Anybody know how to remove stitches?

[TrogL]

I'm bored with them and I think half of them broke anyway.

They're supposed to come out Thursday, but I'm gonna be busy until doomsday.

[LuLu550]

1. do you pull your own teeth, too???

Don't be silly...go to the Doc...you probably need the follow up exam. Why do you have them, anyway??

[TrogL]

3. Yes, actually

Doesn't everybody?

I tried some brain surgery but I don't think it went very well. I couldn't find trepaning in any modern surgery textbook so I had to improvise.

[LuLu550]

5. you remind me of my son

he does nutty things like that, too. What is it with you guys???

[jmowreader]

16. Is trepanation brain surgery?

It would be if you managed to drill into your brain, but wouldn't it be bone surgery until the gray stuff started riding up the flutes?

Perfect tool for trepanation: drill press. You can set the depth of stroke so you don't hit the brain, you'll let go of the hand lever after you pass out from the pain, and if you use a real big cable tie to secure your head to the column, you don't even have to worry about falling off the table and letting your cerebrospinal fluid run out.

Hmm...on second thought, don't do this.

[LARED]

2. Nail clippers work good. n/t

[kixot]

4. I did mine just a few weeks ago.

Use a needle to lift the stitch from underneath just high enough to get a scissor on it to clip it. Then just slide it out and move on to the next one. Have plenty of rubbing alcohol on hand to sanitize the area before and after.

[TrogL]

9. I can't see two of them

The surgeon said he put five in, but I can only see threads from two. Maybe he went kinda zigzaggy and only put threads on each end.

[trof]

20. I've done it, but

they were clearly visible.
If you can't see them DON'T DIG!

[slackmaster]

6. I can't recommend that you remove them yourself

But if you must, be sure to clean the wound area and exposed stitches very throroughly first. You do NOT want to drag a dirty stitch end through your flesh.

Use surgical scrub, or soap and water followed by a Betadine or isopropyl alcohol (90% or higher, not "rubbing" alcohol which is typically 70%) soak.

Snip on one side of the knot, and pull the stitch out (obviously not so the knot gets dragged through).

[SoCalDem]

7. I have even put in my own stitches before

I DO have insurance, but once when I cut my hand, I knew it needed 3-4 stitches and I was not interested in sitting at urgent care, so I sterilized a needle, soaked some cotton thread in alcohol and did it myself..

My boys were impressed.. To remove them, just dip some extra pointy scissors in alcohol and snip..they should come right out :)

[HereSince1628]

8. Cut and pull...

same bloody way the doctor does it.

If you were a REAL democrat you'd have sown yer own!

[Blue-Jay]

10. Come on over!

All I need is a pair of toenail clippers and a cigarette lighter. I'll fix you up good!

Also, you should bring some bourbon so I won't faint.

[Robb]

11. LOL!

"bring some bourbon so I won't faint" is what got me. Good one! ;)

[TrogL]

12. Tell that to the student nurse

who was watching the operating. She got all woozy and ready to faint and somebody had to lead her out. The doctor thought it was hysterical and I kidded her about it when she got back.

[Booberdawg]

13. As a teenager I removed a full length cast off my leg

because it got all wet inside. Took me all day. My Dr. was furious.

Ended up having to have surgery later and another full length cast on my leg.

[SoCalDem]

15. I "removed" a cast too.. by accident

I had one of those old plaster ones that weighed a ton.. I fell down a flight of steps trying to use the damned crutches and the "foot part" just fell off after the smashup..

The doctor was not amused, and took my crutches away.. I ended up having 4 casts before that break in my foot was healed.. (showers are bad for plaster casts) and Panama weather made some pretty smelly creatures grow inside acast..--on that one, I scratched my leg with a ruler, and the varmints gave me such a bad infection, they had to remove the cast.,.

[Booberdawg]

21. Shower is how mine got all wet inside.

Mine was also a plaster cast. I was sick of trying to take a bath with my leg propped over the side of the tub, so I wrapped it in plastic and tried a shower. Of course the water ran down inside the cast. Duh! So I was an idiot.

It was the middle of winter and below zero temperatures outside. I couldn't go to school because my leg would freeze the minute I stepped out the door. So, I took a chisel, hammer, and pliers and ripped off a strip at a time.

When I got up to walk that's when I discovered you knee doesn't just BEND anymore after being held straight for 5 weeks. Hurt like a sonovabitch! So I ended up pulling some muscles on top of it all.

Oh yeah, I used the ruler to scratch too on that cast and my next cast. Also those long wooden weight holder things in the bottom of window shades. It screwed up all the cotton and wrapping inside and I had dents on my leg after the cast came off that didn't go away for weeks.

Argh! Leg casts are awful!

[HuckleB]

14. Go to your appointment.

There's nothing more for me to say. Anyone who knows enough to give advice shouldn't be giving it in a forum such as this, since they're license would be on the line if you chose to sue.

I know it sounds hard ass, but, unfortunately, it's no joke.

[Vitruvius]

22. And DON'T remove them before they're supposed to come out --

a friend did that, part of the wound opened up, and he had a real problem. And I got stuck driving him to the emergency room (it was in the evening, after the doctor's office had closed).

Leave them ALONE and -- like the man said -- go to your appointment.

[dweller]

17. My cat says

just lick 'em out, but hey, if you only could lick them out there, you would.

:evilgrin:

dp

[sleipnir]

18. Smoke a bowl, drink some Crystal and rip away...

You won't feel shizit....

[citizen snips]

19. Go to the doctor.

Just wait.

[VOX]

23. Really, make some time to have your doc do it. Trust me.

You risk infection, and you can leave small bits of the suture behind in the wound. When it heals over, the suture fragments will slowly rise to the surface and re-open the wound in places. (Technical term: "spitting.")

And I speak from sad experience!

[BiggJawn]

24. Better suture bits that what *I* got "spitting" out of my leg!

Flakes of Bicycle sprocket grease. So, now I know what "got" me when I went over last Sept.
WhenI went to the doctor because it was not healing last month, they never got courious about it. Just poked at it, said "Oh, you've got some infection in there. have some Keflex...".So after 3 weeks of that noise (during which I ditched the pill pusher)I did a little "home debridement" and that's when I found the grease flecks.

I'll see what my new doctor has to say about it next month.

[BiggJawn]

25. Dupe..At least I THINK it was a dupe?

OK, when I went to post the first one, I got some gibberish about "Lee Marvin shot Ronnie Raygun with a pistol" or some such shit. Then I got the ol' "your post did not got through" page, then I tried to edit the first post, but I couldn't because "time had expired" (90 seconds?)

what's up? left-over bad Karma from "the Day of the Ditto-Head"?