A cut can happen to anyone, and it can happen because of your mere daily activity. If a cut that occurred to you was not a deep and severe cut, it will usually heal in a week or two. However, a deeper cut might take longer than that to heal and might require more serious wound care.

To shorten the healing period of a cut, there are several steps that you can do such as keeping your cut clean, dressing it with the right ointment, and keeping it covered to prevent from infection, regularly change the bandage of your wound to keep it hygiene.

In this article we are going to share with you some signs that your cut will show if it is healing and some signs that you might need to look out for that can show you that your cut is getting worse.

Stages Of Healing Wound

There are several stages that your wound has to go through before it can completely heal. Below we have listed those stages for you,

1. Bleeding

If you are wounded with a cut, it usually will bleed. If you do not suffer from any bleeding disorders, your cut should stop bleeding within maximum 30 seconds after given pressure.

Give your cut a gentle pressure so it can help make your blood clot faster. Raise your injured area slightly higher than your heart if possible so that the blood won’t weep too much. A scab should for straight away once your blood is clotted.

If a minor cut bleeds for more than 45 seconds or a minute maximum, seek help from your doctor immediately as it might be a sign of more serious disease.

2. Swelling

Sometimes after your blood clotted, your immune system will start to do its job. Your wound will be swelling and tender and a bit reddish in color. This is an indication that your blood vessels are carrying the oxygen as well as vitamin and mineral from your body to where your wound is located particularly.

You will also notice that your wound might have clear fluid oozing from it. This is the way how your wound is trying to flush all the soft dirt and debris that are still present on your wound.

During this stage, your white blood cells are also fighting so hard to kill the germs and other particles that can cause infection if they come in contact with your wound. This stage usually will last for 3 – 5 days.

3. Tissue Re – Growth

After the 5^th day of your wound healing process, you will notice that your wounded area will be smaller and your skin tissue will be repaired after the injury. New blood vessels are also usually formed at this stage. This new layer or granulated tissue will replace the broken ones and this stage can last up to 3 weeks for minor wound and slightly longer for bigger wound.

This is why it is very important for your cut to be kept moist and covered so that no tough scab is formed. Because when tough scab is formed, then it is going to be harder for your skin tissue to regenerate under the outer layer of your skin.

4. Scarring

When all the stages have gone, the last part that you should look out is scarring. Some wound will leave a permanent scar on your skin even though it is only a small cut. This can be resulted due to certain condition of a person’s skin that can be easily scarred. However, the way we treat our wound on the earlier stage can also determine whether our wound is going to leave a scar or not.

At this stage your wound might feel itchy, but never scratch your scar as it can cause permanent scar on your wound or worse it can re – open the newly formed skin tissue that is not fully healed yet.

If your wound is going through all of the stages above, it means that most likely your wound is going to the right direction of healing process.

Signs Of Infection

During all the healing stages above, please keep watching your wound and look for signs below. If your wound is showing one or more symptoms that listed below, it might mean that your wound is having infection and you will need to get help from your paramedic.

Redness

Pain that gets worse

Oozing pus that is yellowish and has foul odor

Fever

Delay in healing

Swelling around the wound

Even though that some of the signs above are also can be signs that your wound is healing, but there are some differences between the symptoms of a healing wound and infected wound.

Redness that an infected wound has will not be pinkish as the healing wound and also followed by pain that is getting worse as well as swollen area of the wound.

The fluid that is oozing from an infected wound will have yellowish or even greenish in color instead of clear like the one in healing wound. The fluid in the infected wound will also have foul odor.

When you have an infected wound, you might also experience mild to high fever after the topical symptoms that happen on your wound.

Conclusion

You can tell now if your wound is healing or infected from the symptoms that we have shared with you, however, if you are not sure and your cut is not getting any better, it is always best to consult with your doctor and get the needed treatment if something is not right with your wound.