Good to the last drop... of BLOOD?!

Usually, we'll make our own sponge cakes and angel food cakes, but this particular evening we were hit by a sweet tooth, and thought it would just be easier to buy a "starter" from Fairway Market and top it off as we'd like, not to mention "pineapple coconut" sounded rather enticing as well. While it didn't look quite as "exotic" as the one pictured, it was delicious nonetheless.

(source: wikipedia)

But, as you may have guessed, that's not really what this story is about. As a long-time card-carrying member of the "Clean Plate Club", I generally hate letting anything go to waste. As such, I may have taken things a bit too far when trying to extract the last remaining crumbs. After the container is emptied out, there's still usually a layer of cake covering the entire inner surface. Not wanted to let any of this go to waste, I went on extracting any last remnants I could with my thumb and forefinger. Until all of a sudden I yelped, while simultaneously wondering where all the raspberry jam was coming from?!

Apparently, I had underestimated just how sharp that inner edge of the container really is. That's to say, the edge of the container where the paper cup and the tin connect. In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious that this is a pretty terrible and rather dangerous design choice. I would have figured that the sharp edge would have at least been sealed over, but as the saying goes, "Assumption is the mother of all F'ups"...

That razor sharp edge sliced right through the top of my thumb and left a "lovely" paper-thin 1/2 inch gash in my now gushing finger, spewing enough blood to wet even the most blood-thirsty vampires' lustful desires! 😱

Now, at this point you may be wondering why I'd bother to share this rather gory story. Sometimes in life, it's not what happens to you, but how you deal with it that's more important. There's a little trick I once learned that would come in very handy for this situation, and that's by using Super Glue to "seal" the wound!

Super Glue...?!

Since it was such a clean and straight cut, all I had to do was keep the skin tightly together, remove the tissue for long enough to place a single drop of glue over the cut, then soak up any remaining glue with the tissue and hold together for a few more seconds until it dried. Within 15 seconds or so, the glue had dried, and I picked off any remaining tissue residue. After a few minutes, it almost felt as if the entire episode had never happened.

Several times that evening, I even managed to bump my "sore thumb" again. You ever just have "one of those days"?! I may have felt a slight "pinch", but everything stayed together and intact. It's been "smooth sailing" ever since.

Now, just to be clear, I would only recommend doing this in situations where there is a very clean and smooth cut involved. You don't want any of this stuff getting into your body. Surface only, and never use it near your eyes, or other highly delicate areas. And certainly never for anything that would require using more than a single drop. The interesting thing about this is that hospitals and emergency rooms use this technique as well in certain situations, although they may use a "pharmaceutical" grade of Super Glue. However, the active ingredients are more or less the same. Here is one article about it from the Mayo Clinic:

Link: Should super glue be in your first aid kit?

A few additional interesting tidbits can be found in this article as well:

Its wound-sealing attributes were noted in the Vietnam War, when medics used it before sending troops on to surgery. .. These glues are made from the chemical cyanoacrylate. In addition to its usefulness in stopping bleeding in a pinch, it has been associated with less scarring than other methods of closing wounds. But it has some downsides: it can irritate skin, kill cells, and aggravate infections.

It's also a technique I know well from playing the guitar. Sometimes, if I haven't played for a while the tips of my fingers will blister up again from playing too much. A few drops of super glue over your finger tips, and you're all set to get back to "riffing" away! As Dr. Weil describes:

I’ve also heard that stringed-instrument players sometimes make protective "fingertip caps" out of the glue.

Link: Super Glue For First Aid?

BUT... my super glue's always dried out by the time I need it!

One of the biggest problems I've always found with Super Glue is that if it's been opened, it's inevitably always dried up by the time you need to use it again. That was, at least, until I discovered this little "secret" of keeping my tube in a ziplock bag at the back of the refrigerator. Since I've done that, I've been using the same tube now for well over a year. And even better, I always have some ready and available for any emergencies that may present themselves.

The version I used is this 4-pack HDX brand Super Glue from Home Depot:

However, as described in the comments of this article, some people also swear by the gel version as well:

Mandy: I work in the dangerous world of mail delivery and cannot count the number of paper cuts I’ve received over the years. I used to use regular superglue, once I tried the Loctite brand gel control super glue, I’ve never looked back! I’ve never had a bad reaction to it and by the time the glue works itself off, the cut is usually healed. I frequently use it over joints or in the creases of my hands. I just sliced my finger several layers deep (I probably should have gone in for a stitch) with a kitchen knife and once I got the bleeding slowed enough I put a couple of thin layers of Loctite on it and taped it with gauze to keep my finger straight. I’ll charge myself $2,000 later ;-)

Link: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO USING SUPER GLUE FOR CUTS

FINALLY...

As always, use a bit of sound judgment, along with some more research to better prepare yourself if you anticipate that this "trick" might come in handy for you some day. If you've got a 6 inch gash down your leg, you're likely still better off paying a visit to the emergency room, especially if there's a good chance that an infection could set in. But for those inevitable nicks and cuts that may come along the way, this solution may not only save you a whole lot of time and money (and a bout of pain and suffering), but it might also turn out to be "just what the doctor orders"!

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