Bar Fight
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This post is going to ramble on for a little while before it gets to the real point, so you might want to sit back and enjoy the ride.
It’s guaranteed to leave you in ’stitches’.
I was in Southern California at my daughter’s wedding a couple of weeks ago. At the reception, I went over to a table where my brother-in-law was sitting. He happens to be my best friend from third grade, and it was he who introduced me to the woman who became my wife.
My wife just happens to be the twin sister of his wife. I don’t want to confuse things too much, but I must mention that my wife’s brother, whom I roomed with after high school, never told me about her. I suppose he had good reason for hiding her from me. But some things are just meant to be.
Anyway, sitting at the table was a common friend of ours from high school, and his beautiful wife Janet. As I sat down, he asked me about the scar that was forming above my right eye. He wondered what had happened to cause it.
I smiled, because he was only the second person, besides my wife, who had mentioned that very noticeable ‘new feature’ since it happened. I see lots of people. It’s just that I don’t much look like a person who should be asked that sort of question. When I wear the black leather jacket I got in Amsterdam… and I was wearing it at the time of this conversation… frankly, I look like a Russian mafioso. When I’m in the gym, pumped up, well, no one much talks to me at all. Although in truth I’m quite gentle and friendly.
But my friend of many years did what many would not, and asked me. So I told him, “Bar fight.”
Which was, of course, not true. I was just kidding. The three of us have kidded around with each other for decades. But he was buying it, and so was my brother-in-law, which was a little disconcerting, so I quickly said, “No, not really,” and told them what actually happened.
I do not sleep much. Sometimes I sleep in a chair for a couple of hours, and that’s my night’s sleep. But one night I woke up in my chair, went to the bathroom, and decided to head to the bedroom to see if I could get a couple of more hours of sleep under my belt.
I was very groggy as I lurched down the hallway. As usual, I did not bother turning on the lights to walk around my house at night, because I know where everything is. Except, apparently, one wall.
I slammed into a corner of it as I turned, banging my forehead against it quite sharply. I actually heard a ’splooge’ sound as my forehead opened up. It was obvious to me even in my sleepy stupor that I’d injured myself significantly.
Getting a flashlight and looking in a nearby mirror (for some reason that seemed more reasonable than just turning on the lights) I saw that I’d opened a vertical gash above my right eye. It was a little over an inch long, with a bit of a hook at the bottom. It was over a quarter of an inch deep. The flesh is about a quarter of an inch deep right there. I started wondering if I’d fractured my skull. I shined the light in each eye, one at a time. The pupils dilated evenly, so I thought I probably did not have a concussion.
But there was the matter of all the blood dripping from the wound. Standard procedure is to apply pressure with a clean bandage until the bleeding stops. I started to go get a bandage, but then it occurred to me that I had banged my head pretty hard. There was a bump forming. It occurred to me that if it were not an open wound, I’d be putting ice on the bump to stop the swelling. It occurred to me that ice would also probably help stop the bleeding.
I decided to try it. I groggily went to the kitchen, keeping an eye out for walls appearing out of nowhere.
I got one of the ice packs we always keep in the freezer, put a paper towel over it, and applied pressure with it over the cut/bump. It worked really good for both cut and bump. The bleeding lessened considerably, and it stopped swelling. I was pleased with myself. I hadn’t heard of using ice on a wound like that. (The next day I did not have a bump on my forehead, which I surely would’ve if I had not iced it.)
But the wound was still very open. I looked at it in the mirror, and my first thought was that it would probably require 3 or 4 stitches. I didn’t want to wake up my wife to have her stitch me up. She needs her sleep to function well. So I was thinking about using staple sutures instead of nylon and a needle to sew it up myself. The staples are faster and easier. Since we have no anesthetic, faster has some benefits.
As I was looking at it, trying to decide which method to use, I started to realize that I was not only groggy from waking up in the middle of the night… I was also in a little into the state of shock from the significant impact on my head. Suturing myself in that condition would not be optimal. Doable, but not optimal. I started wondering if butterfly strip bandages would be enough to close it.
But on me, regular band-aides don’t work very well at all, for a number of reasons, including my skin type. They do not adhere. They come off almost immediately.
However… we had recently found a band-aide that actually worked. BAND-AID® Sport Strips®. They actually stay where they are put, and they stay there as long as needed, even if they get wet. They are AMAZINGly good! *
Now, here’s the important concept regarding stitching a gaping wound:
the primary purpose is to bring one side of the wound next to the other side so your body can heal them back together.
It occurred to me that, in this case, I might be able to use a single inch-wide Sport Strip® band-aid to do exactly that.
I got one from the first aid closet in our master bedroom. I poured a couple of drops of colloidal silver into the wound as an antibacterial agent. I stuck one side of the band-aide to one side of my forehead next to the wound, pulled it ever so slightly taught over the wound, and pressed it to my forehead on the other side. It stuck, and held the two sides together quite nicely. Mission accomplished. I went to bed.
The next morning, I took the Sport Strip® off, and checked the wound. There had been a little seepage, which was fine. No infection. And it looked like the two sides were coming together nicely. I applied another Sport Strip® the same way I had done the night before. I changed the Sport Strip® every 4 to 8 hours until the wound was healed enough to stop doing it. Which was just four days. The wound basically healed in a little over a week. Although I do tend to heal quickly, which is a gift from the Lord, that was fast even for me, and very fast indeed considering my current age. With stitches I believe it would have taken twice as long, and left more of a scar.
I went to the store later in the day to get more Sport Strips®, because I was totally sold on their ability to deliver far more than any normal ‘band-aide’. I wanted to put a box or two in all my emergency first aid kits. But the store, which is our town’s largest store, was sold out of them. As was the next store I tried, and the next. Of course our town is kind of a backwater, so shortages happen. But frankly, this shortage concerned me a little. I’ve noticed that quite a few products that I think work very well have been taken off the mainstream market, for no apparent reason. Is it because they work TOO well for common people (non-doctors) to have for ourselves? Or is it simply that not enough people buy them?
I don’t know. I just hope they do not pull Sport Strips® from the market, because I believe that they are a very superior product.
I did manage to find some in Southern California when I was there.
And when I returned home, they were available again here.
I stocked up.
*Full Disclosure: no, I do not get paid in any way for my recommendation of this product. We don’t even have a link to it. I simply like it a lot.
