33. Wound care

Basic life skills. You will get them and you need to know how to manage them. Wound injury to the skin and deeper come with the territory of life. The basic principles are to stop the bleeding, clean them, and close them. Keep the blood inside you, remove the possible infectious item, keep infection out. Most simple wounds will stop either by themselves or with direct pressure. Once that is done, wash the wound well.

Clean tap water forcefully irrigated upon the wound will work great; use a lot of water, make a mess. You can also use a variety of commercial skin cleaners if they are available, but whatever you choose to use be thorough and get into the more hidden areas of the wound. Then, close the wound with a clean dressing, antibiotic ointment or get commercial help if the wound is too complicated for you to comfortably manage. These basics apply to all wounds. Learn them and use as needed.