How do you know when stitches are ready to come out?

Aftercare of steri strips (butterfly stitches)?

• I got a bad cut at 12:20am of yesterday but wasn't able to get to the hospital until around 11am. I was told i should have gone in sooner for stitches but i'd left it too late, so instead the nurses put steri-strips and glue on the wound and then a dressing pad and a bandage on it. They were in a bit of a flap so didn't explain anything to me about aftercare. I just wanted to know if i'm okay to take the bandage off? If the strips come off easily? Can i get them wet or not? How careful do i have to be of them? Will they come off by themselves eventually? And how long do they usually take to come off? I have the gym tonight too so is it okay for me to use equipment that involves moving my arm around a lot or am i best to stay to the running machine, elliptical and cycle machine? Keep away from the rower and weights? I'm just so clueless about it really so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for answers.

• Answer:

  you didn't explain where the wound was, so if it bends @ the part that was taken care of, ya might just wanna hold off on excessive activity for @ least a few days...showering all depends on the doc, believe it or not...so, you might just wanna bathe with a protective covering over the area until your follow-up; the bandage should be changed every day (no band-aids), until for @ least 2 days you see no drainage on the bandage..you don't touch the steri's, they will fall off naturally..if they start to fold, get some clean scissors & cut off the edges, or they will stick to your clothing or linen & possibly do some yanking on your cut...how long it takes for them to come off is if they used adhesive under the steri's (different than the adhesive for the wound), if & when you can bathe without covering, & how much body oil comes out of your pores....they will come off when they are suppose to, or the doc will take them off on follow-up..again, I would stay away form excessive activity for a while until you know it's closing up & not draining, & that your muscle activity will not pull on the wound & cause it to spread...& btw, you can always call the ER for instructions..& if they were in such a hurry as to not refer you to a doc for a follow-up, you can also ask them that when you call...