I’ll tell you everything I know…
That dark line, dear reader, is a splinter. It came off one of our interior doors, which are quite rough and rustic. It is too fragile to be pulled out with my most delicate tweezers (pictured). It just breaks off nearer and nearer the quick.
Uncle B spoke to my doctor’s office, who advised we either hit the local walk-in clinic (NO), the emergency room (NONONONO) or call first thing in the morning for an emergency appointment (eh, maybe).
My mother lived with a hackberry thorn in her heel for thirty years (one day in the bath it just popped out). I can live with this. I mean, it hurts, but it’s not awful. On the other hand, if it got infected, would anybody pay attention in the middle of a pandemic? It would be just like me to die of sepsis during a plague.
Please tell me stories: stories of foreign objects stuck in your body for decades to no ill effect. Or, alternatively, horror stories of grisly nail removals and fingers gone septic.
Update: I got it. I took Pups’ advice and soaked it in warm salt water until it pruned, used the clippers to cut a V in the nail so I could get a good grip, used my best tweezers and alley oop! There’s a teeny fragment way in the bottom of the wound. I hope my body can deal with that. It hurts ever so much more now that it’s out 🙁
Posted: March 2nd, 2020 under medicine, personal.
Comments: 12
Comments
Comment from Nazdar
Time: March 2, 2020, 6:01 pm
Two quick ones: third-grade me smashed my middle finger in a large wooden door, was taken to the clinic, doctor clipped the end of the nail to release pressure – but didn’t; stayed very swollen until I took a pin from a bulletin board and punctured it (third-grade me smart but not very bright); second: one fine afternoon, tattooed myself with a #4H pencil by dropping it in my lap & catching it with my legs, point-first through my jeans and about a quarter-inch into my thigh; it’s over 30 years, and the grey dot is still there (occasional awkward explanations in my youth).
Comment from Mitchell
Time: March 2, 2020, 7:03 pm
Urrk. My heebies got the jeebies just looking at this. You need to get that out.
Comment from Pupster
Time: March 2, 2020, 7:10 pm
Soak it in warm soapy water until it prunes up real good, then have the badger gently pry the nail up while you tweezer it out. I did this to my youngest when he had a sliver under his nail, though not to the depth you are dealing with, and probably with a lot more sniveling.
Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: March 2, 2020, 8:16 pm
It’ll be easier to extract after a day or two.
Every now and then, I’ll eject a little piece of glass or bone from an accident some 40 years ago.
Comment from lesterIII
Time: March 2, 2020, 9:00 pm
I concur with Pupster and Bob Mulroy. Actually a combo of the two is what I’ve done. Wood, metal, or glass; couple of days and then a soak/pry/tweeze.
As with Mr Mulroy, I still get glass and other debris surface from injury sites from my RX7 crash 30+ years ago. Weirdness of the human body’s ability to process things never ceases to amaze me.
Comment from DurnedYankee
Time: March 2, 2020, 10:24 pm
Keep an eye on it, wood can be problematic.
And in the future – tell the Japanese what they want to know straight off and it won’t be necessary to do the bamboo under the fingernails thing.
Comment from Skandia Recluse
Time: March 2, 2020, 11:35 pm
I love a story with a happy ending.
Comment from lesterIII
Time: March 3, 2020, 1:38 am
Povidone Iodine is handy for lacerations, puncture wounds, these sorts of thing. I always have it on hand. etc.
And I agree, just keep an eye on it. Keep it and the surrounding area clean, you’ll be fine.
Comment from Mad Ivan
Time: March 3, 2020, 4:14 am
Keep an eye on it, wood can be problematic.
nods in agreement
I’ve got very delicate skin (my sainted mother has said that the maternity nurses told her such about me as a newborn, and I haven’t found reason to disagree….), and I get splinters and such under my skin (not my fingernails, thank Cthulhu) all the time. Watching to see if it turns red and ugly is the plan.
Hope you feel better soonest, Ms. Weasel!
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: March 3, 2020, 1:53 pm
Giggles
All of us here who have had a similar experience can now officially proclaim ourselves …
Wait for it….
Members of a Splinter Group
Hey! Really, no need to push. I’ll show myself out…..
Comment from DurnedYankee
Time: March 3, 2020, 8:24 pm
Weasel! You made the Daily Mail!
“In zis photo ve see za Veesell leapingk to avoid za CoronaViroos vhich is hidingk in za grass.”
“Splinter group” – bwahahahahahaha!
Comment from weasel again
Time: March 3, 2020, 8:44 pm
That is an adorable picture, Durned.
Write a comment
Beware: more than one link in a comment is apt to earn you a trip to the spam filter, where you will remain -- cold, frightened and alone -- until I remember to clean the trap. But, hey, without Akismet, we'd be up to our asses in...well, ass porn, mostly.<< carry me back to ol' virginny