cuts

Mahes Visvalingam
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Cuts: Lemon Juice
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Tried and tested over a long time:

There are many traditional treatments for cuts. In due course, I will list others I have tried with some success. However, I now use lemon juice to disinfect and seal the cut. During the hay fever season, I tend to be uncoordinated and accident prone. More than 20 years ago, I snipped my finger-end instead of a twig and the cut part was just hanging on. I squeezed the finger to increase blood flow to wash the cut and squeezed neat lemon juice into the cut. It does sting but I just wince and bear it. (It is no worse than the iodine my mother used to dab on cuts, scrapes and other injuries.) I then stuck the two parts together and bandaged the finger and kept it dry. By the next day, the two parts were starting to 'stick' together and I now have a full finger again. You cannot see any scar now. Recently, a carpet fitter I know sliced some of the flesh off his thumb. He said that when the hospital put the piece back, the parts would not join at first. When he went back to get it dressed they realised that the cut piece had been put back the wrong way around. When this was corrected, the flesh did join. His piece of cut flesh still stands proud two years later.

In June 2018, I sliced the end of my thumb off when slicing crusty bread. It did not stop bleeding for a long time even with lemon juice. But, I did as before but had to apply lemon juice again the next day and adjust the patch. The patch did bind and the thumb has healed but it felt hard like a corn. The hard patch is getting smaller with the passing months.

I have had anti-Tetanus injections in the past and came out in a rash once when I was given a repeat injection when I stepped on a nail. I was given an antidote and have since assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that I need not trouble Accident & Emergency with all my mishaps, including the secateur-cut. I would advise others to go the hospital given the risk of tetanus, gangrene and other infections.

SUMMARY

Don't do what I do - go to the doctor/hospital as the carpet fitter did. For emergency use, I keep a lemon in store - mainly for minor, superficial cuts and wounds. Cut unsqueezed lemon keeps well in the fridge.