SI Question - What's gonna happen?

[Leann]

Hi. This might not be urgent, but I don't know what to do. I just cut myself. I now have a cut on the underside of my arm. It is vertical and between my wrist and my elbow. It is about 2 inches long and about 1/2-3/4 of an inch wide. It's down to fatty layers. It was gushung for about 10 minutes and fortunatly it hasn't been really bleeding anymore (granted all I did was wrap a towell around it. I haven't tried rinsing it or anything). This is the worse I have ever cut before. Hopefully I don't sound stupid, but will it heal pretty much by itself? I don't know if this kind of thing needs stiches or not, and granted I would way rather not go to the hospital for it. It's just gaping real wide, and I don't know what to do. Maybe I am over-reacting? I don't know... I am kind of worried though, so any response would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[White Noise]

It sounds like you need stitches, the fact that it's gaping is in itself a sign that it's fairly deep. Go get it looked at.

[Animad]

With the amount that it is gaping coupled with it being down to fat I would suggest going to a+e and getting it looked at as it could probably do with being stitched. You should do this ASAP as there is a window in which doctors will suture and outside of 8-12hrs most doctors won't suture in most cases. OUtside of this time with it being deep you should still get it looked at incase a doctor is willing to suture it a bit later and because they can put a better dressing and clean it out better than what you probably can as well as them being able to prescribe you a cause of anti-biotics just as a preventative measure.