Posts: 27,658
Threads: 2,277
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Stitch: The Medical Procedure
01-25-2009, 06:33 AM
Two of'em, in fact, in the tip of my left forefinger, thanks to a stray carving knife and a hunk of roast beef. So... if my typing noticeably sucks for
the next ten days or so, that's why.
And no, I'm not joking -- I just got back from the urgent care outfit we use, and the anesthetic isn't even worn off yet.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Ouch Bob  I assume you nicked yourself where the fingerprints are? Any chance of the skin scarring over?
_________________________________
Take Your Candle, Go Light Your World.
Posts: 27,658
Threads: 2,277
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Yes, and probably -- though I have no idea for sure.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Posts: 25,667
Threads: 2,064
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
Scarring over the fingerprints might make it difficult to cross the border if you're coming to Worldcon this year. (Not to get into Canada - to get back
into the USA. I've heard a few horror stories.)
Best to update your passport as soon as you know for sure...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 2,354
Threads: 83
Joined: Jul 2005
Reputation:
0
I wouldn't worry too much about your fingerprints scaring.
The palms of your hands and bottom of your feet are amazingly durable.
I did tech theater in college and would burn/slice/puncture the tips of my thumb, pointer, and middle finger with frightening regularity.
Give it 4 months and I'd be surprised if you even can make out the scar.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
Umm, either that's not true, or I'm a special case.
When I was a younger lad, I had my left hand crushed and the first digit of the pointer and 'bird' finger were completely obliterated beyond repair.
The powers that be, (myself included) opted to install surgical fiberglass resin implants in place of the destroyed bones and sew the fingertips back together.
That was over 18 years ago, and my 'bird' finger still looks like a orange that someone stepped on and super-glued closed.
_____
DEATH is Certain. The hour, Uncertain...
Posts: 2,354
Threads: 83
Joined: Jul 2005
Reputation:
0
Well ok, perhaps I should have prefaced that by saying: nothing I have done to my fingers has led to perminant scarring. And I have done a lot
Granted nothing that required major reconstructive surgery. But stitches, 2nd degree burns, punctures, and gouges have all been recovered from without a
problem
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
Posts: 8,933
Threads: 386
Joined: May 2006
Reputation:
3
Kurisu: sweno's injuries tend to be more of the mild to moderate cuts and lacerations - they tend to be fairly clean and even. Something like yours is a
lot more traumatic, however, and would leave moderate scarring no matter where you acquired that sort of injury. The tissue was simply far too badly damaged.
Scarring all depends on the degree of damage done. The cleaner the cut, the more neatly (and quickly) it will heal. It is part of the reason why surgeons are
so keen on the idea of laser scalpels; because a laser with provide the cleanest cut of all, thus the one with the least amount of scarring.
Posts: 27,658
Threads: 2,277
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
In my case, 1.5 cm, parallel to length of the finger, into the side of the tip, not across the pad. Not going to have too much effect on my prints. Which, to
the best of my knowledge, aren't on record anywhere anyway.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Posts: 25,667
Threads: 2,064
Joined: Feb 2005
Reputation:
12
Quote:In my case, 1.5 cm, parallel to length of the finger, into the side of the tip, not across the pad. Not going to have too much effect on my prints.
Yay!
Quote:Which, to the best of my knowledge, aren't on record anywhere anyway.
Must be nice... (They're a requirement for the higher government security clearances up here. At least, mine are on file for my Secret clearance...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Posts: 1,382
Threads: 33
Joined: Sep 2007
Reputation:
0
...Should you be telling us that? Will you have to kill us now? 0_o
*Ahem*
I've had some injuries, though nothing on the fingers, that needed some surgery to work out, but scars are minimal to none, safe to say that unless you
really mess up your hand, you should be fine.
---
The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
Posts: 27,658
Threads: 2,277
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Quote:(They're a requirement for the higher government security clearances up here. At least, mine are on file for my Secret clearance...)
I've never held a security clearance -- although, ironically, I processed security clearances in my first job out of college, as an admin assistant for a military contractor based at what was then the Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Center. (I had lots and lots of forms. I even found -- and kept -- a Nixon era-vintage form which was three times the size of the 1984-current form because it was mostly taken up by a list of organizations you couldn't belong to and hold a Secret+ clearance. The list read like a who's who of right wing paranoid fantasy.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Posts: 3,278
Threads: 137
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
2
Quote: Ankhani wrote:
...Should you be telling us that? Will you have to kill us now? 0_o
Na. The three offical levels are Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. And the fact that you have a clearance isnt secret. I had to hold a
secret clearance in my rating as a Sonar Tech, fer example.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
Posts: 8,933
Threads: 386
Joined: May 2006
Reputation:
3
Yeah, you might be surprised. Gunner's Mates that are Missile Techs hold Secret level clearances because they gotta mess around with the computer systems.
Of course, us 5" Gun Techs all like to raz them whenever they complain about having so much work to do. Some of the maintenance checks on our gun is a
pain in the ass, like diving into the loader drum to lubricate all the zirc fittings, or getting inside the breech-block lifting mechanism to do the same. My
personal favorite, though, is shimmying up through the gun's front access cover to get at the fittings on the cradle's hydraulic lifting cylinder.
Plenty of stuff to smash, poke, slice, and otherwise maim your hands in there. Just yesterday I mashed my thumb pretty good during our quarterly ammunition
inventory. Catching your thumb between the wall of a ammo bin and a 70 lb. 5" projectile is not fun.
Posts: 1,576
Threads: 94
Joined: Oct 2002
Reputation:
0
I've done a similar cut across the side of my thumb, just with a different knife - the main blade of a Swiss army knife. No stitches required just super
glue, gauze & tape strips. It happened some years ago and you can still tell that something happened by the slight ridge and faint scar line present after
it healed up with minor effect on that finger's print as the cut goes along a valley. So for fingerprinting purposes a cut in that location is okay, but
cuts across the pad depending on cut depth, not so much.
--Rod.H
Posts: 27,658
Threads: 2,277
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
I get the stitches out in two nights -- I suppose I'll know before the end of the week just how much of a scar it's going to leave. So far it seems to
be healing smoothly (I change the dressing every night and inspect it in the process), so I guess it's going to have minimal scarring.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Posts: 27,658
Threads: 2,277
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
21
Update: Stitches are out. I still have a visible cut, with a little dry/clotted blood under the skin and in the stitch holes, but at least it doesn't look
like Frankenstein. I figure it'll vanish completely in a week. And thus ends the saga of my accidental self-mutilation.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Posts: 3,278
Threads: 137
Joined: Sep 2002
Reputation:
2
I'd expect that it really was a case of how the cut was made. Like they said, a clean cut like from a sharp knife usually doesnt leave a scar. The scar
across my right index print was blunt force trauma, iirc... (i was like 2 when it happened) and was from either a car door or I think my mom once said i'd
caught it in the coffee table somehow?
At any rate one would think that it would actually make your print more recognizable, but in todays era of faith in computers they only look for ridges and
swirls, not gross malformations like scars. I've had my right index print rejected a number of times because of how print reader software works...
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
|
