Sanggye Paik Hospital ER Review – Criteria for Stitches, Dressing Method, and Healing Time for Stitched Wounds

I accidentally slipped while picking up a razor I dropped on the bathroom floor.

As I struggled to regain my balance, I kicked the edge of the bathtub hard with my shin.

Then I looked at my leg and—what the heck is this wound?

I saw the milky-white fat layer and fascia inside the wound for the first time in my life.

I quickly covered it with Duoderm, but the wound was bigger than I thought, so I figured I should go to the hospital.

Since it was the weekend and no clinics were open, I headed straight to the Sanggye Paik Hospital emergency room.

1. Sanggye Paik Hospital Emergency Room

I parked on B1 and went up to the ER on the first floor.

I filled out a few forms at the front, checked in at the ER, and waited.

After a short wait, I had a consultation with someone who seemed to be a nurse.

They peeled off the Duoderm, took a look, and said this definitely needed stitches.

They said that if the wound gapes open even when you’re staying still, you should get it stitched.

Then I went inside and changed into pants that were open on the side.

Just in case, they also took an X-ray and asked a series of questions about the medications I was already taking.

After a short wait, I moved to the suturing area following the doctors’ instructions.

Then they opened up the wound.

Warning: Wound photo (slightly graphic)

They said they needed to check how deep the wound was, so they removed the dressing, rinsed it with saline, and poked around here and there with forceps.

It was the first time I’d seen forceps go into my leg like that, so even though it hurt, I found it fascinating.

I felt like Guan Yu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms getting his flesh scraped off.

Fortunately, the fascia wasn’t torn, so they put in about five stitches and it was over pretty simply.

The anesthesia hurt more than the actual stitching.

Lastly, they did an antibiotic test, and that’s when I first found out I had an antibiotic allergy.

The area where they injected a small amount of antibiotic with a syringe got itchy.

So they gave me a different antibiotic through an IV drip.

Then I went home.

2. Cost

The bill came to about 230,000 won, and I got roughly 200,000 won back through my private insurance.

So the actual amount I paid out of pocket was around 40,000 won.

3. Wound Care

1) Week 1

They said it’s best not to get it wet for the first 3–4 days, so I was as careful as possible.

When I had to shower, I wrapped my leg tightly in plastic wrap and held my foot up high while washing.

Around day two, I did the dressing change myself.

Over the past few years I’ve gotten cut by knives, had surgery, and so on, so I’ve learned how to do my own dressing changes.

Healing time for knife-cut wounds

1. The day I got cut by the knife It was a very exhausting day. When I got home, my mother-in-law and my wife were there taking care of the baby. I thought I should hurry and cook for them, so I rushed to make curry. I had finished cutting the potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms, and while I was slicing the onions, I cut my middle finger badly with the knife. I instantly knew...

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Review of toe ganglion surgery and how to care for the surgical wound

1. Why I decided on surgery As you can see from my previous post, I had been enduring a toe ganglion for quite some time by draining it myself. I held out like that for almost a year, but something happened recently that made me decide I needed to have the toe ganglion removed. It started to hurt when I pressed on it. It probably...

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Dressing it is really nothing complicated.

All you need to buy at the pharmacy is povidone disinfectant and a dressing bandage like Band Doctor.

First, expose the wound area and apply povidone generously.

Then cover it with the bandage, and that’s it.

At first I didn’t have time to buy proper bandages, so I used sterile gauze and sports tape to secure it, and I ended up getting blisters on my leg.

Apparently this is called a tape allergy.

Never leave sports tape on your leg for a long time.

I’m writing this on day 5 after the injury, so I don’t have anything to say about week 2 yet.

I’ll be back with an update in week 2.