Staples instead of stitches?
- Thread starter ck256
- Start date
- Status
Due to an accident I had in 95 I was the proud owner of 172 staples in my left leg. The deal is they have both staples and stitches. In the case of a long cut or gash that normal movement stretches the skin and can rupture stitches you get the full monty. Yes they scar I got 344 little dots next to 3 big scars...but they are small dots around the huge scar that the laceration or surgical cut leaves. Least that's what i remember the doc saying.
Got two staples in my head in the mid-1990's after a martial arts accident... Yeah, at the time I thought... WTF?! Staples?! But it went really well...
I've had plenty of staples and my only advice to you is when they are removed, make sure a strong woman or a man does it. I had this head gash with 4 staples and a tiny little hottie of a nurse, she wasn't strong enough to break the middle 2 and it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.
I had staples after both C-sections to keep the skin in place for the first four days. Then, they remove all those staples and use surgistrips (gloried tape) instead. Staples are more effective against movement, I think like a PP mentioned. And they do hurt coming out if you get a bad nurse. The worst though is seeing them inserted. It's like a staple gun. Crazy...
The problem I had with the staples being removed was that most healed cleanly and came out easily enough. But the ones that didn't heal cleanly (i.e. got a bit bloody, etc...) had to be wrenched out in a way that pulled that already traumatized skin. Stitches are cut out if they don't dissolve. You can do it with a pocket knife if you need to, but staples require a special little grabbing device that holds them firmly so they can be either pulled gently or wrestled out. You want someone tough to wrestle for you, so that the period of cold sweaty pain takes only a second rather than minutes.
- Status