Thursday, July 29, 2010

Suture Removal

So it is time to remove my husband's sutures.

I find an old (not rusty) pair of disposible suture scissors and my tweezers and clean them with a good scrub of soap and water then disinfect them with a long soak in alcohol.

After cleaning then stabilizing my husbands hand I grab the one end of the loose end of the knot with my tweezers and I am *just* getting ready to snip the suture in much the same way I have done for the last, oh, thousand years to a million-or-so patients - right next to the nail where the suture goes in. You know, the proper way.

My husband jerks away his hand: " No no no not there......you have to cut it up there at the top - just cut the knot off" - giving me instructions as if this were my very first time.

Me: "Are you a nurse? A doctor? You know I have been doing this for 30-some years, right?"

We both start to laugh.

He's lucky I didn't cut off his fingers.

:)

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