Topic: Stitches

[Don R]

Anybody pull their own stitches? I had my trigger fingers on my right hand fixed. Just not sure if I can wait until thursday, It's been two and a half weeks and they feel like they are trying to pull through when I am using my hand. I've got alcohol and the proper tools.

[medic09]

I cannot recommend it (liabilities), but the simple answer to your question is: yes, I have.  A few times.

Any doctor's office can do it, assuming it was simple procedure/wound.  Why don't you just go to your family doc and ask him/her to do it?  Someone does need to determine the wound is ready before removing the sutures.

[Roach]

I cannot recommend it (liabilities), but the simple answer to your question is: yes, I have.  A few times.

Any doctor's office can do it, assuming it was simple procedure/wound.  Why don't you just go to your family doc and ask him/her to do it?  Someone does need to determine the wound is ready before removing the sutures.

agreed i have don it before but it is something the doc should do

[Frankencake]

I think that maybe your surgeon wants to keep your stitches in until what he did underneath gets enough time to heal up.  In other words, you'll be easier on your fingers with stitches than without.  That being said, you do have the right to do whatever you want with your body.

As long as the wound edges are closed and not ready to pop open, do it.  If the wound does open up, stop doing what you are doing.  Make sure you don't have an infection to begin with and use clean "tools".   Treat your hand nice and easy for a while and keep it uber-clean for a few days.  Those stitch holes make for an easy entrance for pathogens and other nasty crap.  Be very aware for infection.  Wash your hands a lot and, if your insurance will cover it, find an attractive young woman to help you with your bathing and toileting.

[onagd]

If you do plan on doing it yourself, then let me give you an easy way to do this with the least chance of introducing any "foreign" material, i.e. bugs and germs.

 1  Take a look at the stitch, usually one side is knotted closer to the skin than the other.
 2  Take this edge of the knot and pull it a little away from the skin.
 3  This should expose a "cleaner" piece of the stitch. (The piece that has been below the surface)
 4  Cut the stitch in this area. (the "cleaner area)
 5  Pull the stitch through from the knot, away from the side you cut. This should allow the stitch to pull through without  pulling   any of the "dirty" stitch material throught the wound.

There you go and good luck, hope your fingers all work well.

+1 on the "wound opening up" If this should happen then stop and seek the appropriate medical help.

Regards Brett   

[Don R]

Thanks, he said two weeks but I couldn't get an apointment  until three weeks. There are two incisions and three stitches on each. Healed nicely between the stitches. One of them is really tight and when I extended my fingers it kept feeling like it was pulling through. I've kept some hospital skin lotion on the area and it is more flexible now, maybe I can wait. Thanks for the advice.
  The worst part is now I've had it done once I still need to do the other hand. It will be much easier to twist the throttle now! I did the throttle hand first, guitar hand next.

[bradweingartner]

I pulled my own, 12 in my hand (out of 20 total, wasn't pretty). If you consider yourself a good judge of healed vs unhealed, it's no big deal. I had a stitch that was on a nerve and whenever it got pulled on, two of my fingers would twitch, so I pulled that one out as soon as possible. Those two fingers are still always asleep, but at least I can feel them so could be worse.

What onagd mentioned about not pulling dirty stitch though is great advice. I'd also recommend using a povidone iodine solution instead of alcohol, you can get it at any drugstore or any retailer with a decent pharmacy department. It's the brown stuff.

[Frankencake]

If you do plan on doing it yourself, then let me give you an easy way to do this with the least chance of introducing any "foreign" material, i.e. bugs and germs.

 1  Take a look at the stitch, usually one side is knotted closer to the skin than the other.
 2  Take this edge of the knot and pull it a little away from the skin.
 3  This should expose a "cleaner" piece of the stitch. (The piece that has been below the surface)
 4  Cut the stitch in this area. (the "cleaner area)
 5  Pull the stitch through from the knot, away from the side you cut. This should allow the stitch to pull through without  pulling   any of the "dirty" stitch material throught the wound.

There you go and good luck, hope your fingers all work well.

+1 on the "wound opening up" If this should happen then stop and seek the appropriate medical help.

Regards Brett   

+1

I'd also recommend using a povidone iodine solution instead of alcohol, you can get it at any drugstore or any retailer with a decent pharmacy department. It's the brown stuff.

+1 again

[the imposter]

good advice from onagd, follow those steps and you should be ok. also i highly recommend putting "brown stuff" on all of your wounds

[Don R]

Thanks again, it's not so bad now. I did have a nerve pinch or something, it made my hand twitch then my reflex made it worse. I almost sent part of my dinner flying. My wife looked at me as if to say WTF? All I could do was laugh.

[flybox1]

Thanks again, it's not so bad now. I did have a nerve pinch or something, it made my hand twitch then my reflex made it worse. I almost sent part of my dinner flying. My wife looked at me as if to say WTF? All I could do was laugh.

save the next 'twitch' for when she gets frisky 

[Don R]

Well I waited for my appointment,Doc says it looks great and had the nurse pull the stitches. She just popped em out, no alcohol, iodine or anything. You guys would have been more careful. Still a little stiff on the extension and making a fist but they are not catching anymore. Other hand in a couple weeks.

[weekend_junkie]

I had stitches on the back of my index finger this year.  I felt tightness too, but it was just the tendons & ligaments that I hadn't flexed much in the 10 days that the stitches were in.

At 2+ weeks, I think I would have pulled them out already.

[Frankencake]

They do want you back in the office just in case you have an infection.  They also want the stitches in place to keep you in place and not pounding rivet with your hands.