Thread: Ask Dr. Gruesome anything

How long does it take to make "cat gut"? What, exactly is it made from?
I know sheep are usually used, but could a deer work?

How can you make a needle out of a deer antler? Or should it be another bone?

If a bone breaks in your arm and your alone in the woods during a blizzard (but found shelter) could you reset the bone by yourself before passing out or would you be too weak to even attempt it?

If you're in a cave where there's a fire, could you eat the snow blocking the entrance without dying (I've heard eating snow lowers your core temp too much and can kill you.... BUT, if you're otherwise warm is it different?).

Could you cauterize a through and through small caliber bullet wound to your shoulder with primitive equipment and no medication.

How is the bark of a willow tree medicinal? Do you boil it, chew it? Is it the outer bark, inner bark, what?

Is it possible for a person with amnesia to retain their spiritual and literary knowledge yet lose everything else?

All these questions stem from a fantasy of me getting into a bad car accident and being lost in a blizzard. I have amnesia and stay in the woods for 5 years, during which time I'm raped, shot and have have twins. I decide to move after 5 years because I hear people wandering into my area and fear them.
I've been wanting to turn the fantasy into a story.

Not exactly what I was looking for as far as questions, but I'll give it my best shot.

How long does it take to make "cat gut"? What, exactly is it made from? I know sheep are usually used, but could a deer work?

Regardless of the animals, as long as it's a mammal, it will work. I'd love to go into detail, but I'm sure I'd mess something up... so I'm afraid I'll have to send you to google. Surely there are several great sites that can help you much more than I can.

How can you make a needle out of a deer antler? Or should it be another bone?

Again, I'm afraid google would be better than me at helping you with this.

If a bone breaks in your arm and your alone in the woods during a blizzard (but found shelter) could you reset the bone by yourself before passing out or would you be too weak to even attempt it?

Depends largely on the person, and where and how bad the break is. Some people would be doomed if they stubbed their toe in the woods, and another could lose a hand and survive. Of course, it is possible. Using splints and an arm hammock made from resources you could set it yourself... but then the issue of being able to start fires with only one arm comes up. Surely even with a good shelter you'd die if you don't have fire. So... you might last a few days, or possibly weeks, but you'd starve to death before your arm could set. Also, if the break is bad enough you could get poisoning and die much sooner. It all depends.

If you're in a cave where there's a fire, could you eat the snow blocking the entrance without dying (I've heard eating snow lowers your core temp too much and can kill you.... BUT, if you're otherwise warm is it different?).

The human body is remarkable, and contrary to popular belief assuming you're dry and dressed moderately well, you can eat snow and your bodies metabolic rate would be enough to keep you warm. The question is, if you have fire, why wouldn't you just melt the snow to drink it? Just wondering.

Could you cauterize a through and through small caliber bullet wound to your shoulder with primitive equipment and no medication.

Depends. Assuming it was above the bone and missed the major artery, then yes. Realistically, it'd be better to simply wrap the wound and let it heal. The 'cauterization' would be excrutiatingly painful and could lead to a nasty infection. I'd recommend that you just apply a firm bandage and allow to heal like that.

How is the bark of a willow tree medicinal? Do you boil it, chew it? Is it the outer bark, inner bark, what?

I'd love to help, but google trumps me once again.

Is it possible for a person with amnesia to retain their spiritual and literary knowledge yet lose everything else?

That would depend. The severity of the amnesia, the cause of it, the person, it all depends. For the sake of your story, let's just say yes.

haha... MANY thanks (loved the last line )

The amnesia is mostly psychological (she likely hit her head in the accident, but didn't lose consciousness for long)

Finding info on catgut has been surprisingly difficult lol The best site I found was on making violin string!

Because this was my morbid fantasty, I considered what I would have with me. I'm a bit of a weirdo. During Winter, I wear a ScottiVest (a jacket with about 20 pockets) and I carry a lot with me (a medicine organizer with some fishing line, a couple hooks, a weight; tylenol; a collapsable cup; my flint and steel; a lighter etc) During an accident, the collapsable cup would likely break. Inside a cave, using the resources immediately at hand, finding a "cup" might prove a little difficult at first which is why I wondered about eating snow...

When my arm was lacerated and the lard and veins beneath were exposed, I noticed the fat pillow out beyond the original perimeter of the incision; popping out like stuffing- and it refuses to go back in. Pressing down on it condenses it, but it pops right back up again after that, which leads me to wonder of the immense pressure lard must be under when the skin is actually intact. Wouldn't that mean we're walking around with this... super condensed packed lard beneath the surface of our skin? I'm a very slender person, but with the sudden VOLUME of the fat, it seemed to reached beyond, like I said, what would be expected.

It's like... It expands, or something. Wouldn't that mean if you took a fat guy and unzipped him down his belly with a scalpel, all of the lard would puff out similar to way the stuff in my arm did? Wouldn't that mean if someone has a very high body fat percentage, it's possible that, unearthed from the vaccuum-seal of the skin and allowed to decompress and expand, it could COVER MORE SPACE, have more actual volume, than the entire rest of the persons body??!! (That would be kind of amazing. Seeing something come out of a person that appears LARGER THAN THEY ARE upon decompressing.)

To an extent, yes. One of the big things in hollywood has been trying to get fake skin to look right, and getting it to cut right. Human skin is very elastic, as are the layers of flesh right beneath it. When we get cut deep enough the skin instantly pulls away from the point of incision, like stretching an elastic band and then having it cut... the two ends at the cut pull away from each other. So, we aren't actually under a lot of pressure at all. I can't really explain what happened to you... but I think it had more to do with inflammation or something. Fat must have a certain amount of compression, as well as muscle and organs, but not a lot. One of the more common wounds I see are incisions, and I've seen them head to toe, and all the way through, yet no fat poofed out. I've seen people beheaded, cut in half, ran over by steam rollers, and everything inbetween... yet no 'decompression'. Skin is slightly elastic, but not very elastic. The fact that you can pull and stetch your own skin shows how weak the elasticity really is.

The first time I saw a high building suicide I thought the guy was going to explode on impact, but he just bounced... it was a let down.

Anyways, in conclusion. I can't explain why your fat would do that, since I've never seen that or heard of that before. I've seen any terrible human mangling thing you can imagine... but never that. Human skin is elastic, but not that elastic.

edit: Thanks for the question by the way! Keep them coming! But, remember this isn't a medical thread... but it can be. Just reread the opening post to get an idea! Every wondering what happens during a beheading? How long you'll survive on fire? Wondering about executions? Anything like that

Cool sounding fantasy Zhaylin No worries!

Thanks

Sounds very strange, Cairus. My daughter accidentally filleted her leg with a wall mirror that broke. Maybe it was because of the angle, but she didn't really even bleed.
I had been staying the night across the yard at my hubby's house (long story lol) and she called saying she needed a bandaid. She was completely calm, so I looked for some firstaid items and took my sweet old time. When I went into the trailer I called for her and she was poking at it, saying "this is so cool!"
I looked at it and thought "How the heck do I even clean THIS? It's raw skin. I can forget the bandaids."

My hubby's an Ophthalmologist and really smart about a lot of things, so I brought her to him and he said to take her to the ER for stitches.
30 minutes or so after the initial cut, she still was only speckle bleeding. She needed 22 stitches.


I've been a self-injurer since I was 7 (I started using a blade when I was 13).
Most of my cuts are very superficial, but there have been some where the skin pulls away a great deal and the fat is exposed. It doesn't really poof out though.


How long can a person survive in a 36 degree blizzard while injured and lost in woods?

Depends 100% on the injury. If you're dry and well dressed, then you can survive quite a while... that is assuming you can keep of the ground at night, and keep hydrated. Like I said before, you can go a looooooong time without food... so the only real limiting factors on survival are shelter and water. You've got 2-4 days without water, a single night without shelter, and anyways from a few weeks, to even a couple months, without any food.