were much too tight. Certainly took a long time of painful struggling …
In this thread I described how I got smacked out and received 7 stitches in my lip a couple of weeks ago.
Well, the two on the inside dissolved in a couple of days, and I had the other five out last Friday. I went to the doctor to get them out, because I wanted to see if I would need to see a plastic surgeon - apparently it can be difficult to get lips straight on. The doctor said that it looks like I won’t need a referral, as it has healed quite well, although I have to go back in a month to check.
She also reccommended something called ‘cica sheets’ which are some vitamin e crap which apparently reduce scarring. They are pretty expensive, and I am starting to like my bad boy scar - does anyone know if they are any good?
Oh-h-h-h man! I’m so glad they gave me the stitches that dissolve! I wouldn’t ever have taken those out myself, and I wouldn’t even have wanted anyone else doing it for me.
I got 20 stitches on my wrist when I put my arm through a door when I was four. The Dr. took them out, but missed part of one (I could see 2 dark specks in my skin but couldn’t get ahold of it to pull it out.) I finally got that last stitch out about 14 years later, I was playing with it and it finally came out!
So satisfying. You can still see all the white scar dots from each stitch, but the scar left by this one stitch looks like 2 little holes (much like the scar from a pierced ear that has closed, only smaller.)
The scar is still pretty big. People don’t usually comment on it, though, I think some people assume I tried suicide or something.
Ah, good times.
That is one uncomfortable scar to see for most people, Velma. I would play it up so bad. When people see my operation scar on my stomach that is about 6 inches long they always ask if it was my appendix. I tell them it isn’t but was actually the result of a bad knife fight. Mwuhahahha.
I’ve had 13 teeth pulled in my life, and my mouth is the only place I’ve needed stitches, thank goodness. I was 11 and one or two stitches had partially dissolved, and I was playing with them in my mouth in class. The teacher sent me to the nurse, and when I came back she berated me for playing with my stitches.
Too bad (or Good thing…) that the scar is in my mouth so no one ever sees it. Actually, I don’t know if mouth tissue even forms visible scars.
