Well, this is a little unusual post. Whenever you get injured, you would have lot of people telling you that you should secure it with a bandage and many will also tell you to leave it to the air. And, you get into the dilemma that whether covering up is a better way of healing an injury or not. Even, I was faced with the same dilemma day before yesterday when I hurt my ankle. The injury was not deep and not a lot of blood was gushing out. So, I will talk only for the small injuries which include a blood clot and not a stream of blood gushing out. A deep wound should always be bandaged by an expert and proper medical treatment should be followed.
- So, whenever you injure yourself, always remember to clean the wound. The cleaning should be thorough even though it might be a very painful process otherwise there are a lot of chances of bacteria breeding on your wound.
- If you are a brave person who can tolerate pain, spirit or alcohol is the best way to clean a wound and heal it faster. But, it is extremely painful and do not ever dare to try it if you do not have a big heart. You can go for other mild cleaners like Dettol or Savlon. If you are like me (complete faint-hearted), I would suggest you to go for savlon as it is the mildest of the antiseptic cleaners and will burn the least.
- Use a sterilized gauge to clean the wound instead of using cotton as cotton may stick to the wound. Remove all the foreign particles and the clotted blood from the wound thoroughly.
- Make sure that there is no more blood coming out of the wound. If any blood is coming out, put a bandaid or bandage the wound securely. While bandaging, do not make the bandage too tight. Just tie it firmly over the wound to stop the bleeding but tying it tightly wound make the wound more painful and restrict your movements. Change the bandage everyday.
- If your wound is clean and no blood is coming out, you should leave it open to the air so as to heal it faster. Expose the wound to sunlight. It would prevent the puss formation and kill any bacteria, if there and also, helps the wound to get dry faster.
- Avoid applying any ointment as it will keep the wound wet for more time. And, if you apply ointment, bandage the wound to let the ointment hold on to the wound and give it time to work.
- In case you have hurt yourself on the fingers or anywhere on the hand, you can bandage the wound so that it is not a hindrance while doing any chores.
- A very important precaution if you want to get the wound to heal faster is never let it get wet. Do not let water anywhere near the wound. Water carries bacteria or other microbes which can enter your body and secondly, it makes your wound wet and not heal faster.
- Never ignore the pain in a wound. If it becomes unbearable, go to a doctor. You might have injured yourself internally.
- I want to clear another common misconception “One should take tetanus injection if you have cut yourself from a rusted or metal object”. Well, this is not true. Basically, you should take tetanus everytime you injure yourself. Why? Because, the germs are present everywhere. The reference to the rusted metal objects is just because there are certain germs which are commonly found on rusted objects only. But, that does not rule out the option that they can not be present anywhere else. And, tetanus injection does not kill the foreign objects in the body. It just increases the immunity of our bodies to fight these foreign objects. So, never forget a tetanus injection incase you hurt yourself badly.
- Ok, now, you can skip a tetanus injection if you have done the cleaning of your wound thoroughly and immediately. And, if you have not hit yourself with a metal object.
These instructions are for small wounds with little blood clots. If the blood is literally trickling down from your wound, please consult a doctor.
