On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 07:37:37 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, Don
Bruder quickly quoth:

In article ,
Gunner wrote:

Sealed and sterile sutures can be purchased on Ebay occasionally for
about $3-5, or about $6 from medical supply companies. Tell em its for
veternary care of your livestock. Barbed wire ya know.

Hemostats are handy for this. Sterilized in alcahol of course.

Alcohol is a ****-lousy sterilizing agent, being truly effective against
only a few minor pathogens. Iodine solution is a *MUCH* better choice.

I prefer povidone + iodine (Betadine on the market.)


But..unless the wound is huge and wide open..most of the time,
butterflys work pretty good, and a smidge of super glue does too.

Super glue was CREATED for exactly this purpose, and practically works
miracles. I can't count the number of times I probably should have had a
sawbones sink a few stitches, but made do with super glue instead. Quite
a few surgical patients and accident victims have had the wounds closed
with it over the years, too.


Most recent was chopping onions one night for stroganoff. I managed to
misplace a finger, and next thing I knew, I'd laid open the side of my
left middle finger to the bone betwen the back of the nail and the first
joint, with a big ol' flap of meat hanging from it. And hurt? Sweet
mercy, did it ever - Take my word for it: Onion juice in a cut is *NO*
kind of fun! Thankfully, it bled like a stuck pig, so the burning
stopped in fairly short order, but while it lasted... Hoooo, BABY, light
my fire!

Beef blood ain't no bettah, bubba.


Friend of the family who's an EMT desperately wanted me to make the trip
to the ER to have it stitched up. No way I was going for that. Washed it
out, added a drop of super glue and a tight gauze wrap, slipped a
surgical glove on to keep it dry, and I was back in business 15 minutes
later.

Atta Boy, Don. I did the same thing when I diced my right thumbnail
in half while cutting stew meat at Mom's one day. She nearly fainted
as I cleansed the wound and dressed it, then got back to work. It was
nearly invisible in 2 weeks, but for the ridge of scar tissue.


I caught hell about "putting too much of myself into my cooking" every
time I walked into the kitchen for weeks afterwards.

Cooking With Mr. Protein! titter How many Donner Party jokes did
you endure? I only got a couple.


Today, I've got a "crescent moon" scar there that looks like somebody
drew it on with paint a shade lighter than the surrounding skin, using
the edge of a razor blade as the brush - It's so hair-line fine that
it's all but invisible.

Right. Cleanse, dry, apply antibiotic, add dressing and time =
disappeared wounds which gave you no grief at all.

My digit I put a can lid through a couple weeks ago is all but healed.
The thing must have hit bone. The bone is still sore but the healed
meat of the fingertip isn't. I'm certainly glad the bone was there at
the time. Blimey, it might have diced me 'arf the way up to me palm.

- - -
Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.
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