How Many Stitches Have You Had?

[arwalden]

Just estimate... no exact numbers needed. Whether it's a minor finger cut or heart surgery... the little stitches add up over time. (Also... how old were you and what happened?)

-- Allen

[arwalden]

1. Finger, Scalp, Scalp, Scalp

I keep hitting my head on things. Perhaps that explains a lot about my personality. Hmmm.

-- Allen

[Bertha Venation]

7. LOL

You ain't right, Allen, that's what it explains.

My head has a strange affinity for doors. :shrug:

[baldguy]

2. I've had 8 in my temple.

Four in my knee. I should have had more - I clipped the fleshy part off the tip of my finger with a hedge trimmer when I was 13. It grew back, but there's no feeling in it.

edit : I can't believe I forget: I was about 8, playing with a neighbor in her garage. She picked up a shovel and started poking me wth it, so I grabbed the end of it. She pulled back, and ripped the side of my finger off. Her mom patched it up pretty good, and it heeled up OK with a big scar - but still no stitches.

[Wickerman]

3. most before I was 5

lots of tripping and falling, mainly in the face and scalp. Then, a nice gash on the head while a drunken freshman. Yikes, alcohol thins the blood, they say, and there was a lot of it! thats been a couple of decades, and nothing since then - knock on wood. Over 26 of 'em in about 6 incidents.

[Fovea]

4. Karma

I have been on both ends of the needle.

But I have had my right thumb degloved by a printing press, a fair number of martial arts related cuts, and 3 major operations, gall bladder, post traumatic facial repair, and lost my left testis. And then there is the 3rd degree burns from the tent fire.

What can I say?
It's a hard knock life.

[Bertha Venation]

6. good lord

Glad to know you, realpolitik!

[Fovea]

25. And with all that,

I still managed to go out and win some SCA fights even after a stroke and two heart attacks 2.5 years ago that made my right side numb, and parts of it spastic.

I seem to have a gift with hand weapons.

I finally quit fighting actively this last year. 29 years hitting my friends with a stick...

Good to know ya too, Bertha.

[Bertha Venation]

29. "29 years hitting my friends with a stick"

LOL Don't let my nephew see that! STICK is his latest weapon of choice.

Your name oughta be Timex, bud. :)

[Bertha Venation]

5. lots

heart surgery, four times (infant) (besides the "zipper," that came with stitches in several joints -- wrist, elbows, groin, ankles)

right ankle, four times (but only three required stitches)

forehead -- was napping in my little apartment on a very hot day. The window fan in the small window high above the bed fell out of the window and onto my head. :eyes:

edited because I can't spell the numeral "4" :eyes: and because one surgery took staples, not stitches. CRS.

[Fovea]

26. That head/fan thing

Sounds unpleasant. Good to hear you are still in one peice after all that.

[Bertha Venation]

32. LOL

The rest was a walk in the park, sweetie. Nothing nastier than being awakened by something falling on your head and leaving skull and blood behind.

:*

[name not needed]

8. 2. dog bit me in the face

[terrya]

9. Back, scalp.

When I was 4, I reached for a glass. I stood on a chair. The glass falls to the floor, smashes. I fall off the chair onto the broken glass. Stitches on my back.

When I was 6...I walk into a wall. Stitches on my forehead.

I'm clumsy, to say the least.

Terry

[SOteric]

10. They've stopped using stitches and

just installed a zipper. ;-)

[Bertha Venation]

11. heh heh

and thanks for reminding me... I have to remove one. They used staples once and I forgot!

[Lostmessage]

14. Ouch

Brings back memories.

[arwalden]

20. LOL!

That's pretty bad.

-- Allen

[Lostmessage]

12. What's up with the broken bones and cuts?

Back surgery when I was 19 and I fell with a glass in my hand when I was 5 and I have a huge scar on my bird finger.

My Sister stabbed me with a steak knife one time but that's another story and I didn't get stitches but I needed them.

[madrchsod]

13. two hernia ops.

and three plugs in my right side artery. yes- i`ve had my share of pain down there......

[LynneSin]

15. Geez, who had over 300? Did you have all your limbs reattached?

I've had 7.

3 on my knew from where I broke it with a beer stien (I wasn't drinking. I had won a beer stien at a carnival and I kept my makeup in it. I was only 14).

The other 4 came on my shin bone from when I triped over a tombstone while walking through a graveyard while blindfolded and dressed as Bugs Bunny.

Not kidding - it's a sorority thing from college. I went through all of hell night before I had to go to the campus nurse and get my shin stitched up.

[arwalden]

21. Reattached Limbs... Or... Complete Re-Assembly. Think: "Frankenstein"

[supernova]

23. Yo guys! *Ahem*

Look below. :D

And I don't see no stinkin' Frankenstein when I look at my naked self in the mirror. :D

[arwalden]

51. Jimminy Cricket!

You've been through a lot!

-- Allen

[Nikia]

16. Not sure

I don't remember if I had stitches with my wisdom teeth. If I did, they were those disolvable kind. It wasn't that long ago and I was awake but I really don't remember. They had to be cut out. Two of them just needed to be cut out of the gums. The other two were embedded in bone.
Other than that, I've never had stitches. I haven't been cut that badly and clot fairly quickly when I do.
No stitiches, no broken bones, no surgeries besides wisdom teeth. Maybe that's why I am such a wimp when it comes to medical procedures.

[camero]

17. 15

1 stitch was put in without any anesthetic at all. I totally forgot about this one in the other threads. I was 8 and two kids were fighting over a skateboard when I was at my leagues basketball game. I went to break it up and one of the kids wrested it from the other but during the backswing he hit me in the head with it accidently.

9 stitches from tripping over a cement parking bumper racing my mom to the car at a movie theater at the first showing of the original Star Wars. I got to see it for free the rest of the night after I left the hospital. They gave me popcorn and soda to boot. I was 12.

Another 5 in my face wrecking my bike at 40 mph going downhill.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

18. I had a mole about twice the size of a pencil eraser removed...

...from my shoulder. I don't remember exactly how many there were, but it wasn't a pretty thing, and it hurt like a son of a bitch.
Duckie

[supernova]

19. right around 300 I'm guessing

I have

1) the standard heart op zipper, 'cept mine's a "T".

2) and I have a lovely scar all the way down my spine. I had to have steel rods placed to hold my spine up (scoliosis). Plus a cresent over my left hip in the back.

3) An Odd little scar at the bottom of my right calf. I had an odd growth removed in high school. Probably as a result of op #2. This time I had the kind of sutures that just dissolved. That was wonderful!

So yes, I have quite a lovely and alluring scar collection. :7 You haven't lived till you've had the doc take out sutures. :hurts: I have been thankful to have escaped the staples... thus far. :D

[Vitruvius]

28. You may well have had more if you count internal stitches;

some of those operations have "layered closures" where they stitch one tissue layer together, then the next, then the next, from the inside out...

[supernova]

30. You're right, I completely forgot

about internal stitches. There's some nice patchwork inside my heart. Don't know about my back.

Are you involved with surgery in some way? I always find surgeons fascinating. Wonder why?

[Fovea]

44. Did you wear a risser cast?

I used to work for a surgeon who specialized in Ideopathic Scoliosis.
I have put on hundreds of EDF casts.

Oh, yeah, EDF stands for
ELONGATION
DEROTATION
FLEXION

It is a dark art, rarely done anymore.
I really have a lot of respect for you, to have
gone through all that. But is sounds like you
had little choice, judging by your brief description
of how extensive your Harrington rods were.

[supernova]

58. EDF cast = torso cast?

If that's the technical term for a torso cast, yes. 30 lbs of plaster from armpit to hipbone, but only for three months. Ick I was so ready to get out of that thing by three months I was squirming big time. Not to mention, constantly itchy.

I was the first person at Duke Medical Center to try one of those newfangled custom-molded plastic casts. Ahhh, the pleasures of the shower! :D The only thing about it I didn't like as opposed to the plaster was the neck brace. I could have done without that aspect. But as I healed, they cut the neck part off and made it into a torso cast I could put on and take off for ever increasing hours/day, rather like a corset.

edit: I opted for the Harrington rods surgery because they could not guarantee me that the Milwaukee brace, also a fashionable alternative at the time, would have lasting correction.

What's the standard treatment for scoliosis now?

[Fovea]

59. Been out of Ortho for a while now

But last I knew the rods were still standard, as was the plastic brace.
I do think we got a better fit with the cast, but they were a pain.

I remember one moment that happened again and again, particularly with the severe cases.
Generally, these kids had been laying flat for days, and when I stood them up to trim and pedal the plaster, they would have to pee almost at once.

So I would lead them to the door, and they would instinctually reach out to the door handle and miss -- they were suddenly taller, and the expression as the lightbulb went on was something I will never forget.

Great to hear you are doing so well!

[bubblesby2002]

22. scalp at three....

knee at five, leg at 10, eyebrow at 21, gallbladder at 21, arm and wrist surgery last year. It adds up hey?

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. I've been pretty lucky...

I dropped a ceramic bowl when I was 12, and somehow got a deep, gaping vertical cut on the inside of my right index finger.

My bellybutton popped out when I was a baby, and I probably had to have stitches for that, but obviously I don't remember it!

Other than that, not many stitches here.

[ComerPerro]

27. Is there a good formual for estimating: I am guessing I have had several

I have had stitches in two places on my leg, in my abodomen (for appendicitis) and then I have also had brain surgery. So, I am just going to say: Quite a few.

[Skittles]

31. 12 IN MY SHIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

stupid f*** engineer at work left a raised floor square out of the computer floor behind a printer and I fell into it at 0200, smashing my shin and dislodging a small chunk of skin to the bone. I remember thinking I just SMASHED MY SHIN and I didn't feel a thing. I went to the emergency room and they stitched it like a star. I remember feeling very embarrassed because I hadn't shaved my legs and the young doc was a cutie pie. He thought it was strange that I had been injured like that in a computer room.

I sure felt the pain the next day though. The engineer group sent me flowers the next day (I had left them a screaming message) and I called their sorry asses and threatened to sue if they didn't send me a pizza IMMEDIATELY. They sent me three pizzas. I still have an indentation in my bone/scar from that incident. :o

[put out]

33. Y'all keep me in stitches. heh

In my real life, probably 100 or so. First, they hurt, then they itch, then they smell bad, then they are removed. Or dissolve. Then you get a scar and a story to tell.

[kevinam]

34. 70, I think, not counting surgeries.

When I was 2 or 3, a header on the marble coffee table earned me 32 on the forehead. When I was like 5 or 6, I was feeding the dog some canned dog food. Fell on the can and got 16 in my lower lip/chin. Was riding a motor scooter, and got hit by a car, and got 3 in my knee. At 16, skateboarding on a ramp, and fell on a nail, got 16 in my hand. Then at 18, cut my finger on some broken glass, and got 3 more in my finger. I have also had 5 surgeries, but they didn't use stitches, they used that suture tape stuff...Kevin.

[UTUSN]

35. Oh. Thought It Said Something Else. Nevermind. n/t

[Piltdown13]

36. I think 25-50

But on the low end of the range. I think I had about 7 when I cut my forehead open against a hard chair edge at age 6, then probably about 10 after having a mole removed from my back at age 13. I had a skin graft in my mouth the next year, but I can't remember if there were any stitches -- there might have been, but there was a big bubble-gum looking dressing on the area until I went back and got checked and any stitches removed. Finally, maybe 2 per socket when I had my wisdom teeth out at 16. I remember those real well because the endodontist gave me a real good scolding for not chewing enough to remove them myself!

[fortyfeetunder]

37. Childbirth

It was close to a 3rd degree tear. I delivered a big-headed kid who arrived couple of weeks late. The nurse even exclaimed at my ability to birth the pup. Didn't have one of those episiotomies--and come to think of it, don't think it would have mattered. Damn, my bottom still feels sore thinking about that...

[Endangered Specie]

38. 2 sets of 5 or so, 2 moles removed (19 yo)

[eileen_d]

39. For the longest time, just three... then hundreds

Three I got when I was preschool age, bumping my lip on some furniture.

The rest I got just recently with a breast reduction operation. I share this every once in a while just in case there are any other women considering it - please feel free to PM me about my experience. I had so many nice ladies willing to share with me that I want to pass that good karma on.

[scarlet_owl]

40. Eight when I had my surgery last year.

They hurt like a bitch when the doctor pulled them out. She got mad at me for yelping in pain. I guess she didn't want the other patients to think she was killing me, but Lord it hurt so bad!

[Mobius]

41. I'm fairly sure thats accurate

Thyroid surgery in 91. 23 across the neck. I worked for deli /caterer for 14 years so that's 5 trips to ER with a total of about 25. 3 years ago i had a compound fracture on my ankle (3 breaks) 32 to put the hardware in, 32 after they took it out a year later. Then there was the mole I had removed from my thigh last year, that was 4. Oh yeah, I had to get a sewing needle surgically removed from my foot when I was 16. But those were disolvable. 6 of them. So let's add 23+25+64+4+6= 132 stitches OUCH :cry:

[Liberal Veteran]

42. In my recent ear accident, I ended up with 23 stitches total....

...I wasn't sure until my doc counted them while he was taking them out. He complimented the ER doc who put them in. I damn near lost my ear lobe.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

43. I think it was around 80...

I had a kidney removed when I was 18. It was an extra that malfunctioned for a number of years. While they were operating, the tissue surrounding my lung was punctured; so I had an extra incision to accomodate a drainage tube.

It's been so long that I really don't remember how many stitches there were; but 80 sticks in my mind.

[Rocinante]

48. That sounds about right

I lost a kidney when I was 14. They did an appendectomy while they were at it. 80 sounds about right, I had the drainage tube thing too.

[clyrc]

45. around 20

I was four when a dog bit my cheek and gave me a terrible scar that I had plastic surgery for when I was 18. Then two of my toes were almost cut off when I was 9. I had stitches both times after childbirth, something which I am not planning on doing again. (childbirthing)

[trigz]

46. 11 in my throat

as I was attacked with a broken glass in 2002, seven in my face as a a result of the same attack. About 15 stings in total on and around my legs and knees due to various soccer injuries, five in my palm as I was clumsy and cut myself with a knife at age 8.

Phew. It's not easy staying in one piece!

[nemo137]

47. 13 on the face when my friend hit me with a bat.

[Piperay]

49. 2, had a cyst

removed from the top of my head. :shrug: :-)

[hobbes159]

50. Ah, but how many of you have put in you OWN stitches?

I put 4 stitches into my knee myself -- didn't do a bad job, either! :-)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

52. Ran into lamp post with bicycle; wisdom tooth extracted; appendectomy (nt)

Maybe 50 in total... IANAD.

Edit: "bike" was ambiguous.

[JCMach1]

53. I had my scalp sewn back on...

I really bad car accident... you don't want the details...

Trust me.

[mvd]

54. None yet

Knock on wood.

[ronnykmarshall]

55. A few

I have a scar in the back o' my head (domestic abuse) that took 7 seven stitches.

Cut my finger at my job high school (Sav-On) and had to have 2 stitches. And guess what? They WROTE ME UP for it!! Nazi bastards.

Childhood accident on a slide and has one in the back o' my head, 1 stitch.

And from my appendix ...... that doesn't count because they used the glue like stuff to close it up.

[Aristus]

56. God! Wouldja believe NONE?!?

Sheesh, I played football in school and was a tank crewman in the Army, and I've never had stitches or even a broken bone! Oh! I know! I'm indestructible! Yeah, that's it!

[afraid_of_the_dark]

57. None, but my sibs have had plenty.

One had to get stitches when my sis, who was pushing his high chair around the kitchen at the time, caught the leg of the chair on the carpet and he fell head first into the edge of the table.

Another had to get stitches after one of the other ones accidentally clocked him in the forehead with an ice chipper.

Still another got stitches when he was horsing around in the car and hit his forehead on the notches that hold the headrests in place (seriously... I was there when it happened - those things are dangerous!).

I believe someone else on here said it best that they put the "fun" into "dysfunctional family"!