Emergency Room: The sudden realization

[Floogeldy]

Have you every been in the garage, or the kitchen, or the yard, or the garden, or riding your bike, or something like that, and you fuck up or have an accident and you end up cutting your self with a tool, or knife, or automobile or an inanimate object, or some shit like that?

And then you grab the cut body part and see blood coming out and you blast out of a bunch of expletives and you go get some napkins or paper towels or a towel or a rag? You sop it up.

And you continue to dab at it, even though it really doesn't hurt because it's on your leg or your arm or something? Except if it is on a finger it starts hurting pretty quick.

And you think you are invincible and that it is no big deal? But then you start examining the wound. And you realize that it is kinda deep. And you realize that it is kinda long.

You think about putting a Band-Aid on it, even a butterfly style. And suddenly, like a slap in the face, you are forced to face the reality that YOU NEED STITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Occulus]

1. Never had stitches.

I got ya beat, though. I had staples.

12 years old or so. Emergency appendectomy.

[hfojvt]

2. I am not sure about needing stiches

I have been trying intermittently to cut off the thumb on my left hand. I cut the bottom part on a broken pop bottle that I grabbed by reflex. For that one I got stiches. Then I was sawing some downed tree and my hand saw jumped from a small branch that it was stuck in and sawed the top of my thumb. I remember that I was cursing in threes and it was three sets of three syllable swear words (or three word compound swear words) without any repetition. I was kinda impressed that I knew that many compound swear words, or was able to invent them on the spur of the moment. But I was on my property where I had gotten by bicycle and where there was no phone. I just wrapped it and put pressure on it, and when the bleeding stopped, I went back to my sawing. The scar is not any more noticeable than the one on the other side of my thumb.

[auntAgonist]

3. I needed stitches once..

I worked at a hamburger joint, was chopping onions and I swear, no pain ... the onions started to turn ...you got it. BLOOD red. I looked down and realized what I'd done. My boss, a real jerk was actually mad that I'd 1) ruined the onions and 2) would now have to leave in the middle of lunch rush to go and have the top of my finger stitched. He called a cab! I went off the emergency room and 5 stitches later .. I returned to work.

[Floogeldy]

5. I can't believe I forgot

I, too, cut my finger just above the knuckle while working at a restaurant. I probably didn't really need stitches but a manager took me to the hospital and they gave me three stitches.

I was cutting sopapilla dough at the time.

[thecai]

4. Sorry About Your Emergency

I always try to deny the emergency for myself, too, it's a big hassle to go to emergency, but then I find one arm is longer than the other (dislocated elbow) or I can't walk (broken tailbone). Luckily, when I got in a car wreck, the witnesses called an ambulance because I was unconscious. When I awoke in the ambulance all I wanted to do was sleep, I didn't care that I was severely injured and nearly half dead. :wow:

[underseasurveyor]

6. My Hubbie has scared the crap outta me a few times

and he's a carpenter and it seems like to me he has FIVE of each and every kind of power tool there is, but anyway;-) So he's use to being around saws, knives and power tools and getting occasional cuts and gouging out chunks of flesh or massive splinters are no big deal to him.

So when he comes zipping into the house, straight to a bathroom or kitchen sink and all the while he's clutching tightly to another part of his anatomy muttering, 'oh shit-it's a bad one this time', or 'oh fuck oh shit oh fuck oh shit'.

Those are the times my heart leaps in my throat and it feels like my blood almost stops. OH *gulp* God x(

But he still gots all his parts right where they're suppose to be:-)


Sorry about your mishap. Hope it's not a serious one as they can often times be:-(
Let us know how many ya come home with

[Skittles]

7. ooh yeah

fell into the raised computer room floor - engineers had taken a block out to run cables and forgot to replace it - it was behind a printer, at night.....I fell and I remember thinking I just SMASHED my shin and I don't feel a thing. When I checked it out it was like a small chunk of flesh carved out down to the bone. Had to get 12 stitches.

Hurt a LOT the next day. The engineers sent me flowers and I called them up demanding PIZZA; they sent me two big pizzas. :D

[roguevalley]

8. Yeah. First, huggies. Second, twice. First, I woke up and my little

dogs were having a dog fight on me as we lay on the bed. One lunged and got my chin and I sat there like an idiot with a weiner dog hanging off my face. It felt like an elephant had reached out and pinched my chin, the little dog's bite was so damned powerful. He let go and the others bit me all over. I had ZERO stitches after all the poking and prodding even though they through I would have to have zillions.

If you never remember any medical advice, remember this: Use bacitracin. I applied it to my mangled face and had zero scars and COMPLETE healing in FIVE, count them FIVE days.

Second time, I put my hand down on a broken beer stein in a sink. Had a zillion stitches. I hate stitches.

[Historic NY]

9. Yup been there.....its not the stitches but the quality of the sewing....

one hopes the Dr. has some talent. :eyes:

[SoCalDem]

10. I put my own stitches in my hand because I was too lazy

to go to the ER and sit there for a few hours to get 4 lousy stitches..

Healed just fine.. no scar either :)

[Sgent]

11. Before going to the ER

You should call your regular doctor if you have the accident during the day.

For almost all wounds like your describing -- needing external or intermediate stitches, they can do it with less waiting than the ER, and it will usually cost you a lot less.

In addition, since they usually use stiches to sew up mole removals and otehr minor surgeries, they often have higher quality stitches that leave less scarring.

[SoCalDem]

13. It was a Sunday night..

I always seem to hurt myself when doctors are NOT in their offices :)

[REP]

12. Yup

I'm very nearsighted and have trouble with depth perception. One night I tried to adjust an antique stand-fan without a modern safety grill and managed to stick my thumb in the fan blades. No big deal, I thought, since I all I felt was a sharp jolt through my arm as though I'd been shocked. Loved One turned on the light and saw I was *covered* in blood and insisted that I go the ER right away. Went to the local ER, a Level 4 trauma center, where they regularly saw the results of the nightly Knife Rock and Gun Club, and as I was unwrapping the pressure bandage from my thumb, I told the ER doc it looked pretty nasty, but she'd probably seen worse. Once I got the bandage off, she looked at it and said, no, she hadn't seen worse without it being a full blunt amputation. I'd manage to cut it to the bone, sever a small artery and two nerves (that's why it didn't hurt) and crush the tendon. I had nine stitches that night, some of which were taken out a week later when the nerves were reattached, so part of the scar is barely noticeable, and the other part is a big ragged mess.

About ten years prior, I cut the living shit out of my other thumb, and have a nice inverted "V" shaped blue scar. That one only needed five stitches.

I got a tetanus shot as a brat, then with the first thumb injury, then another with the more serious thumb injury, so when it came upon ten years since I had the nerves reattached, I just went and got my final tetanus booster to bypass any possible accidents, since I am running out of thumbs.