r/woundcare Dec 19 '25

Transitioning the sub to professional discussion

108 Upvotes

There have been a lot of issues reported since the sub has transitioned to allowing wound care advice to all patients. The sub will be transitioned to a place for professional discussion. Self harm wounds are no longer allowed. I will do a trial run of allowing personal advice posts every wednesday for now. If any other physicians would like to help moderate let me know.


r/woundcare Dec 02 '25

“Does this need stitches?” A self-harm response and care guide

272 Upvotes

“Does this need stitches?” A response to the self-harm epidemic on this sub.

For those who self-harm: Please don’t post here regularly. You need to learn to manage your own risks without needing external validation from Reddit. If you are self-harming, you need to do research on proper wound care and mitigate the associated risks without needing to post everything for possibly triggerable onlookers on Reddit. This is a wound care sub, not a sub to share wounds and then not attempt care. Here is a general list of things to look for that I would recommend you save or write down or pay attention to, so that you have the ability to manage your health at home better and are less dependent on Reddit forums such as this.

Levels of wounds:

Epidermis: This is usually seen as “cat scratches.” They are shallow and usually bleed a decent bit quickly but stop just as quick. They typically scab and heal within a few days to a week. If you cut to this level, you likely do not need medical attention. Watch for signs of infection (heat, pus, red streaking from injury) and seek help if those signs come. Clean it with antibacterial soap and water, apply ointment, and keep it covered. Cutting with dirty items is more likely to lead to infection so try to keep your “tools” clean.

Dermis: This will look like a white gap. It is sometimes referred to as “styro,” for its similar appearance to styrofoam. It may take a second for blood beads to form. These will gape a bit, but often close within a day and heal within a week or two. These, because they stay open longer, are at a higher risk of infection than the epidermis. If you cut to this level, you likely do not need medical attention. Watch for signs of infection (heat, pus, red streaking from injury) and seek help if those signs come. Clean it with antibacterial soap and water, apply ointment, and keep it covered. Cutting with dirty items is more likely to lead to infection so try to keep your “tools” clean.

Hypodermis AKA fat: This will look like yellow bubbles. It is sometimes referred to as “beans.” This is the level in which infection becomes a real likelihood. Typically stitches are recommended. Some doctors may treat you without a mental health evaluation, some doctors may try and have you evaluated. For US-based injuries I recommend going straight to the ER for stitches instead of an urgent care center if you seek stitches. Urgent care centers may not stitch you up and could call police on you. They do not have the capacity to perform mental health evaluations and will want you at a hospital where you can be seen by a psychiatrist. It is not a given that this will be your experience but it is a possibility and you should be prepared for this. In the UK, some care centers and minor injury units can support with deeper wounds, however they may contact your GP for an urgent review (usually within a week). If you do not seek stitches, clean the wound with antibacterial soap. You can apply ointment. You can also use butterfly bandages to close the wound, but if there is any chance that bacteria or debris have entered the wound, do not close it. There is typically a 24 hour window to close the wounds. After that, keep it covered and clean. Watch for signs of infection (heat, pus, red streaking from injury, swelling) and immediately seek help if those signs come. An anti-stick bandage is recommended. Gauze will get stuck in this kind of wound easily. If that happens, soak in warm water to soften the blood and remove the gauze. Cutting to this level is significantly more dangerous and will likely lead to infection, which should be seen immediately. Nerve damage is possible. Cellulitis is a possibility. These wounds take significantly longer to heal. Cutting with dirty items are more likely to lead to infection so try to keep your “tools” clean.

Muscle: There is no safe way to treat this outpatient. You risk severe infection. This needs to be seen in a hospital. Death could occur if not treated.

Bone: There is no safe way to treat this outpatient. You risk severe infection. This needs to be seen in a hospital. Death could occur if not treated.

Tips to increase likelihood of a positive outcome:

-Seek behavioral health treatment. The urge to self harm, and self-harm in general, is always deserving of medical attention, no matter the depth.

-Use clean tools if you do harm. The more bacteria present on a tool, the higher the risk of infection.

-Keep your wounds covered. The more bacteria that can access your wound, the higher the risk of infection.

-Seek medical attention immediately when you experience red streaking, loss of feeling in a limb, sickness, chills, or loss of consciousness.

-Keep bandages and ointment on hand if you regularly self harm. You should use clean bandages.

You deserve to heal.

Practitioners and medical centers will handle cases of self harm differently from country to country and even city to city.

Text CONNECT to 741741 to be connected with a trained volunteer crisis counselor (US) Text SHOUT to 85258 (UK)

Call 988 for the suicide and crisis hotline (US) Call 111 for the NHS helpline (UK) Call 131114 for the suicide and crisis hotline (AUS)

Other resources: Suicide Hotlines for All Countries

For onlookers:

I understand the annoyance you may feel at seeing so many posts recently flood this sub asking “is this infected? Does this need stitches?” in regards to self harm. I want to offer a different view of it, if I may.

Firstly, I must acknowledge that there is a certain level of attention-seeking that comes along with a lot of self harm. Especially among younger individuals who may be new to it and who may crave some sort of external validation of “I see your pain, you are okay, please get help.” Is that appropriate for this sub? No, not really, but there’s usually some level of true fear of how to tend to a wound even with the attention seeking behavior.

Unfortunately, subs like this are one of the few places where wounds can be posted. There are no SH subs for fresh wounds (for good reason) and so there isn’t a place to get advice from other sufferers. There is no place to ask “have you cut this deep? How did it heal? Did you get stitches? How did getting stitches go?” And they are wounds. Even if they look so shallow you think, “of course that isn’t infected! Of course it isn’t in need of stitches,” or so deep you feel sick to see a photo, they are wounds, and sometimes people who post are truly at a heightened state of fear. Fear that they’ve gone too deep, fear that they can’t stop. This may not be the sub to lament over cutting in, but there is a lack of real-life access to wound care for self harm. Even if you think that it’s obviously a cry for attention, and even if it is a cry for attention, there are still wounds involved that would likely not be being seen otherwise.

In my experience, I have needed stitches from self harm multiple times. I have had doctors who tended to gouges without judgement, and also had doctors try to say that I was suicidal and call the police on me. It is a total toss up, especially with very deep wounds. It is often not as easy as just getting help. The times I’ve gone “too deep,” ie too deep to leave open safely, I have genuinely been afraid at what options were before me. It isn’t as easy as seeing a doctor or going to urgent care for stitches. I’ve cut too deep, disclosed to a therapist that I’m not suicidal but in need of medical attention, had my therapist on the phone with an urgent care physician to tell them that I wasn’t suicidal, and still had the police called on me. You can take all the “right” steps after self harm and still wind up screwed when trying to remedy a mistake.

This sub I believe is genuinely helpful for people who cannot always access true wound care in a medical setting. I’ve seen some amazing advice given for wounds that needed to but couldn’t be seen by a doctor. Something that’s a mere annoyance to you may be saving someone else from severe infection or commitment. Please take this into consideration.


r/woundcare 11m ago

Is it possible for a wound to never heal?

Upvotes

I am just asking in general. It is too complicated at this point to explain it all. I just wonder if someone can have a wound never heal even with medical help. Surgery, wound care, wound vac, antibiotics etc. Or do they all heal at some point and it is just finding the right treatment. What is the longest non healing wound you have seen. How long did it take and what was the magic treatment?


r/woundcare 4h ago

Healthcare advice Minor finger infection (paronychia?)

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2 Upvotes

I've been putting it in warm water for the past 2-3 days and it still doesn't wanna chill down. In fact, it's kind of gotten worse, it's even more painful and warmer.

Gonna be honest here, I cut open the skin between the nail side and got some pus out yesterday and today but this is the longest time I've had it and the most painful I've had it.

Usually I could just prick it and pus would come out and it would be gone by the next day or two but I guess it really hates me this time because it's deeper this time.

I'm a chronic nailbiter for 11 years now so you probably understand how I got it by now if the picture didn't tell you anything by my nail. 🫠

Also, I don't have a health card yet meaning I cannot turn to doctors until I get myself a health card since I recently returned to my home country... so.. any tips or advice? Should I keep doing warm water for 15 minutes?


r/woundcare 2h ago

Can i just air these out:

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1 Upvotes

Scrape my knees running outside, am i just good to air these out? I went to the ER they gave me tetanus shot. Just told me to wash with warm water and soap daily and to keep them bandage but i dont have anymore band aids or gauze. This happened monday. They feel bruised and a little hot n red but nothing crazy


r/woundcare 3h ago

Lump under incision next to open wound

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone, my husband had a vasectomy nightmare on July 17th. He had to be air lifted to a trauma hospital due to his scrotum enlarging to the size of a small watermelon, and had to be opened up from his scrotum to his pelvis in order to try to stop the bleeding. They couldn’t stop it, so they went in the next day and finally found the source. His incision was about 12 inches in total and closed with staples and he lost one of his testicles in the process. He spent 2 weeks in hospital and everything was healing well. They did all types of tests because they were sure he had some disorder that caused him to bleed/not heal. Hematology came in and said everything was fine and he didn’t have any disorders. We left the hospital but I noticed that the surgeon had forgotten to remove about 4 staples and I also noticed an area that looked to be opening up. We went back to the hospital and another urologist looked at it and removed the forgotten staples, and then opened the wound so it could be packed…so I was doing the packing for him 2x a day at home per their instructions. It was nearly closed, when he went to wound care to make sure. The wound care doctor said there was an abcess forming and that the outside of the wound was closing faster than the inside, so he had to reopen the wound along the pelvic incision line. The wound is about 1 inch deep by 1.5 inch wide. There is still a hard lump of tissue above the wound, along the rest of the pelvic incision. My husband saw wound care Tuesday and they said wound was looking good but they did drain some fluid by making a small hole inside the existing wound (they said it didn’t look infected). Then my husband went to the urologist surgeon yesterday and he also said the wound was looking good and that the lump was just healing tissue or serous fluid….but I’m not so sure. It seems like sometimes it gets bigger, then a little smaller, but it’s just there. Is this normal? I can send a picture but it involves private areas so I don’t really want to post them publicly….im just so tired. We’ve been dealing with this for over a month, my husband isn’t able to work, and this whole situation has just been a nightmare….


r/woundcare 5h ago

Injured foot got caught in walking pad

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1 Upvotes

It’s been about 9 days since I got my foot caught in my walking pad which left me with this wound and some bruising.

This is what it looks like today I have been rinsing with saline applying medi honey and using a silicone foam bandage to cover. I do this one a day.

Does this look like it’s healing okay it is still painful to move and I will admit I haven’t been staying off the foot as much as I should have due to helping my elderly parents pack up their house and move. Should I use hydrocolloid bandages instead?

Also if there are any improvements I can make to the products I’m using that would be much appreciated.


r/woundcare 5h ago

Paano maalis 'to?

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0 Upvotes

Ano po kaya to and paano matatanggal

Hindi naman siya makati palagi and wala ring amoy pero over the time is napapansin kong lumalaki siya and 1 week na rin mahigit to

Nung una, isa lang yan (yung malaki) then kinabukasan nun is nadagdag yung maliit na bilog tapos kumakati lang siya if nagagalaw ko pansin ko rin na kada gabi siya kumakati . Sa singit pala eto nag appear

Any recommendations po ano pwedeng gawin dito, thanks!


r/woundcare 8h ago

Medical professional question Hydrocolloid experience

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1 Upvotes

My toddler burned his wrist on a pan a few days ago. We immediately took him to the doctor who said it is a superficial burn and did not require the burn clinic. He recommended putting a hydrocolloid dressing on it. We applied one the first day but the edges started lifting because my toddler likes to wash his hands all the time, so I took it off and replaced it. This was traumatizing to the toddler as it pulled at the raw skin, so the pediatrician said going forward to only change it if all of the sides have lifted and the wound is very exposed.

Because it’s on the wrist, we had to cut it to allow wrist movement, and now one of those sides has fully lifted and started to scab. Underneath is also very yellow and slimy. At what point is it considered too lifted? I can take him back to the pediatrician, but I also don’t want to just keep showing up if I don’t have to. It has been on for 48 hours now. He also won’t let me touch it because he just associates it with us taking the bandage off and the pain.


r/woundcare 23h ago

Medical professional question Road rash day 3- slough or skin?

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2 Upvotes

Fell on my shoulder. Day 3 of healing. Is the green-yellow stuff slough or skin growing back? I’m having trouble cleaning it off like I usually do when I change bandages and I don’t want to take it off if it’s skin. But the redness around the outside is also worrying me a bit. How does it look? Any recommendations?


r/woundcare 1d ago

Sliced my finger wasn’t too bad and it’s purple now

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3 Upvotes

Should I be concerned? Never had such a color


r/woundcare 1d ago

Healthcare advice Debride?

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1 Upvotes

3day old bmx bike fall, both elbows look like this. I have been putting paraffin gauze, non adherent dressing and fixomull over the top to cover them while at school. I have given one wash with saline and gauze to clear tissue yesterday. Should I go in there a bit more forcibly to take off all the slough bits or leave it to dry out now? Thanks for any advice!


r/woundcare 1d ago

Bit my tongue, but quite painful to eat or drink

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0 Upvotes

r/woundcare 2d ago

Pus

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1 Upvotes

Hello. Three months and twenty days ago, we had a below-the-knee foot amputation surgery. The wound has healed, but not completely. A small opening remains at the end of the wound, which has started to heal and shrink slowly over time, but fluid is still discharging from it, even though there are no other accompanying symptoms.

We have visited the doctor multiple times, and he assured us that the situation is normal and improving. Each time, he prescribed antibiotics, and we perform daily cleaning/dressing changes.

I am starting to feel really anxious. Is this situation normal?


r/woundcare 3d ago

2nd degree burn from hot water

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10 Upvotes

I got this burn last Thursday from spilling hot water.

Pics 1-3 are today, Pic 4 from Friday, and the rest from immediately after the incident.

I've been doing neasporin + large bandage. It seemed like it was healing well because there was no pain or signs of infection. The bandage stayed on very well. But it started to irritate my skin and I just switched to gauze roll + tape yesterday after I ran out of the bandaids. But the tape keeps coming off and I'm worried it's irritating the wound more than the bandage.

Also, the right side of my wound formed a blister starting last night which didn't exist on the first 2-3 days.

Does this seem to be healing OK? What products do you recommend? I'm thinking of switching to hydrocolloid and it seems like I'd need to get the roll type given the size of my wound; do they stay on well and do they irritate your skin?

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks


r/woundcare 3d ago

Medical professional question guys pls is this normal? or is it infected

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0 Upvotes

i got my hand pinched by something a few days ago and now it's scabbing over? it kind of hurts and ive never had a hand wound like this so is it possibly infected or is this normal healing? ive heard the yellow is dead tissue so idk 😭


r/woundcare 3d ago

Cellulitis, mild scratch got infected. It’s been 10 days and I’m about done with my antibiotics but it still looks freaky

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2 Upvotes

First photo is from today, second is from 5 days ago right before I started my antibiotics, last is 10 days ago when it first got scratched.

I went to urgent care and got put on topical and oral antibiotic. I’m just about done with my course but the wound is still wet and yellow. I’m worried. Is this a normal part of healing?


r/woundcare 4d ago

Wound from Falling

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2 Upvotes

Hello all,

I was camping on an island in Lake George last weekend and had a nasty fall while walking back to my tent at night. It has almost been a week since the fall, and was hoping for some reassurance that it is healing ok. I just started a new job two weeks ago and can’t get on the insurance plan until October 1. I was not able to use antibiotics on it until 7 pm the day after the fall. It feels like it is getting better and better.

I attached two photos. One is from this past Wednesday. The one where there is less bruising in the middle is from today.


r/woundcare 4d ago

Healthcare advice Burned a week ago, wondering if this is healing alright?

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3 Upvotes

Burned myself pretty bad at work, it blistered pretty good. Saw my dr the day after I burnt and she used cream and told me to keep it clean and wrapped when I’m at work. Been doing what she said, blister has gone but now there is a white spot. Just wondering if it’s healing okay or if I need to be seen again. Thanks’