Does this need looking at? Grim photo

[voidcat]

There’s like white fat stuff visible

Yes. I think that needs stitching, sorry.

I grated it by the way for anyone interested
my delicious M&S Cornish cove cheese ruined by blood

How did you do it? It doesn't look infected a bit of savlon and a plaster for a few days. It's in an awkward place on the joint so it's likely to keep breaking open. Ask in a pharmacy if you are worried.

Grated, yes I've done that so it's not deep just a bit nasty and in an awkward place. I don't think it would be stitchable it's a wide shallow wound not a tidy cut.

On a cheese grater

i did but neither would help or had any dressings in

Its fone just need to keep a dressing on it. I would not stitch that personally. Some iodine dressings would do. It should scab over in a few days. Ouch though!

I would probably bind that up well so you can't move your thumb much so it doesn't keep opening

Just use suitable sized plasters or the rolls of plaster with the gauze down the middle, keep it covered to keep it clean. A real pain if you are cooking and washing up etc.

Well after the pharmacy x 2 having no dressings, I was on my way to a root canal so lost patience. I stuck a non adhesive dressing over, asked them for some Elastoplast tape and bandaged it myself

they looked slightly horrified but being a horse person they’re lucky I didn’t put purple spray on it

i always forget but I’m neutropenic so I’ll keep an eye on it

It n Ed’s to heal by secondary intention- the skin cells need to grow in from the sides to cover the wound. In the past the advice was to leave it to scab and dry out. But more up to date thinking now realises that keeping the wound moist allows the cells to move rapidly through the granulation tissue ( firmed when the blood clot organises in the early stages of healing). If the wound drys out it’s much harder for new cells to migrate.

If you consider the way other animals deal with cuts they constantly lick the wound. The saliva contains antibodies and other antibacterial components speeding up healing. Recent research comparing healing in the mouth compared with the skin ( almost identical in healing behaviour) shows that mouths heal 10x faster because the wound doesn’t dry out and is bathed/irrigated continuously with saliva.

So for a wound like OP’s the best thing to use is a dressing that seals the wound keeping it moist, something like Tegaderm.
My son managed to cut his hand open a couple of years ago, had an altercation with a glass panel in our front door. It was a deep clean wound but the incompetent junior doctor in A&E made a mess of the suturing and the wound opened up after the sutures were removed. It would have taken weeks to heal if left open and the urge to pick the scab fit a teenage boy too much. He was also flying out to India the day the stitches were removed. He took a box of Tegaderm with him and sent a photo to me every day so I could keep an eye on it. It’s now a standby no joke that his photographic record of his trip to India included a shot of his hand in every photo.
It heal d without incident although did need antibiotics when it looked a bit dodgy after swimming in a hotel pool ( despite being instructed not to)

Allowing a scab to firm on the knuckle will just lead to it cracking and bleeding, keeping the wound moist will make using your thumb easier.

Sorry for the length of the post but as a HCP I like to backup suggestions and give easy to understand examples/experience.

I also took the tip of my finger off with a mandolin last year and had to apply the same method. I now have a special pair of chain mail gloves for using the mandolin, and any other lethal gadget in the kitchen. I’m a bit prone to slick no bits off my hands.

Crwysmam tell us more about your chain mail glove for using the mandolin, someone who shall remain nameless me could do with one.

My DH banned me from using the mandolin because I was too “confident”. I remembered my DFIL had a chain mail glove specially made for him for work because he had dinner plate hands and the standard issue ones didn’t fit. His job involved using sharp cutting devices so was PPE.
So I knew they were available. Quick search on Amazon and I found a pair. I bought industrial strength ( professional kitchen). It works a treat and I can slice away to my hearts content.

Further useful advice re mandolins.

If you or someone else does manage to cut the tip off their finger while mandolining and you find yourself alone at home with a finger that won’t stop bleeding long enough to apply a dressing ( pressure dressing), first cover the wound and apply pressure then search for an elastic band or hair band. Don’t start looking for a hair band without the pressure dressing because you will leave an alarming trail of blood around the house.

Then use the band as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding so you can apply a decent dressing and then another pressure dressing. It took nearly 24hrs for my finger to stop bleeding.

Don’t forget to remove the band though.
I did consider A&E but after googling how it would be dealt with I sorted it out myself. They can’t be stitched but sometimes in very large wounds they can skin graft or stitch the skin back on if it is still partially attached. I really didn’t fancy 10hours in A&E.

Mine healed well and has a small area where the nerve endings haven’t recovered but it was full thickness in that part. It’s my Third finger , the slightly less useful one, so didn’t impact too much. I’m a dentist so my finger tips are fairly important at work. The only time it caused problems was when extracting teeth. Gripping the forceps was probably more painful to me than the patient. I couldn’t wear a big padded dressing at work either. I did find some cool silicone finger tip covers that helped though.

Ouch!! I am sorry you have cut yourself. Graters and mandolins are awful for this sort of thing, and so are apple peelers (as my poor thumb found out!).

It might be useful to see a practice nurse, or to a walk in centre. They can have a proper look advise, clean, and dress it for you.

When I cut my thumb, I double Elastoplasted it so the wound was well padded. Every time I knocked it, it started bleeding again and the padding really helped.

I think I have similarly grated myself on occasions and it has healed fine with no intervention. I'd say just keep it clean and leave it at that. However, perhaps the photo doesn't really indicated the problem, so trust your instinct.

Looks better I think, I’ve had a hydrocolloid dressing on it

Mandolins are evil things. I cut my finger on one, wouldn’t stop bleeding. Went to A&E then finally realised it had stopped bleeding so went home. Apparently lots of people cut themselves on them.

This was just a grater! I ended up on antibiotics and it’s still not healed

What?! Must’ve been a sharp grater. Hope it’s better now.

It’s sort of healed but I have a big lump still with scar tissue