I got the stitches pulled out of my finger today. I’m relieved, they were getting really irritating.
The triage nurse at my family doctor’s clinic in Strathroy did the work. It took her maybe 90 seconds, all told.
She used a little set of scissors to cut the line, then pulled it out with tweezers. Only the first (out of three stitches) really hurt — it stung as she pulled it through my sore skin.
The problem is that the stitches are so unforgiving, while the skin on the finger moves around a lot. It’s so malleable.
My finger is all raw, with a little knot of bumpy flesh in the middle. I apologized to M’Lady — I’ll have a funky scar on my ring finger forever, thanks to the accident. Damn ciabatta bun. Damn bread knife.
I’ll never forget the sensation of having the stitches under my skin, just as I have never forgotten how it felt to have metal staples in my gut when I got my appendix out (I believe the year was 1989). The body has a long memory.
Got any scar stories you want to volunteer?
Umm, I still have stitches in my eye, whcih itch and break over time, from the cornea transplant I had in 2001. Hows that?’
I have a wonderful scar.
Spent a week in the hospital, followed by three months of visits by a VON for treatment. Lots of narcotics from my doctor.
Search the word pilonidal for some scary stuff.
The disgusting thing is they hurt more the longer they stay in because the flesh is more attached to them.
I have a scar on my lower back running up and down my spine (about 2 inches long), and no one seems to know what it’s from.
Long story short…in university…buddy cut his head during a night of drinking…got stiches…did not feel like going to the hospital to get them out…so I used Vodka and toe nail clippers to remove them
I have two long scars down my right arm – one on each side. A gymnastics injury in grade 5. I was doing a run through my floor routine during the last practice before the competition and somewhere in the middle of a running cartwheel back handspring my arm gave out and both bones snapped in half! 2 surgeries, 36 staples for each surgery, plates and screws in my arm – I am left with two ugly scars! But i love them, they are a great ice breaker as everyone sees them and says “oh my god – what happened there!”
i remember cutting my finger when chopping lettuce at work one day… it was the usual non-dominate index finger nail the got the most of it. No stiches, just wrapped up and back to work after the dizzness wore off. Yeah the perils of working in the restaurant biz…
I can still remember how it felt when the steel of the knife slid into my flesh. Still weirds me out… also to this day when i mix salad with salad tongs i hold my left index finger in the air lol.
jadey: Like I said, the body has a long memory. I’ll never forget what it felt like to have stitches “under my skin.”
kmcmillan21: Oh my G, that’s crazy. I hope they gave you some good stuff for the pain!
gary4567: Sounds like the Chuck Norris school of medicine!
iamtanya: What’s it from?
that_john: Disgusting AND painful!
travellingeorge: OK, I’ll look it up. Sounds scary.
nflfan: Wow, that’s awful.
There are 2 stories for you.
First, when I was a kid (around 5), I was helping my mother with laundry & when she left the room, I managed to put my arm through an old wringer washer. My arm went in up to the shoulder where my head hit the safety bar and the washer stopped. You can still see the stitches that go half way around my elbow, even 40 years later.
Second, I got the top part of my middle finger chopped off in a door. Someone slammed the door and I didn’t move my hand fast enough. Now, when I flip someone the bird, it’s a little short.
I can’t even start to count all the scars I have. I must have had 100 or more stitches in my life… Worst part about scars is that they “re-injure” or tear easily. Not to mention when nerves are severed, and everything distal to the scar is numb… I got around 30 stitches in my hand when I accidentally put it through a plate glass window… Dropped 5000 lbs of steel on my thumb, and had 3 surgeries after the accident.
hawgrider: Dude, that’s a lot of injuries. What’s the plate-glass story?
gnosis: That washer story is just brutal. I can’t even imagine. You musta been in pain.
I put my hand through a screen door glass window when I was 18 or 19. Learned that lesson the hard way, and the nurses weren’t feeling sorry for me, since it was kinda my own fault. Thin glass is even worse than thicker glass for causing cuts I’ve heard.