How My Thumb Healed From an Incised Wound

Science Medical

2023-12-07 14:41:38.113918+00

A few months ago I joined Hello Fresh which delivers groceries and recipes to your home for you to prepare.

I do actually like preparing fresh meals sometimes, and even purchased some new, good quality cooking knives for it.

Unfortunately I didn't pay as much attention as I should after growing accustomed to using them, and started watching TV while I cooked. And here is the result: an incised wound to my thumb.

When it happened, I didn't even think much of it. I felt something wrong, but nothing terribly painful. Apparently this is because the knife was exceptionally sharp. I realized it was probably a bad wound when I saw the piece of thumb on the cutting board and the amount of blood that was being produced.

I thought about heading to the emergency room, but decided to try getting the bleeding stopped first which took a couple changes of gauze bandages from the first aid kit. After some time, I got it stopped enough to put a large bandaid over the wound and wrap it in gauze again, and some rubber bands, hoping it would be the final time for overnight.

Since the bleeding seemed to be controlled, and I managed to flush it out well enough with homemade saline, I decided I wouldn't go to the ER after all and see what happened over time.

The next day I didn't take off the bandage but just added some more because it was starting to bleed through, but nothing like it was. And the day after than I decided to remove it all and flush it out with more saline, and wrap it up again with some Neosporin this time.

My thinking on Neosporin is that it's good for killing the germs, but you don't want to use it unless you really need to. Same with bandages.

Anyway, here is some photo documentation of the healing process and progress over time. I'm absolutely astonished at how well our bodies can repair themselves if we can help things along a bit.

Day 1: Wrapped bandaid and gauze around it and a rubber band to try and get the bleeding stopped.

Day 2: Didn't take off the gauze, but added more instead.

Day 3: Took off the bandaid and gauze.

Day 3: I could finally see how big a chunk was cut out.

Day 3: Rinsed with a homemade saline solution and put on a fresh bandaid and gauze, along with some Neosporin.

Day 4: The Neosporin seemed to whiten parts, but the bleeding had mostly stopped and it seemed like a thin clear coat covered the wound.

Day 5: Was feeling much better about my tactics.

Day 6:

Day 7:

Day 9: Amazed at how layers seemed to be growing over the wound.

Day 10: You could actually seem some opaque skin growth coming in to cover it.

Day 11:

Day 12: Still very sore but I was convinced at this point it should fully heal.

Day 13: The skin was beginning to close in. I had stopped the Neosporin after the bleeding stopped but continued to rinse with saline.

Day 14:

Day 15:

Day 16: At this point I decided I'd not even bother with a bandaid to let it breathe better.

Day 20: Very happy with how it was progressing.

Day 78: It's just a tiny bit tender when pressure is applied.