Oh mother of #%#!!!!!!!!!

[Marks256]

I was just messing around in my basement, and i cut my finger wide open(soldering knife). The gash is about 1.5cm long, and about 4-5mm deep.

Does anyone have any advice on how to care for it? I poored h2o2 on it to kill the germs, and i think i have had my 2nd tetanus shot... it is wrapped up with a band aid and med. tape.

sorry so vague, but i am typing w/ 1 hand at the moment...

 

[justDIY]

if it hasn't stopped bleeding on its own by now, you need a trip to the emergency room for stitches

 

[hjames]

cyanoacrylate (i.e. super glue), but I've never had the joy of experimenting first hand:

**broken link removed**
https://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000069.php

https://www.google.com/search?q=super+glue+cuts

PS: not a doctor, and you'd be crazy to be looking for medical advice around here...

 

[Sceadwian]

Go to your local drug store and ask for butterfly bandages. They sell them specifically for situations like this, a hospital trip will end you up in stitches but they aren't required usually as long as you take care of it. Just do basic first aid and once the bleeding has stopped and you can let it out in open air apply a very light coating of anti-bacterial stuff and apply the butterfly bandages. They're basically just miniature bandaids to hold the wound closed, you use two or three of them and they only have stickies at the ends so they hold together to two ends of the cut and then a real bandage goes over the top. I dropped a steak knife while doing dishes a while ago made the mistake of trying to catch it, ended up with inch deep 1/2 inch wide slice into my hand. Almost passed out from shock =\ (Okay so I'm a little week kneed) Healed up wonderfully with the butterfly strips though. I've a nice tiny clean scar and a minuscule bump nearby where I detached a small piece of muscle tissue. If they can handle that they can handle yours.

 

[kchriste]

i

cut my finger wide open(soldering knife).

In addtion to the advice above, just make sure you got all the solder out before closing the wound and bandaging it.

 

[dknguyen]

Yeah, there is lead in solder...

I don't think you need another tetunus shot (tetinus is actually a bacteria that lives in soil and can end up on things like rusty nails). It's not any metal or rusty metal that causes tetanus.

What on earth is a soldering knife anyways? Is that like a hot knife? I've never used mine, maybe it's sharper than it looks. Mine doesn't look like it could cut anything.

 

[ericgibbs]

hi marks,
once you have got the wound cleaned up and stitched or pulled together
with butterfly clips, its important to keep it and the dressing dry until its well healed over. Wet and damp is bad news. If its an index finger, its then you
find out who your friends really are.?

Also remember to keep your strength up by having a good portion of
'meat loaf' with your five a day!

Keep well
Regards
EricG

 

[HiTech]

Once the bleeding has stopped and the wound beings to show signs of healing, use pure vitamin E syrp on it. It will heal much faster than medicines offer, and will have less scarring of the skin. You can find it in the beauty/cosmetics aisle or buy the liquid caplets and break them open. It should have a very high count of vitamin E. There are some ointments that combine Aloe and vitamin E which are good but I have found that the extreme high counts of Vitamin E does well.

 

[Marks256]

Well i woke up this morning so everything is good...

I can type now... (oh thank the good lord of silicon...)

It just hurts a bit, but i think the bleeding is done... I am gonna change the band aid later.


The solder pick didn't have any solder on it, thankfully! I was carving out some plastic, and it slipped (hence the "screwing around"). The ironic thing is that i sharpened it like 5 minutes before it happened, so it was REALLY sharp... It scared the crap out of me because that is the reddest blood i have ever seen...

 

[Andy1845c]

It scared the crap out of me because that is the reddest blood i have ever seen...

Yeah, I know the feeling. I tried to cut open a gallon jug a few years back and slipped and cut my wrist. I won't get graphic, but you can imagine...

I ended up with 5 stiches and a nasty scar.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I removed the finger tips from my right hand with an electric planer! - missed the little finger though, but the thumb got it as well. They grew back far better than I ever thought, but I only have limited feeling in them now.

Got to the hospital, with a towel (now bright red) wrapped tightly round by hand - got seen quite quickly, it was a quiet Sunday afternoon. The nurse carefully peeled the towel off, and it had stopped bleeding, so she didn't even clean them - just put antiseptic cream on and tubular bandages, like a handfull of bananas

Then read my records, she says "you've not had a tetanus jab recently", so drop your trousers!. So I'm stood there, trousers round my ankles, right hand held up like a bunch of bananas - and she rams this needle in to my right thigh - if I'd got any spare limbs available I'd have probably given her a good slapping?. When she pulls the needle out a little fountain of blood spurts from my thigh, like a mini Niagra! - she says 'Ohh', presses a piece of cotton wool over the wound and says "hold that". So I'm now stood there with trousers round my ankles, handfull of bananas in the air, and my left hand holding a piece of cotton wool on my right thigh! - eventually she came back with a plaster for my leg!. My thigh came up in a huge bruise, and I was limping for about ten days! - the fingers took about 5 weeks to grow back!.

 

[dknguyen]

GOod thing is you noticed it when it happened. WHen I sliced open my thumb with an exacto knife while trying to pull the cap off, I didn't notice it for about until there was red all over my tools and keyboard.

 

[Marks256]

That is something to be really afraid of... I noticed it right away 'cause i saw the thing go into my left pointer finger (i am right handed)... Ewww! I must say, i do a pretty good job a sharpening, though...

You live and you learn i guess...

 

[mramos1]

Little late for this one.

But as stated, the drugstore for butterfly bandaids (or the new strip kind, used them a couple weeks ago) and strap it tight. They have something called "new skin" that will seal and glue it as well, put that one before the butterfly, give it 3-5 days. Do not over use the finger another couple days
after that.

Not that I get cut a lot, but I have 3 boys too.. Worked everytime so far and no scars.

 

[mramos1]

I removed the finger tips from my right hand with an electric planer! - missed the little finger though, but the thumb got it as well. They grew back far better than I ever thought, but I only have limited feeling in them now.

Got to the hospital, with a towel (now bright red) wrapped tightly round by hand - got seen quite quickly, it was a quiet Sunday afternoon. The nurse carefully peeled the towel off, and it had stopped bleeding, so she didn't even clean them - just put antiseptic cream on and tubular bandages, like a handfull of bananas

Then read my records, she says "you've not had a tetanus jab recently", so drop your trousers!. So I'm stood there, trousers round my ankles, right hand held up like a bunch of bananas - and she rams this needle in to my right thigh - if I'd got any spare limbs available I'd have probably given her a good slapping?. When she pulls the needle out a little fountain of blood spurts from my thigh, like a mini Niagra! - she says 'Ohh', presses a piece of cotton wool over the wound and says "hold that". So I'm now stood there with trousers round my ankles, handfull of bananas in the air, and my left hand holding a piece of cotton wool on my right thigh! - eventually she came back with a plaster for my leg!. My thigh came up in a huge bruise, and I was limping for about ten days! - the fingers took about 5 weeks to grow back!.

I will get lock jaw before I take another one of those shots. I had the same thing happen with the shot and my leg was stiff and sore for days.. But sounds like you did some major cutting.

I have had one cut takes about two years before the nerves grew back and I had feeling. But I did not cut the tip off. MAN, that is a bad Sunday..

I know it was not funny to you , but to read it.. That day it sucked to be you.. Heck the week after too.

 

[dknguyen]

I grazed the tip of my finger at work with a knife and that hurt like a mother@*(&#*@#@. I've never had a cut like that before. It wasn't a slice. It was just a small circle of completely exposed skin and blood would gush out in a bunch of dots rather than from a single cut so I couldn't do anything to stop it...anything that even remotely work would just get stuck to the skin and hurt even more when I tried to remove it.

That sucked. I have no idea how you guys feel where you can say you actually cut the tip of your finger off.

 

[mramos1]

Mine was to the bone a couple weeks ago. Nigel got the whole darn thing. Better him than me. But I did have my thumb hanging off pretty good as a kid. Motorbike clutch and that was not clean. Still have the scar 35+ years later..

When you do it with a razor, it is so clean, fast and sharp, that part does not hurt too bad just enough to know that was not a good thing..

After it is cut, then it hurts. Throbs.. Burns.

 

[Andy1845c]

Man.... I think we all need to stay away from sharp objects lol

 

[dknguyen]

But they're usually so shiny!

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Mine was to the bone a couple weeks ago. Nigel got the whole darn thing. Better him than me.

Missed the bones though

The doctor at the hand clinic said I'd "only removed the pulp!"