Terrific day in my ER rotation. I sutured up a pretty badly lacerated hand. My supervisor

[Aristus]

pronounced it 'good'.

My first complex suture job.

I think I can do this. Procedures are so much more fun than diagnostics... B-)

[Orrex]

1. I hope you keep them in stitches.

Congratulations!

[Aristus]

3. You're certainly doing that to me!

:rofl:

[XemaSab]

2. Good job

The other day I made the executive decision that the dog's stitches could come out, so we have something in common.

I'm assuming you weren't crawling around drunk on the bathroom floor with the nail clippers when you put the stitches in, though. :P

[Capn Sunshine]

4. rock ON!

some take to hands on, and you appear to be one of those. :)

[Gormy Cuss]

5. As Bullwinkle once said

Suture self.:P

[david13]

6. Congrats. Yeah, sewing them up is a good job. If it's done right.

It's just ordinary stitchery, basically. I have been sewn up a few times myself.
Once, out at Catalina Island we had a reveler fall and cut open his elbow, real nice.
Fortunately there was a tailor (md) on another boat, but he had run out of anesthetic, so our happy friend had to be sewn up without it. The ladies couldn't watch that, but he didn't even wince.
dc

[graywarrior]

7. Pissah!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My dear Aristus!

Ah, a hands-on kind of guy...

My kind of guy!;)



Good for you, sweetie! Something to cheer about indeed!

:toast:

[madrchsod]

9. i complemented my orthopedic surgeon on his needle work

the stitching of my shoulder tendons would have made my grandmother jealous


what stitch did you use....?

[Aristus]

11. A row of single interrupted stitches with 4.0 Nylon.

n/t

[SeattleGirl]

10. Good on ya, Aristus!

Where are you working now? If you don't want to say publicly, just PM me.

And if you don't want to say, that's fine.

:hi:

[Aristus]

21. Madigan Army Medical Center on Fort Lewis.

:hi: Seattle Girl! Happy Thanksgiving! :-)

[zanne]

12. Thank you for the work you do, Aristus. nt

[sarge43]

13. He's rested; he's tan and he has a suture needle.

Happy Thanksgiving, Aristus.

[Aristus]

27. You too, sarge!

:patriot:

[libodem]

14. Good on ya

Looks a bit like tying flies to me. I'm right handy with a pack of steri-strips myself. I worked for a long time in a SNF and repaired many skin tears.

[debbierlus]

15. Congratulations.

[WillParkinson]

16. You old sew and sew...

Grats!

[JohnnyLib2]

17. Glad to hear it.

:thumbsup:

[Deep13]

18. I'd give you a hand, but you've already had one.

Ah, what the hell.

:applause:

[phasma ex machina]

19. +1 Procedures are so much more fun than diagnostics

Also applies to my trade (computers).

[JohnnyLib2]

20. By the way, was turkey carving the reason?

Inquiring minds....

[Aristus]

22. No. The patient had just moved up from Arizona, and was unpacking boxes.

Got a little enthusiastic with his box knife...

[Mutley]

23. If House decided that procedures were more fun than diagnostics

we would all be in deep doodoo!

:P

[marzipanni]

24. That's great, Aristus! (Warning: squeamish people might not want to read this reply)

33 years ago :o near the end of nursing school we chose a two-week elective in the hospital I chose the ER.
One evening a little boy was brought in, crying, with a blackening, throbbingly painful toenail of his big toe. He had dropped a radio on it.
The doctor held a paper clip with one end pulled straight, with forceps, over a lighter until red hot, then pushed the hot end against the toenail. "Fssssst" and squirt! the pressurized blood spurted out! Though it seemed a rather primitive procedure it provided instant relief. I think I remember asking, "Why a paper clip?" The paper clip wire is a good gauge apparently.
Since then I have done that procedure for my husband's thumbnail when it got smashed between bricks, and my boss' great toenail which she had bruised while hiking. I also recommended it to a nurse friend whose husband's thumbnail had a car door closed on it. Sounds gross, but people love the relief!

[david13]

25. Just like lancing boils. dc

[sarge43]

28. Did that procedure on myself once after slamming thumbnail with car door.

A hematoma under a nail is the equiv of an abscessed tooth, unpleasant.

I imagine a paper clip is used because it's handy, heats easily and with care won't easily go through the hematoma into the nail bed unlike say the point of a knife or a darning needle.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

26. sewing is fun.

I learned to sew when I was a kid. In college we had lab teams of four when we operated on animals. We had to do a bilateral adrenalectomy on a white rat and sew him up. Some clumsy gung ho pre-med guy wanted to do it and I was trying to convince him I could do it, but I was a girl, so he wouldn't listen to me. Eventually the male grad student lab instructor told him to let me do it, and I did.

This was with a small upholstery needle (half moon) held in forceps and you basically had to do a buttonhole stitch from right to left.

I would make a good surgeon, but I am not smart enough to get through med school. Sewing and not having to deal with patients would be fun.