Stitches??

[big brown horse]

(Hi Noobie!)

I sliced my hand wide open two years ago and I went to the dr. who said she didn't do sutures. CRAZY medical system these days! She cleaned it very well and tried to send me to an emergency stitch up place.

I just went home and super glued it like FarmerDenise said. It was very deep and it was long, about 1 1/2 inches. Then I kept it wrapped in non stick gauze. Healed perfectly, no infection. Key is to clean it very well.

My hand modeling career is over.

My dad used butterfly bandages for all of my big cuts as a kid. (He was a pre-med student for a few years...I'm sure he could have stitched me up back then 'cept if he had a needle and thread he would never have caught me.)

 

[dragonlaurel]

My husband has done them before. He was a medic in the army, so if we have the supplies- he knows how to use them.
I should learn, cause he is the one that's more accident prone.

I watched him sew up a ladies hand once. We were camping in the Rockies and a long way to go to a town so they cleaned it well and did it there. We should stock up on that kind of stuff.

 

[sylvie]

Where is a good source for these sterile suture kits?
I watched a resident sew a gaping leg wound in which he used a knot in each stitch. Obviously there is more than one technique of stitching. Do instructions come with the emergency suture kits?

 

[FarmerDenise]

We do have the needles for suturing in our medical kit. But we got ours from a friend who is a nurse.
I have found the crazy glue to be so much easier.

 

[big brown horse]

And it seals the wound, no bacteria got into mine. I had to reapply a few times, it was a big cut. Showering didn't hurt it either.

 

[miss_thenorth]

You have to make sure it's crazy glue though. When ds cut himself, I talked to dh and said I think we should glue it. We didnt have crazy glue, but had some ther stuff in the fridge. He gogled it and said we shouldn't use the stuff we had, b/c of a certain ingredient. Stick with the name brand if your gonna glue yourself.

 

[TanksHill]

Thank you all for the informative posts. I have been a bit distracted with the Earth Quake and Tsunami warnings.

Watching the news and waiting.

You can get the suture kits and extra sutures from Emergency Essentials. Not cheap but they have them.

I'll be back after 1 pm. I hope.

gina

 

[ORChick]

I've thought about getting the wherewithal to do stitches - I worked for many years in a pediatric office, and assisted many, many times with fixing the cut open foreheads, knees, chins of our patients - not the actual suturing, but right there watching (and holding the little ones still). But then I realized that I couldn't do it on myself in most of the likely places that would need it, and DH would never allow me near him with a needle (it took 20 years of me giving shots almost every [work]day before he would finally let me give him a tetanus shot, and "it wasn't so bad!" ). So maybe I'll get some superglue.

 

[lupinfarm]

I keep superglue on hand in my chicken first aid kit I used it on a hen who had her earlobe torn off by another chicken.

lol... We keep more animal first aid kits than we even keep human first aid type things.

I have a pasture care kit for the horses, a chicken/duck first aid kit, and we have things for the dogs too. We also have a dog/chicken/horse med-fridge.

 

[buckeye lady]

Well you could have, but when you 6 year old tells the teacher at school-"I cut my foot on a rusted trampoline and my mom sewed it!" Teacher may wander why Mom who is not a medical professional sewed up her childs foot and why child did not recieve a tetnus booster-you may find childrens services at your door.

What if child developed an infection and you had to take her to the pediatrician and he saw or she reported the sutures done by Mom? You'll at least get a stern lecture.

Super glue and surgical glue are not the same thing. If an adult chooses to put superglue on their own wound that's one thing. But-When an adult puts superglue on a child's wound it's a different matter.

Lastly-If you really want to add sutures or even a skin stapling gun to your first aid kit-You can buy the kits at kvvet.com.

(The above post in not meant to criticize or intended to be malicious in anyway-Just being devil's advocate)