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 OUTDOOR PURSUITS
 with Rob Miskosky

When You're Told to Go Get Stitches...


Besides a love of the outdoors, hunters, anglers and trappers all have one thing in common; we all use knives. Whether that knife is a hunting knife used for skinning a big game animal, an angler’s filleting knife used for fish preparation, or a trapper’s pelting knife for use on furbearing animals, thousands of outdoorsmen and women injure themselves each year using a knife during our outdoor pursuits. Some injuries are serious, requiring a doctor’s attention, while others are minor in nature and don’t require treatment outside of the home. Regardless of the severity of the knife injury, none of them are fun, not even the minor injuries.

“... you should probably listen.”
According to MyHealth.Alberta.ca, treatment by a doctor [for cuts] is more likely to be needed for:
● Wounds that are more than 6.5 mm (0.25 in.) deep, that have jagged edges, or that gape open.
● Deep wounds that go down to the fat, muscle, bone, or other deep structures.
● Deep wounds over a joint, especially if the wound opens when the joint is moved or if pulling the edges of the wound apart shows fat, muscle, bone, or joint structures.
● Deep wounds on the hands or fingers.
● Wounds longer than 20 mm (0.75 in.) that are deeper than 6.5 mm (0.25 in.).
● Wounds that continue to bleed after 15 minutes of direct pressure.

Over the years, I have cut my fingers or hands on numerous occasions while hunting, fishing, or trapping, but I have never needed medical attention for a cut other than that of my own, using some peroxide and a bandage, fixed!

The photo at right is an image of my left index finger, approximately seven days after I cut myself with a knife while skinning a coyote. I knew the cut was deep, in a bad place, and would be bothersome, but it was just a finger I told myself!

“Go get some stitches,” my wife said while helping to doctor me up.

“It’s just a finger,” I said. “I’m not going to the hospital for a finger! I’ll be fine.”

At the time, I was unaware of the list above; my cut matched every one of the bullet points. Perhaps, if I had been aware of the list, I may have went to the hospital for treatment, but probably not, it was just a finger!

Several days after I cut myself, the finger started acting up. Then it became so painful that I had no choice but to head to Emergency. Little did I know that I would spend the next eight days wearing an IV in my hand (later moved to my arm), have to visit the Stony Plain Hospital IV Clinic daily for antibiotic injections, have an MRI done on my finger in Edmonton, spend countless hours awake at night with a throbbing finger, and listen to my wife tell me, “I told you so!” Lesson learned honey!

As I type this, I’m still limited to the use of three fingers on my left hand but I’m finally starting to feel better. The itching has begun, the swelling, while still there, has started to subside, and I now have limited movement in my finger, which was non-existent before.

A huge shout out to Courtney, Lisa, Corina, Jen and the other girls at the Stony Plain IV Clinic, and to Doctor Steve Chihrin. Without their help and understanding, I might not have a left index finger.

So, the next time your better half tells you to “go get stitches”, perhaps you should listen. I know I will, because not listening is a painful proposition.


For previous Outdoor Pursuits click here.




 
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