Homemade Bandages
 

I guess it started when I worked in construction. When I would cut my hand, I’d just cover it with a bit of napkin and wrap it in duct tape. I found it was much more effective and durable than a band-aid. Not to mention cheaper, and quicker than going to find a band-aid.

I realize that sometimes you need a band-aid, quick! Like when a kid gets hurt, and is crying. But when it comes to dressing one of my own wounds (even a small one) I prefer to cut a piece of gauze, cut strips of medical tape, and build a custom-sized bandage.

Do you build your own bandages; and if so, what special techniques etc. do you use?

Depends on the size of the wound. Only do-it-myself if the size or position warrants innovation.

Besides, I have a large collection of Hello Kitty and other character Band Aids.

weirdo

:wstupid: x 2 for me and Dazza. :)

I've improvised my own bandages many times, but it always involves cutting or shaping existing bandaids. Like when I hurt the tip of my finger, which I often do: you take a normal bandaid, and make a cut halfway down the length of each sticky part. Then when you fold the pad over the tip of your finger you can take the two little legs you've created and swing them to wrap around your finger. It stays on, and you don't have to waste a second bandaid just to hold the first one on. Or sometimes I'll cut off one sticky part entirely and stick it along the short side, so the resulting bandaid is V-shaped. Perfect for in-between-the-fingers cuts.

another weirdo

Band-aids are for sissies. Real men are happy to bleed.


(So, I use band-aids, then).

Clod is ready for the coming economic armageddon.

During one of the many first aid/CPR courses I've endured I picked up this little gem for stopping serious bleeding: maxi pads. Designed to soak up huge amounts of blood? Check. OK let's roll!

For lesser cuts? That's why they invented super glue. (true fact)

It only works for really sharp superficial clean cuts like a superficial knife or paper cut. Doesnt really work for deeper stuff and not safe for cuts that get dirt in it. We started to use superglue in the field about 3 years before it hit the market in the public medical sector, superglue gel works the best. You do have to reapply it every day or so. Now they sell it to hospitals for single use only at about $100 a pop. Dude who thought that up is making a pretty penny.

Yeah, agreed. That's why I said lesser cuts. I figured I'd cover the two extremes: Paper cuts and "messes"

They glued me after my last c-section, because I had an allergic reaction to the SteriStrips (adhesive tape) they used the first time. It was awesome, everything healed up much faster and cleaner. But I always imagined the medical glue was somehow more magical than your basic consumer superglue. You're saying it's the exact same stuff?

Tampons for nosebleeds. Cut the string off, though, because you'll look stupid otherwise.

Superglue was invented so construction workers could hang from girders by their hard hats. Everybody knows that.

The medical use was an afterthought.

I remember when the ERs started using "dermabond." Up until that point the appearnce of superglue in the ER was confined to the need to unsuperglue unfaithful husbands' dicks from their legs.

Yep. Well, there is a difference. It's like the difference between tea and zen tea. The tea will cost you around a buck. The zen tea will cost you $50, but the enlightenment is thrown in.

And that little packet of the stuff that the ER squeezes out onto your head or whereever started out sterile.

homemade bandages are no good unless they're torn in strips from a fallen rose's petticoats

and I wish I could find bandages (aka plasters) that the adhesive doesn't make me break out in a red rash immediately. The rash marks last longer than the owies!

Is it the adhesive or the latex?