How to heal cuts on your hands !

[masiman]

Wood planer at the in-laws. Put my thumb where I shouldn't have, it didn't stop munching my hand until it had more.

A friend of ours father lost his thumb to a tablesaw a few months back. I have not seen it but they said after the last surgery that more was lost than what they thought at first. The whole thing is pretty much gone.

 

[BuddhaKat]

The only thing you should do with a scab is not let one form to begin with. Get a cut, wash it, glop on some triple antibiotic, and cover it with a bandaid.

Oh yeah, that's what I do. Right after it gets really infected, turns red and spews pus like crazy. Then I rip the scab off, wash it with soap and water or peroxide, then glop on the antibiotic and bandaid. That usually lasts for as long as it takes for me to wash my hands, which is all the time. However, each time I rip the scab off and clean the wound it heals faster.

My best friend is a wound care technician. Very highly educated and a highly skilled trade. He is horrified at how I treat my cuts and scratches. He absolutely hates Hydrogen Peroxide and Iodine for wound treatment.

Just covering a wound with a bandaid will nearly cut the healing time in half.

 

[TreeClimber57]

i dont think i will be sticking my hand under a bench grinder anytime soon...

lol

 

[TreeClimber57]

While reviewing a thread about the value of gloves, I noticed one post that referred to the length of time that it takes for small cuts to heal on your hands.

I have a solution: it is unusual, easy, and it works every time. The doctors don't know about it, and they can't advise you, 'cause they don't understand the problem and they weren't taught this in medical school.

Since this is an unorthodox cure, those of you who are inclined to scoff at new ideas, please stop reading now. It will simplify this thread.

Here is the problem:
You bark a knuckle, or you nick your skin in some minor fashion. Oops...keep working. It may not even bleed, or it might be a real injury that needs a band-aid or more. Happens all the time, you just ignore them.

The next day: no bleeding, nice little scab...no problem yet.

A week later, the scab has thickened considerably, and you keep bumping it. Maybe it has started to itch around the edges where it is healing.

Now we have a problem: the damn thing has become sore, with raised red skin around it. Anytime you bump it, it hurts, and your leathery skin just doesn't heal right! It may get an infection under the scab, which you pick off, but now there is a deep pocket under the scab that is much deeper than the original injury. Every time you pick the scab, the hole is deeper, but the size is a little smaller.

Slowly, over several weeks, the small injury heals by getting a bit smaller every time you pick the scab. Eventually the scab lifts off, leaving a pink tender spot that quickly toughens up.

Here is the CAUSE of the slow healing:
There is a well known phenomenon in medicine called "pressure necrosis". Some of you are quite familiar with this effect when you castrate pigs with a small rubber band. Weeks later, the offending parts fall off. You may recall seeing photographs of people with stretched ear piercings, or other modified body parts because of ornamental attachments. This is the same effect, just a different aspect of the same phenomenon.

The healing process to skin injuries involves growing a scab, which hardens and seals the injury. Unfortunately, this scab also serves as an irritant by exerting direct physical pressure against tender tissues that were never designed to have hard tissues constantly in contact with them. When the scab gets thicker by natural processes, it causes the tender tissues underneath to recede away from the hard surface of the scab. Every time you bump it, you make it worse, and then inflammation is caused by all the cells beneath the scab rupturing and releasing various chemicals that cause inflammation. Cytokines, histamines,...the list goes on.

You may get an infection, that only makes it worse.

Here is the cure:

Relieve the pressure on the tissue beneath the scab!

This is REAL EASY, and it does NOT hurt!

Get the little 6" flat file you use to knock down the height of your depth gauges on your chainsaws. A round file can be used too, but it is not as effective, and it is more irritating to your skin.

GENTLY file the top of the scab down until it is thin enough to be flexible. Your file needs to be a new one that is extra sharp, so as to require very little pressure. This will file the scab down, but won't irritate the uninjured skin right next to it. Oregon flat files have smooth edges, and work particularly well for this.

Do this every day, as needed, to keep the injury flexible and soft. If the scab hurts when you bump it on something: file it down some more. Just consider it preventive maintenance, you can even do it every time you sharpen the chainsaw. Just a couple of strokes.

It is very helpful if you can keep a band-aid on it to keep out dirt and to increase the humidity near the injury. The skin needs to grow into the injured area; that doesn't work too well if you make it work in a desert environment. Protect it with a band-aid or gloves.

For really bad scabs that have been neglected in the beginning: take an exacto knife or a sharp point of some sort and cut the top/center out of the scab. There should be no injury whatsoever to the healing skin at the edges or bottom of the scab. Your only goal is to make the scab thinner, not to remove it.

10 days later: no cut, no scab, no problems. No raised red bumps on your knuckles that hurt every time you bend your hands or knock it against a branch.

I have done this for a bunch of my guys over the years. It always works when there is no infection or other bigger problem. This will also fix those nasty knee scrapes your kids keep getting, too!

To my non-medical mind, this sounds very reasonable.. I am going to make a note and try this out. (Now I am not going out to bash my hand or finger just to let you all know my results.. but eventually there will come a time.. usually not more than a week goes by without some kind of scrape worth this treatment test)

 

[rmihalek]

Chuck and Niki

I recall reading a book about man's attempts at breaking the sound barrier. In the process, Chuck Yeager was one of the key test pilots. He was involved in a high speed bailout following a fire in the cockpit. His face was severely burned. During his recovery period, they tried a new (at that time) technique of not letting scabs form on the burn wounds. I'm not sure of the exact methodology, but the result is that he's not severly disfigured, like say Niki Lauda (burned in a Formula One car crash), but has just a "weathered" appearance.

 

[Tree Pig]

Let's hear YOUR best manly-man story!

:jester:

All joking aside that sucks man sorry about your hand. Obviously he has no Manly-man stories to contribute. But that sounds like a cool subject to lets hijack the thread. :arg:

Here one of my Manly-man stories.

Goes back to my military days. exited an airplane at an UNDISCLOSED altitude over an UNDISCLOSED location. Doing a HAHO high altitude high opening dive. Well something went screwy on opening the shock of which broke two vertebrae in my mid back (small fractures) and also crack a few ribs. It also snapped one of my steering lines. This caused my parachute to have a sharp left hand turn. This could only be corrected by controlling it with my risers (which takes a lot of strength with this style of chute). So I am hanging in the air with a broken back, cracked rigs, broken steering lines and 15 plus miles to go under canopy, with nothing to do but think about how much it hurts. Well I made it down but the delayed and hard opening caused me to over shoot my landing area. But the good news was it put me closer to our target. I was a sniper at the time so after I half crawled to my position I sat in my hide for 16 hours while the mission was completed by the operations/entry team who was nice enough to come by and drag me to the extraction area.

Hows that for a manly-man story

 

[brisawyer]

Was that a parks planer? I got my arm into a 48" sawmill blade a few years back. Looking for pics

 

[oldirty]

hey stihl'o. i'd be inclined to think that story is very manly.... thats a long ride and, no doubt, a rough landing.

 

[pdqdl]

...

Hows that for a manly-man story

Completing the mission after an injury always qualifies.

I broke my neck in a car wreck, not too bad, I walked in to the hospital a couple of hours later. I broke my back in a motorcycle wreck, and I crawled about 40 feet and waited for the ambulance. It wasn't any fun.

I have a pretty good idea what those 16 hours were like. I'll bet being rescued (dragged in) was the worst part.

 

[Tree Pig]

Completing the mission after an injury always qualifies.

I broke my neck in a car wreck, not too bad, I walked in to the hospital a couple of hours later. I broke my back in a motorcycle wreck, and I crawled about 40 feet and waited for the ambulance. It wasn't any fun.

I have a pretty good idea what those 16 hours were like. I'll bet being rescued (dragged in) was the worst part.

Well I wouldnt call it rescued I finished the mission and completed my task while doing so. Stayed on my rifle the whole time I was responsible to do so. I would have been able to make it out on my own but it would have sucked. When I say they dragged me out I was being more figurative. I humped out on my own they just grabbed all my gear, which took close about 75 lbs off my back.

Yeah from the sounds of it you have a good idea about it.

I give you the win though you still have to deal with it everyday.

 

[pdqdl]

I really don't miss the fingers & thumb. It seems real important to you folks that are crippled by carrying two of the things around all the time, but I get by very nicely without.

I'll freely admit that I really can't run that 020T one handed when bent to the right (bar up); I just can't do it. Straight up and down, no prob. Muffler and bar down, cutting to the left...a little tougher, but still do-able. As you might expect, I prefer two handed when possible, and I damn sure don't cut one handed close to my face. I got no "kickback stopper" installed anymore.

I have a whole stack of injuries I would take back before I worried about restoring my thumb & finger. Really! I can do everything now that I could do before, except play the piano. I type better now than I did with ten fingers.

The worst part for me is having to admit that I am too stupid to hang onto my own fingers. That still bugs me every time somebody asks how I did it: they always know before they even ask that it was stupidity coupled with some power tool.

Of course I'm not mad at them for asking; people are usually just genuinely curious, and it can't hurt for them to get a reminder to keep their fingers out of dangerous places.

 

[Bermie]

Dettol cream...sorry you can't get it in the US...
Get a bad cut, slap this on, cover it in a fabric bandaid, keep it SOFT...no scabs form, the new skin is protected by the bandaid. Gradually expose it to the air after a while, cover it when working. Works like a charm.

As I'm a girly...my hubby has the manly man stories...nothing to compare to the sniper ('nuf respect) and the missing fingers (ditto) but...

He was a commercial fisherman, hooked a wahoo, brought it up to the boat, as he was handing in the last of the wire leader and getting the lure out, the fish jerked, the 3" stainless treble hooks went right through his hand between the forefinger and middle finger, one hook through the hand the other two sticking out, nothing he could do...he finished fishing out the day...went back to the dock at home, cleaned everything, the electricity guys were there and two black guys turned white at the sight...then he took all the fish ashore, drove to the resaurant, delivered the fish, banked the cheque...THEN he went to the hospital...the cutters they had couldn't cut the hooks, they had to get something else from a construction company...he came home, packed it all in dettol cream...and said to me later when I got home 'oh by the way, got a bit of a story to tell you...'

 

[Tree Pig]

hey stihl'o. i'd be inclined to think that story is very manly.... thats a long ride and, no doubt, a rough landing.

good call there the landing really sucked. Steering lines are also your brakes. These parachutes are designed for fast forward speed, so braking on landing is a little important. Well the only way to brake was also with my risers but after having to fight the chute the whole way I had nothing left and my hands slipped of the riser causing me to go in a little hard. But all in all I was just happy to be on the ground. I had debated several times about cutting away and deploying my reserve but I new I could get this one on the ground and I wasnt sure if my back could take another opening. Also reserve means last parachute and if that failed I was fooked, so I figured I would take my chances with the one I had open.

 

[pdqdl]

Dettol cream...sorry you can't get it in the US...
Get a bad cut, slap this on, cover it in a fabric bandaid, keep it SOFT...no scabs form, the new skin is protected by the bandaid. Gradually expose it to the air after a while, cover it when working. Works like a charm.

...

Dettol cream in US, available here: http://www.bestdeal.org/british_store/detcrm.html

Unfortunately, nobody seems to tell you what is in the stuff. Clearly not a US product. Do you have any idea what it is made with?

Regarding working with fishhooks installed: Yep. That sounds mighty unpleasant. I'm not going to volunteer for that assignment.

 

[Tree Pig]

Dettol cream in US, available here: http://www.bestdeal.org/british_store/detcrm.html

Unfortunately, nobody seems to tell you what is in the stuff. Clearly not a US product. Do you have any idea what it is made with?

Regarding working with fishhooks installed: Yep. That sounds mighty unpleasant. I'm not going to volunteer for that assignment.

Well not for nothing but pdqdl you do have 20% less chance of that happening to you.

 

[pdqdl]

Far. FAR less chance than a 20% risk reduction.

They got no wahoo whatsoever in Missouri, and then there is my history with fish: I have bad luck. Not only have I not caught a fish since I was much younger, positively NO ONE has caught a (keeper) fish in my presence for 25 years.

It is phenomenal. I can go to a freshly stocked trout river on opening day...hundreds of fishermen...NO ONE will catch a fish while I am there. I have had people take me to their private fishing hole to prove that my bad luck isn't true. HAH! No fish for dinner, despite all their predictions.

 

[StihlRockin']

Probably not a good idea!

Dremel or any other spinning disk generates too much heat. Tissues beneath are very sensitive to that. Big ouchies, real quick.

Ah, you have not yet gotten to know me well.

First of all, what I say and fact are the same.

If there are various "opinions", what I say is not opinion, but should be taken as "fact". Or rather, it may be an opinion, but accept is as fact... because that what it turns out to be in the end.

Doctors that use tools like this LET the tool and what's being ground, cool off. They DON'T grind straight through until the job is done. They grind a little, let the tool & object cool off, then proceed again. It's a slow process, but works well.

StihlRockin'

 

[outofmytree]

Ah, you have not yet gotten to know me well.

First of all, what I say and fact are the same.

If there are various "opinions", what I say is not opinion, but should be taken as "fact". Or rather, it may be an opinion, but accept is as fact... because that what it turns out to be in the end.

You have really wide doors in your house don't you.........

 

[StihlRockin']

You have really wide doors in your house don't you.........

No, but certainly there's a high probablity of you having a huge tv with no library in yours.

 

[outofmytree]

No, but I'm absolutely certain, by your reply, you have a huge tv and no library.

Eek, I have been insulted by a man with an ego so large he has to pay twice to get in the ball game.