Minor head injury

Hello!
I've a quick question for the medical types who lurk out there.

I got hit on the back of the head last night with a flying plastic glass. Unfortunately its left a cut about 1cm which bled quite a bit initially. I went to see the first aiders at Brixton Academy who thought I might need to go to a&e, but as the bleeding had pretty much stopped we decided against it.
Overnight it looks like it's dried up and closed up a bit. So my question is what should I do to take care of it? Is there any reason I'd need to go to a&e?
Should I just let my flatmate keep an eye on it in case it starts to fester?

More importantly - when can I wash my hair? And will exercise and getting sweaty be a problem?

Comments

  • Firstly the disclaimer -I'm no medical expert. However, I always thought it was important to clean a wound as soon as possible. If your hair is caked in dried blood I would have thought that should be washed out pretty quickly. I'd wash it now with a mild shampoo and be gentle - obviously you don't want to scrub the scab off!
    No idea about the sweaty exercise bit so I'll wait for someone more knowledgeable to advise.
    Hope you're feeling OK.
    Best wishes.
  • Unless it was a plastic glass big enough to drown in it's unlikely to have done you any serious damage!

    Just keep an eye on the area and pop to the doc's if it becomes red, swollen, 'throbby' or gunky.
  • Thanks guys - my flatmate is applying tea tree oil to it on the advice of the pharmacist at boots and the cut itself is looking better (apparently - I can't see it what with it being on the back of my head!!).
    We did clean it up - odd that the first aiders just had a dab at it with some cotton wool and water, would have thought they'd have got out the tcp!
    The only problem now is that I havn't washed my hair since Tuesday. Yuk!
  • Get a mate with a digital camera to take a photo and show you!

    You should be fine to wash it now.
  • Can we sue for being spammed?

  • image I wish we could.

    The first aider probably said A&E just in case it was worse than it appeared and they got sued. Head woulds tend to bleed a lot because of all the blood vessel's at the top of your noggin. If you want to do a bit of exercive and worried incase it bleeds or get's knocked an old rugby trick is to put a little bit of vasaline on the cut to keep it from bleeding or getting sweat in the cut. You should be fine to do the exersice through unless you have a history of hign blood presure.

    And I've just noticed the date on the oringinal post. anouther reason to hate spammer's image

Sign In or Register to comment.