I have a cut. It is turning black.

Question

I was at the lake today. I accidentally tipped my canoe. I fell onto a slab of cement at the bottom of the lake, which gave me a pretty good sized hole in my skin. It is now turning black and is swelling. It is pretty deep. It is also swollen. It hurts when I walk but when I am sitting down I cannot feel it whatsoever. When I stop thinking about it, it starts shaking very bad. Any ideas what i can do?

Answer 1

Cut your leg off and dip it in rooting hormone, stick it in the ground, water and fertilize it and grow a new you. What do you expect in the garden section? RScott

Answer 2

Amputation. Sorry man, that kind of thing spreads and you turn into Barney the dinosaur.

Answer 3

I think the best thing for you to do would be to go to your Doctor or the nearest Emergency Room. They will be able to clean the wound and tell you if it's turning black is a serious problem. You should also probably have a Tetanus shot, especially if the wound is deep, and they will most likely start you on an antibiotic to help prevent an infection,

Answer 4

You are probably a bit shaken up that it happened.

First of all, try to relax.

For now, you should flush it with peroxide or a saline solution at least five times. There is probably dirt in there which needs to be removed. And continue to flush it twice a day for three days. Keep it covered with gauze and tape which you should change each time you flush the wound. If do not see a MAJOR improvement in three days – GO SEE A PHYSICIAN – I am not joking.

At the very least, if you haven’t had a tetanus shot in the last ten years – you should get one. You should also be on oral antibiotics.

If you get a fever or the wound starts to feel warm to the touch or you see any white, yellow or green liquid go to the doctor IMMEDIATELY  Ã¢Â€Â“ it is infected. You may need to have a debridement (removal of dead tissue down to healthy tissue, so it can heal properly – from the inside out).

If the wound should close up on the outside you can end up with a systemic infection (blood infection) and will need to be on intravenous antibiotics which will keep you hospitalized. It’s a mess.

A friend of mine had a similar wound on his finger – neglected it and ended up in the hospital for a week. Had he waited a day or two longer before he went to see a physician he would have lost his finger to the infection.

You do not have any idea what kind of organisms were in that water or on the object that entered your foot(?) and were pushed into your skin(body).

Don’t do what most of us do. Wait and see if it gets better. A wound should start to show improvement (signs of healing) within two days. If it does not – do yourself a great favor and get medical attention.

Edit: Although I don’t recommend what you are doing, I’ll give you a suggestion. Run the warmest water you can stand from the faucet and let it run IN the cut to flush it out as best you can. AFTER you have done that, put water of the same temperature in a bowl with some detergent and soak your foot. Do this as often as you can in a day but AT LEAST three times a day.

If you have access to salt, add salt to the warmest water instead of detergent but soak it three times a day and keep it covered. Try to keep the wound covered so it does not get any more germs in it. It should start to heal in a few days.

Answer 5

Its infected. Go to urgent care, now!