Treatment of minor wounds

Salt water. Sea Salt is great. I used to get cut on coral and after a few hours of skin diving - the cut would heal over and be soft skin.

After-all - so much of us is salt water - mostly water with salt.

Mart> >

On Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:28:13 -0700, the infamous Rich Grise scrawled the following:

I'm with Jeff on this one. I'd never had a broken bone before this and the codeine was a necessity for that first month. And we hear Mother Nature say that exceedingly clearly in the first minute after the accident. We don't need to hear her preach it for 4-8 weeks, TYVM.

Pain Control is a Good Thing(tm)!

------ We're born hungry, wet, 'n naked, and it gets worse from there.

On Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:48:51 +0100, the infamous Mark Rand scrawled the following:

Two points, Mark! ROTFLMAO

------ We're born hungry, wet, 'n naked, and it gets worse from there.

I second the nomination. Best reply, of the thread.

Great thread!

In knifemaking such injuries are an occupational certainty. Here's how I've learned to deal with them:

1. Preemptive anesthesia: Vodka, bourbon, gin, rum, or your choice of painkiller. This prevents jumping around on one foot and hollering obscenities. At worst you'll bump into a wall or stumble over a piece of equipment and need serious medical attention as a result. Nothing like an emergency ambulance ride for a nick on the pinkie. Ask me how I know.

1. When what you thought was steel red layout fluid actually turns out to be another kind of fluid, check to make sure you have all your appendages. If not, a trip to the ER may be in order, where they can reattach it. (This has only happened once in my career; they could not reattach it.) If you have all your appendages, keep working; the job MUST be finished. Blood is water soluble and can be cleaned up afterwards. Clothing can be washed or replaced. Everything is replaceable except the piece you're working on, and certain appendages.

2. Deep cuts (e.g., to the bone) require stitches. Having the proper suturing equipment on hand will preclude a trip to the ER and its attendant problems (someone has to drive if you can't, you have to sit for four hours before being seen, you have to remember your insurance card, the kid with the runny nose and the nasty cough sitting next to you is certain to give you H1N1, etc.) If you have properly anesthetized yourself beforehand, suturing yourself is actually kind of fun! And educational! You quickly learn to tie small knots with one hand!

1. Shallow cuts can be washed in clean water, then bandaged. No medicine, no Neosporin, no other antiseptic. Just clean water and a band-aid. (Hide the band-aids, and don't scrimp on their quality. They tend to disappear if you have children in the house. Band-aids with cartoon characters on them are NOT manly but will earn a certain amount of sympathy from SWMBO.)

4a. if the cut is exceptionally dirty, it will scar (see # 8, below). As my religious friends are fond of saying, "God made dirt. Dirt don't hurt." And, these days, scars are sexy!

1. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, put pressure on the wound until the bleeding stops. Blood clotting is a marvelous feature of the human body. The older you get, however, the slower the process becomes. (Unfortunately, some of the aforementioned painkillers tend to retard the process even further, but you won't really care.)

2. Also as mentioned elsewhere, super glue is a wonderful bandage for small cuts. I keep a bottle at arm's reach during operations where it might come in handy. Drawback: It stings like a MF (see #1, above.)

1. Skin flaps can't be saved. They WILL become necrotic and fall off. Keep them in place as long as you can, however. They cover deeper layers of damaged epidermis. Nevertheless, eventually they need to be removed. Fingernail clippers are good for this. Also X-Acto knives and single-edge razor blades. Try to do this in front of somebody who will praise you for your manliness afterwards. Some kinds of pain have their own inherent rewards.

2. Wear your wounds with pride! They show you to be somebody who can actually MAKE something, WITH YOUR OWN HANDS!

. . . Or what's left of them.

-Frank

I'll admit, I learned a lot. I don't drink alcohol, but I can imagine it being useful for some folks.

Mother nature's way of saying "I told you so, you never listen to what mother says" :-)

Mark Rand RTFM