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Dusterbd13-michael said:

A real man superglues it back together unstead of going to get stitches. 

Hurts like nothing else short of getting second degree burns on your daddy bags. 

 

My wife has interesting first aid stories for her scout troop. Ive known her since the late 90s, well before i got clean and sober......

BTW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanoacrylate#Medical_and_veterinary

Notice its used wth sedated or dead persons.

When I go to a doctor and they ask "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does that hurt?"  I have to explain what a "10" is to me.  Walking next to/through a scrap pile on my property, that came with the property, I put my foot down and a nail went right through my shoe, sock and deep into my foot.  The nail was sticking through a 2x4 straight up, probably a framing nail.  That wasn't a 10.  I put my other foot on the board to hold it down and pulled my foot off the nail.  That wasn't a 10.  Limped over to the house, into the bathroom, loaded up a syringe with hydrogen peroxide and shot it into the puncture wound.  That was the 10.

Oh yeah, we went to a wedding Saturday.  I came home with pink duct tape and a napkin on my thumb.

If you're using super glue, just remember to leave some gaps in the fix so that drainage can happen. 

Dr. Hess- Too many people just say "ten" when they're really just uncomfortable. I have to explain what a 10 is to me, too. I'll spare the details.

Oh, believe me, I know all about people and their "10's."  I've seen it all, especially at back clinic at a charity hospital.  It is usually "I want narcotics." 

I started to take more caution about my hands when I decided to go to Vet school. 

I've still beaten them up pretty badly. Most of them aren't really visible unless you're looking for them, but I have an amazing collection of scars from the elbows down.

I only took note of that because I was sitting in the dermatologist office today waiting for my six month recheck.

RevRico said:

There are some new bandaid with basically zipties built into them. I haven't found them in stores yet, but they may finally replace my roll of electrical tape and paper towels.

I looked into those. They are 50 times more expensive than the most expensive roll of electrical tape you can find.

ShawnG said:

I call B.S.

You used electrical tape, didn't you?

Electrical tape is waterproof in ways that Band-Aids are not.  Also, 8-pack for 99 cents at Harbor Freight.

bobzilla said:

ShawnG said:

I call B.S.

You used electrical tape, didn't you?

and a piece of paper towel. 

Only for the really messy mistakes.

(like that time I...)

Dr. Hess said:

When I go to a doctor and they ask "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does that hurt?"  I have to explain what a "10" is to me.  Walking next to/through a scrap pile on my property, that came with the property, I put my foot down and a nail went right through my shoe, sock and deep into my foot.  The nail was sticking through a 2x4 straight up, probably a framing nail.  That wasn't a 10.  I put my other foot on the board to hold it down and pulled my foot off the nail.  That wasn't a 10.  Limped over to the house, into the bathroom, loaded up a syringe with hydrogen peroxide and shot it into the puncture wound.  That was the 10.

I injured one of my man-parts to the point where I felt stabbing pains all the way up into my kidneys and the pain suffered a stack overflow and I was able to trick my brain into processing it as euphoria because it was so overwhelming of a sensation.

The good part was, during the convalescence period, I was out mountain biking and went to hop over a log and whacked the injured boy on the back of the saddle and found myself in a fetal position in the middle of the trail. Right when a mountain bikin' girl, the only one I've ever seen, and a seriously attractive one too, came up the trail and asked if I was okay.  Being 20 and stupid, I completely blew the opportunity to say anything at all other than a stifled "yeah... fine... be fine in a minute..."

Dr. Hess said:

When I go to a doctor and they ask "On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does that hurt?"  I have to explain what a "10" is to me.  Walking next to/through a scrap pile on my property, that came with the property, I put my foot down and a nail went right through my shoe, sock and deep into my foot.  The nail was sticking through a 2x4 straight up, probably a framing nail.  That wasn't a 10.  I put my other foot on the board to hold it down and pulled my foot off the nail.  That wasn't a 10.  Limped over to the house, into the bathroom, loaded up a syringe with hydrogen peroxide and shot it into the puncture wound.  That was the 10.

I read that and said “WOW, now THAT is a real american man”

i am a pu$$y. I could never tolerate that. 

Hats off, sir!

RossD said:

My wife's vet truck has too many sutures on it for me to get away with that. She can also euthanize a Clydesdale with the same truck so I dont get away with any funny business!

I’ve been stitched up by our horse vet. I’ve also seen her neuter a barn cat on her tailgate so I show her a fair bit of respect.

Dr. Hess said:

Limped over to the house, into the bathroom, loaded up a syringe with hydrogen peroxide and shot it into the puncture wound.  That was the 10.

But ya didn't get tetnus, now did ya? :)

Hess, any thoughts on superglue and how safe it is to use on wounds? Is there a medical grade that I should keep in my first aid kit?

I had a construction job going.  This was years ago. 

One of the crews was all Vietnamese.  As in guys who actually fought the Viet Cong and then left after the 1975 Fall of Saigon, usually by boat.  One of the guys was missing a thumb.  He told me the Viet Cong cut it off as an example to others in his village.  Tough guys. 

Anyway one of this work  crew cut himself pretty badly with a hatchet.  I am looking at this long, bleeding  cut trying to figure out what to do next when all the other guys on the crew start reaching into their pants, pulling out their pubic hairs and layering them on the bleeding wound. 

They were very careful about how they put them on in sort of a cross-hatch pattern, this wasn't their first rodeo.  Within a minute the blood all congealed around the hairs and it stopped bleeding.   They told me that's how its done in Viet Nam. 

Side note: I have read that people used to save spiderwebs because they work about the same for stopping bleeding.

I stupidly just shared the pubic hair solution with my son.  I hope he's not home next time I hurt myself in the garage

I did buy a bunch of these Israeli Dressings off of amazon and scattered them around home first aid kit, vehicles, and had my son bring some to work to put in each work truck. He'll prb just pack it with mud and keep working for the rest of the day anyway, but I had to try. 

MTN, we use (ridiculously overpriced) CA to close up incisions in surgery, but I'm not sure if you'd want to seal up a wound  if not sterile and without bleeding controlled.  If the wound does require more than just beer/duct tape, CA might also be an issue at the hospital for being able to clean up and suture.

I'm just talking off the top of my head, but Dr Hess will no doubt have more accurate input here.

I don't care how bad the cut is, nobody is putting their pubes on me

In reply to XLR99 :

I usually tape it up tight enough that it stops throbbing, although if there is numbness then I loosen it.

Half the time, the wound seals itself shut after a day. But it needs to be kept well bandaged otherwise the edges will dry out and it will re-open.

When I pared my knuckle on a Mercury Sable rear fender, I taped it and left it taped for two weeks.  Didn't want to look at it...

My concerns have changed. Now it's not as much about the laceration healing as the potential risk for a highly resistant infection. 

My concerns have changed. Who's pubes do I trust?

What I want to know is why does it have to be pubic hair? Of all the places on the body that grow hair, it just has to come from the genitals? 

Duct or electrical tape with a bit of the cleanest part of the nearest rag.

what's wrong with that?

In reply to Furious_E :

Well I'm sure as hell not giving up any of my beard for someone's cut.

mtn said:

Hess, any thoughts on superglue and how safe it is to use on wounds? Is there a medical grade that I should keep in my first aid kit?

I never saw it used.  If you have the patient there, then close it up with suture. I've read of it being used.  A case where they had to keep going in to the gut every few days or something, they super glued a zipper in.  Done.

Medscape sez that Dermabond is 2-octyl cyanoacrylate and FDA approved for closing incisions. The super glues and even the vet super glue like Vetbond are the previous version of the closure stuff, butyl-2-cyanoacrylate, and are much weaker.  The 2-octyl cyanoacrylate was developed to be stronger during the initial closure stage.  After 5 days, healing is going on and it's all about the same.  The 2-octyl cyanoacrylate looks to be sold as Dermabond, so if you really want a super glue type "thing" to keep around for booboo's, then hold out for it.  Here is the same 2-octyl cyanoacrylate in a different brand:

https://smile.amazon.com/Meridian-Surgi-Lock-Instant-Tissue-Adhesive/dp/B001M5ET22

No experience with it, of course, just my google fu. The main drawback looks to be a much weaker wound closure than sutures, and not recommended for areas that get stressed.  Now, if you cleaned it first with some providone iodine solution (if you're not allergic to iodine,) then kinda tacked it together with a dab of super glue, then went after it with a staple-i-fier shooting one per 10CM, unlike the idiot in the ER that shot a full staple-ifier into my scalp after the dumb berkeleying kid in a Jeep totaled my Elise, that would probably hold.  You could probably do all that one-handed.  You know, 'cause you can't get to it with 2 hands.

I once wrote a short "shop medicine" article for publication in Teh Mag.  It went nowhere.

jharry3 said:

all the other guys on the crew start reaching into their pants, pulling out their pubic hairs and layering them on the bleeding wound. 

Those are some tough m/f'ers.