Stitches for a palm wound

Hey everyone!

I was hoping some of you folks who have medical training—or even just a little experience dealing with similar mishaps—could point me in the right direction regarding what I should do next.

Last Friday night (April 2nd), I had a bit of an accident and sliced my left palm pretty badly with a knife, right in that space between my thumb and index finger. I rushed straight over to the emergency room in Columbus, where they told me the cut was deep and bleeding quite heavily; even though the slit is only about an inch long, maybe slightly more, they insisted it needed stitches. For some reason, they weren't able to handle it there, so they sent me over to the trauma center at Drakeshire.

Once I got to the trauma center, the surgeon on duty basically told me they shouldn't have sent me there in the first place! He cleaned everything out, applied some Steri-Strips (if I remember correctly), put some gauze on it, wrapped it all up, and told me to check in with my primary care doctor this Tuesday. I also got a tetanus shot while I was at it.

So, today (Tuesday), I went to see my doctor, and she took a look and said everything looks fine. She gave me some fresh gauze and bandages and told me to come back in two days for a dressing change.

The part that’s actually making me a little uneasy is that even though the cut is clean and doesn't show any signs of infection, it’s still oozing a bit—it bled a little when they were changing the bandage. Since I'm generally a super healthy person and rarely ever have to visit a doctor, I don't really have a baseline for what's "normal" here. I did a little digging online and read that sometimes cuts on the hands or limbs that aren't stitched can continue to bleed for 6 to 8 days as they heal. I'm curious about what the standard procedure usually is for stuff like this—should I be asking my doctor to refer me for stitches if things don't start looking better soon? Also, is it common practice here in the States to use local anesthesia for stitches, or is that just decided on a case-by-case basis?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who thinks our healthcare system is broken, and I truly trust the expertise of doctors; I'm not panicking, I just want to get a bit of extra insight from anyone who has been through something similar. On top of that, I do freelance translation and copywriting online, so trying to type efficiently with only one hand while waiting for this to heal is proving to be a massive headache.

Thanks in advance!

It’s probably too late for stitches at this point, though honestly, if they could have done it, they would have. The folks who sent you to the trauma center made the right call; they didn't want to take any chances, so they brought in the specialists.
Everything should be fine, just try not to mess around with that area too much—keep your arm rested and try to take it easy.
That swelling is totally normal.
I’m not entirely sure if they do stitches under local anesthesia, but my guess is they do it while you're wide awake.

Why wouldn't they just stitch it up under local anesthesia? If there was any doubt regarding potential tendon damage, then sending you to a specialist makes sense, but in your specific case, I don't think that was such a major risk—though I can't say for certain without seeing it...
If that's the situation, they won't be stitching it now unless there's heavy bleeding, which doesn't seem to be happening here. Just make sure to dress the wound regularly and have them check for any signs of infection; hand wounds can be tricky. All in all, I don't think there's any reason to panic.

Sam Hall15 said:Why wouldn't they just stitch it up under local anesthesia? If there was any doubt regarding potential tendon damage, then sending you to a specialist makes sense, but in your specific case, I don't think that was such a major risk—though I can't say for certain without seeing it...
If that's the situation, they won't be stitching it now unless there's heavy bleeding, which doesn't seem to be happening here. Just make sure to dress the wound regularly and have them check for any signs of infection; hand wounds can be tricky. All in all, I don't think there's any reason to panic.

Maybe because hospitals are constantly fighting budget cuts.
I don't know for sure, but every single person I know who had stitches had them done while fully numbed out—and that includes women recovering from childbirth. To me, it just seems more humane and standard to use anesthesia.

Thanks so much for all the helpful insights! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how everything unfolds, but honestly, after reading through these responses, I’m feeling way more optimistic and much more at ease about the whole situation. 👍