Wound infected or not?

[ktimekiller]

I managed to slam my leg onto the side of a triangular shaped pole, and it dug moderately deep into my leg.

I used various alcohol and other cleaning agents with relatively clean tools, applied proper wound and infection ointments, and have repeated the process every day.

It has been roughly 2-3 days since the incident, and here are some things that make me wonder whether the wound is infected or not.

1. Hyper sensitivity of my leg - seems to be regional to the leg that received the wound

2. moderate swelling - while the swelling goes down after I sleep and wake up, after I progress much into the day, the swelling increases. I am assuming this could be due to exerting my wounded leg too much.

Besides these two problems, otherwise, I feel perfectly fine. I am not tired more than usual, I am able to properly wake up early in the day, and feel energetic enough to do daily tasks.

Infected or not?

Don't tell me to go to a doctors, I work at a doctors, and I know first hand how ridiculous the prices are for pathetic consulting which often are not beneficial to the patient at all.

Spoiler

The first picture does no justice as to how deep the wound was, I took the picture at a bad angle.

In the second picture, if you can see the red lines on each end of the wound, thats how far the wound stretched, and the whole thing was gaping open about x2 the current size.

The first picture was on the day of the cut

Second picture is roughly 3 days after.

The cut itself isn't large, but it was deep

 

[Dynasty]

Not infected.

Deep gouges, from personal experience, will take upto a good week to heal properly, regardless of what you do or take.

The sensitivity, im assuming is focused on the area of the wound, is natural and a good sign. Anything you put on the wound (antibacterial cream etc etc) that makes it sting or burn is always a good sign too. See it like this - if you can feel it, you dont need to worry about it as it means you havent severed anything or damaged any nerves etc etc.

The swelling is also a natural by-product of the healing process, and all it is is a build up of fluid in the damaged tissue. Only time to worry about swelling is when you HAVENT injured yourself.
Youre right about the swelling increasing during the day, your body increases blood flow during the day, so any processes involved will increase; more fluid builds up.

If you start getting white/cream-like discharges or buildups underneath, then its infected.

Also, check for redness around the wound itself. If its bright red, feels hot and hurts (I mean quite badly hurts), its a sign of the start of infection.

All I would suggest is you keep it covered and change your dressing atleast twice a day. Dont wrap it up completely, just a light, preferably cotton and gauze dressing, and dont tie it or attach it too tightly.
Bad dressing can lead to infection as well. I'd recommend a cream that acts as an anti-bacterial agent as well as local anesthetic to reduce redness. Keeping it 'wet' this way will help reduce scars and keep the scabs away. Scabs take ages to disappear, will always be picked and therefore leave a scar...unless youre with a chic that loves scars.

 

[ktimekiller]

The sensitivity applies to the whole leg in general, even the areas not near the wound.

There are red lines from each end of the wound, but I assume that they are bits of flesh that managed to seal up, as they appear to be skin that recently connected.

There are no pus or any kind of discharge outside of occasional blood.

The wound itself does not hurt if it is left alone, neither is it bright red (besides the blood clog that sealed up the deep wound), nor hot.

Thanks for the tips, I now believe I am not infected

 

[Raziaar]

You have tetanus shot, right?

 

[ktimekiller]

Ah, one problem I didn't mention about the hyper sensitivity.

Besides the entire leg the wound is on being hyper sensitive, I am occasionally bombarded with what I am assuming artificial stimulations to the nerves. They are very sharp pains, but very small and local to a small point.

Is this a problem?

I do not know if I had a tetanus shot

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Don't wound the infected, kill them, aim for the head.

...this isn't about zombies is it.

 

[Dynasty]

Ah, one problem I didn't mention about the hyper sensitivity.

Besides the entire leg the wound is on being hyper sensitive, I am occasionally bombarded with what I am assuming artificial stimulations to the nerves. They are very sharp pains, but very small and local to a small point.

Is this a problem?

I do not know if I had a tetanus shot

I wouldnt be worried. Quick, sharp pains are pretty expected around wounds, I get them in my hands and fingers if I cut myself in that area. Just take some paracetamol or neurofen or something similar, following the instructions of doses of course. This will not only reduce any pains or aches, but also help with swelling reduction and reduce healing time as a result, as it allows more white and red blood cells into the wounded area to do what they do best.

Im slightly confused as to why your whole leg is sensitive. Is it sensitive as in painful if you touch it anywhere or as in its just...tingly and think you feel more?

By the way, how did you hit the pole? Was it a heavy impact? Did your whole leg hit the pole and you only got cut in one area?

It would be irresponsible to not get a tetanus shot, but its your call of course. If you start getting a temperature or fever, get your ass to a doctor straight away.

 

[ktimekiller]

The leg is hyper sensitive in that a slight touch does hurt to a slight degree akin to a light burn (but no heat, or feeling of hot around the leg at all)

 

[Dynasty]

Hmm, never had anything like that. Is there any throbbing pains or throbbing at all, in the whole leg or just around the wound?

 

[Raziaar]

I do not know if I had a tetanus shot

Your parents will know. Most kids in the states get them I think... and if you got it as a child you should have immunity. At least that's what I know.

 

[Dynasty]

Bring back the cow Raziaar.

That girl is messed up.

 

[MJ12]

I doubt it, swelling can be expected from a wound. If it was infected you would probably experience a very annoying itching feeling inside the wound; similar (but amplified) itching feeling you get from blemish or a pimple.

 

[KiplingsCat]

It's probably fine. I stepped on an upholstery pin a week ago and my foot is still sore. Your thing sounds much worse. Not surprising it still hurts.

 

[Solaris]

Do you support nationalised health care ktimekiller?

 

[Tyguy]

ugh, i searched for infected wounds in google images....YUCK.

 

[15357]

Eh, if you don't want to go to the doctor, I recommend not getting water on it, and also cleaning the wound with alcohol or similar materials 2 times a day. Don't put bandages on when you sleep.

-This post provided by Numbers' experience of being the unofficial medic whenever his schoolmates had a game of basketball/soccer, and one-time official medic during school festival.

 

[Dan]

Don't clean wounds with alcohol. Use iodine. Alcohol makes it worse because as well as disinfecting your wound you are killing all of the exposed tissue. Dead tissue easily becomes infected. Alcohol is for sterilizing surgical instruments and the like, iodine is for sterilizing skin.

 

[15357]

Don't clean wounds with alcohol. Use iodine. Alcohol makes it worse because as well as disinfecting your wound you are killing all of the exposed tissue. Dead tissue easily becomes infected. Alcohol is for sterilizing surgical instruments and the like, iodine is for sterilizing skin.

Oh yeah, I meant hydrogen peroxide.

 

[Dan]

Hydrogen peroxide does the same thing as alcohol.

 

[Krynn72]

My advice is to listen to Dan. He probably ****s up his body more than anyone here and has more experience with this sort of thing.

 

[Dog--]

Let's see pics?

 

[Tyguy]

Let's see pics?

let's see some fully enveloped necrosis of the penis...one of you must have it.

 

[Warped]

when i was playing hide and seek with friends i ran into a nail in my leg, it hurt for about 4 or 5 days then it went away. also i did get a Tetanus shot when I was younger, and I believe they last you about 10 years or so.

 

[The Monkey]

I'm gonna go with not infected. The few times I've had infected wounds infected, the area around the wound turned white, so look out for that. Other than that, remember to change the bandages often, and you'll be fine.

 

[Dog--]

Seriously about the pics thing - you can explain it all you want, one decent quality pic will show us everything.

 

[Maestro]

Seriously about the pics thing - you can explain it all you want, one decent quality pic will show us everything.

Read: dude, this sounds like an awesome pic!

Also, you may want to steri-strip it shut, they help a lot with closing larger wounds to heal easier. GOOD medical tape does the same thing.

 

[15357]

Hydrogen peroxide does the same thing as alcohol.

Hence the joke. :/


Damn it, stop ruining my efforts ruin his body!

 

[ktimekiller]

The first picture does no justice as to how deep the wound was, I took the picture at a bad angle.

In the second picture, if you can see the red lines on each end of the wound, thats how far the wound stretched, and the whole thing was gaping open about x2 the current size.

The first picture was on the day of the cut

Second picture is roughly 3 days after.

The cut itself isn't large, but it was deep

I will update the main post with this

 

[DEATHMASTER]

looks like it could've used some stitches. Definitely not something you want to put alcohol on.

 

[ktimekiller]

stitches are for wussies!

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Getting infected is for idiots!

 

[Letters]

Dude, that definitely looks like it needed stitches.

Oh well, now you get a mad scar.

 

[YROC]

Atleast you have a good conversation piece now.

 

[Maestro]

If you don't get stitches tape the sides together and keep them together. Otherwise you get puckering and bad scarring, as well as taking forever to heal.

Also, your scar is nothing compared to the shit on my leg. We're talking Dan-sized surgery scars from breaking my leg last summer.

 

[PorkPi]

I hope this helps

 

[Krynn72]

Yeah, thats pretty stupid of you to not get stitches for that. Especially since you work at a doctors office and should know better than most people.

 

[ktimekiller]

a minor flesh wound, i refuse to get expertise for such a thing

 

[Danimal]

I think your wound needs to weep and constantly hurt for it to be infected, too.

To be honest, I have nfi. lol.

 

[Sparta]

Yeah, thats pretty stupid of you to not get stitches for that. Especially since you work at a doctors office and should know better than most people.

This.

Seriously, look at the worst that could happen for both scenarios.

You go to the doctor, he tells you you're fine. You're out about hundred plus bucks right? (I'm Australian and I'm assuming you're American so i'm just guessing on the price)

You don't go to the doctor. It is infected, or it begins to get infected and by the time you figure it out the infection has gotten into your bloodstream and now instead of being a deep cut that should've been tended too, it's now a blood infection thats going to reak havoc on your whole body and you die. Then the Sun explodes, Earth is wiped out, the universe ends and God (who suddenly comes into existence) hates you forever.

Seriously though, you're better safe than sorry and if you work in a doctors office you could at least try to get a free consultation or something. It doesn't look bad now, but from what I gather you don't know much about tending a wound so you're really better off getting that shit checked out instead of asking the internet for help, you twit.

Don't take risks like this with your health man, it's just dumb.