Advice on finger infection, and general thread on small-injury infections

Some advice would be welcome. I was stupid after getting a splinter from a drywall under a fingernail about a week and a half ago, and didn't disinfect it or try to grab it out of there (the splinter went way under the side of a fingernail). The area is now infected and cracking a little bit of skin, and is painful if I hit it against something.

My queston is, a friend urged me to go to a doctor and said I may have to have my fingernail taken off, which doesn't sound like fun. I thought maybe I could ride it out and let my body fight it. I haven't taken an antibiotic in over 35 years, so that's another reason I hesitate having someone poking at it and digging around. She said they'd give me lidocaine, which I've never had, to numb the area (for what? to tear my fingernail off???). Anyway, any advice, i.e. is it able to be ridden out and healed? Thanks!

Now for the general thread as long as I'm bringing up the subject. Do all small injuries like this require medical attention? It seems like just another way for the medical profession to grab as much money as they can. I know a woman, an acquintance more than a friend, who has been on antibiotics for one reason or another for years, and the doctors now say she's knocked out mostof her bodies own defence mechanisms. Antibiotics for "colds", for stomach pain, they just want her coming back for more and she obliges them, it seems to be a lifelong habit now.

Go to the doctors (unless it's just a tiny infection, then I wouldn't bother unless it gets worse), get antibiotics. Listen to your friend, that's what Doctors are for. I don't know if you'll have to have your nail taken off, I doubt it, but if you don't you might end up in a worse position.

reply to post by Aleister


Hi Aleister

I am expecting to get some flak for this "new age" wacko suggestion!

I have skin cancer and have had several surgeries to remove lesions! I had a small sore on my right arm which would not heal, it gets sun regularly when I am driving, I avoid the sun as much as possible!

I discovered a product in my local "Health Shop" here in Windhoek Namibia, called O3, Ozone Healing Gel and started using it on the lesion on my arm which had been there for a couple of years and the lesion has GONE! My brother, who doesn't exactly believe in all the new age stuff that I am into trying suffers from athletes foot, I gave him a jar of the stuff and now it's all he will use on his feet!

The gel itself is a base ointment of Olive Oil, you can smell it and, apparently, Ozone! This stuff is incredible!

It is produced in South Africa and the company has a website!

ps. I am prepared to post a pic of the white mark which has been left on my arm where the lesion was but I obviously can't produce a photograph of the lesion before I started using the stuff!


I just googled Ozone Healing Gel and it's there for all to see!

For minor infections on the hands, I have found that soaking the infection in rubbing alcohol for 1 min. 2 - 3 timrs a day, does the trick.

you need to do what is called 'a mothers remedy'! pre boiled water (so it's sterile) and a generous load of salt dissolved in it. gently pierce the infection area and then stick inflamed area in the warmed salted water for a few minutes. repeat twice a day. two days is the most you'll need

reply to post by Aleister


If the splinter is still in there, take a sharp knife and cut from the entry point so as to make the hole a little bigger. Maybe get a needle and let out some pressure if it is full of puss. Then after making the hole bigger, cutting down and away from the nail, take the needle and see if you can find the splinter by slowly and lightly scratching in the area you think you feel it. The needle will snap back over it and you will feel when you have struck it.

Take then a pair of tweezers and see if using both the needle and tweezers you can not make the splinter rise to the surface. Sometimes squeezing your finger and making the blood pressure increase will make enough stick up so you can remove it.

After all is said and done and you are sure you got it out you need to disinfect.

Get hydrogen peroxide, or rubbing alcohol, and dip your finger into small container so that the whole area is submerged.

you may want to part the wound a little to make sure every part that was exposed is now covered and disinfected.

sounds like it hurts? well it may. Just do it anyways and fix your finger....or go to a doctor and have him do it.

is there any redness around the area ????. is there any swelling and a "hot" feeling around the wound ??? is it tracking up the arm ?????
if there is this would indicate a cellulitis which requires antibiotics. the easiest way to assess this is to take a pen and mark the area of redness/swelling. if it increases above the marked line...go to you doctor/ed immediately. you have cellulitis. if there isnt, i would suggest a hyrogen peroxide 3 times a day directly onto the site.

Thanks to everyone! I'll try most of those things, in combination if need be. The area is red and probably needs to be punctured, yes, but it's not progressing up the finger very much if at all, and even seems less red in spots (or I've got a case of wishful thinking, but it does seem less red in an area and still red in deeper towards the wound). There is a swelling but not a hot feeling. The swelling expanded a bit of skin, and there was a white area on the spot but that has turned to pink again. (this sounds like a clinical description, but I guess it is the medical forum).

Do a few days dosage of antibiotics hurt the immune system? Or does not dosing actually strengthen it more because my "little guys" are fighting this infection and learning even more how to do it? I thank them (my main spritual/"occult" teacher suggested thanking all the organs and cells in your body every once in awhile).

Do a few days dosage of antibiotics hurt the immune system?

it took 'doctors' many many years to figure this one out.

you think some one at ats can do better?


anyway... if you got something still in there it does need to be removed.
it won't just go away.

when you get an injury under the nail it is not uncommon for it to hurt for a week or two.

auhhh! were you removing some of that 'chinese drywall'

who knows what they made that crap outta.

In a survival situation, or even everyday life, treat every cut, scratch, abrasion, puncture, foreign object, etc., no matter how small, as a major injury because an infection can become major.

Flush the wound with water, then peroxide and put antibacterial ointment on it and cover it with a bandage. Keep it clean and covered until it heals.

Just common sense stuff, like washing your hands frequently to prevent the flu, could save you a major problem later.

Another thing to consider is prevention. When you're doing any project, or what have you, consider the risks involved and wear the necessary protective gear. Example, boots with steel toes and shanks could prevent nail punctures or broken bones in your feet. Any injury to feet, hands and eyes are serious, so try to prevent that.

reply to post by tinhattribunal

Thanks for the advice. No, this was entirely an accident. I was on the basement steps, the dog barked, and I made too quick of a turn to go back up and brushed my hand against some paneling (I guess it's paneling and not drywall) and a piece slivered off. Thanks for the advice, I guess things must progress with the removal of the piece. I just don't want them tearing my fingernail off, too much like one of those chinese torture films.

reply to post by wiser3



Ozone is unstable and there is no product once ozonated that will retain this gas after a few hours, you sure it has not got hydrogen peroxide in the mix?

reply to post by Aleister


I'm a big believer in not going to the doctor if you can possibly avoid it, so I'm with you. Anyway, here's my advise. Give it 3 days to see if my suggestion is working. If not, go to the doctor. Unless it gets noticeably much worse before then. If it does, just go to the doctor.

Take 6 grams of vitamin C, three times a day. A gram is 1000 milligrams. Go to the drug store or Walmart and you can get vitamin C sold in gram size pills. What I do is put them on a plate or another flat surface and use the back of a spoon to grind them down to a powder. Take the 6 grams and put it in a glass of water and drink it. Doing it this way instead of swallowing the pills whole makes it easier to digest, less hard on the stomach and I also think you absorb more. Do it at equal intervals throughout the day with some food to help buffer the stomach. Also during this time try to either greatly reduce or eliminate completely your intake of sugar Sugar breeds bacteria. Vitamin C is a known anti-bacterial, anti-viral and general aid in healing tissue injury. I hope this helps.

Originally posted by Hillarie
reply to post by Aleister

 

I'm a big believer in not going to the doctor if you can possibly avoid it, so I'm with you. Anyway, here's my advise. Give it 3 days to see if my suggestion is working. If not, go to the doctor. Unless it gets noticeably much worse before then. If it does, just go to the doctor.

Take 6 grams of vitamin C, three times a day. A gram is 1000 milligrams. Go to the drug store or Walmart and you can get vitamin C sold in gram size pills. What I do is put them on a plate or another flat surface and use the back of a spoon to grind them down to a powder. Take the 6 grams and put it in a glass of water and drink it. Doing it this way instead of swallowing the pills whole makes it easier to digest, less hard on the stomach and I also think you absorb more. Do it at equal intervals throughout the day with some food to help buffer the stomach. Also during this time try to either greatly reduce or eliminate completely your intake of sugar Sugar breeds bacteria. Vitamin C is a known anti-bacterial, anti-viral and general aid in healing tissue injury. I hope this helps.

I did see a doctor at two peoples urging, he drained it (and that's all). He told me that the sliver will be worked out by the body's own defense - the piece will be pushed out eventually. He did prescribe antibiotics that a family member insisted on picking up. I hesitate to take them only because I don't want to hurt my own immune system.

On the Vitamin C, I do take five grams throughout the day in tablet form (the threads on Vitamin C here focused on the liquid mix are on my watch list) and even wrote a thread on that, so I'm an advocate too. But I didn't consciously know that it was anti-bacterial and anti-viral (the healing of tissue, is that in its collagen building effect?). That is new to me, thank you. Maybe you can add that into the handful of main threads on Vitamin C. Since I started my own thread on it I went from three grams a day to five, with the body apparantly only absorbing a percentage of what it takes in. Maybe you're right, and a mortal and pestle could be one of our best friends. Thanks again! (oh, and I don't eat sugar either, again - I'm an easy addict on sugar but this time have been off of it since mid-September. That's another range of health issues right there, the evil of sugar and sugar products, and the profit motive rather than the humanitarian motive of its manufacturers, advertisers, and grocery store owners.)

reply to post by Aleister


You really should try to remove the splinter if it's at all visible. Antibiotics suck, lots of recovery time from those. If you have access to extra virgin coconut oil, you should give that a try, it'll numb it right up too. Coconut oil is also good for allergies, I take 1 tablespoon a day and no longer need allergy medicine. It will also relieve toothaches and promote health through oil pulling. Here is a web site on other uses. Coconut Oil Uses www.hybridrastamama.com...

Have you seen the liposamal vitamin c thread? Good stuff.

reply to post by Aleister


Iodine, Iodine, Iodine; or a bit of colloidal silver. Either works phenomenally on cuts and burns...Will kill any kinds of infection that may exist too.

Most times splinters will work their way out on their own. My hubby had a sliver of metal lodged in his fingertip that would not come out. After trying for a couple of weeks to get it out, he left it alone. Then he started getting this
gross growth popping out of the skin and it bled every time he bumped it. It ended up looking like a petrified raisin that grew out of his skin and he had to have it removed. It was really gross. Yuck! I never knew something
like that could come from a splinter.

Originally posted by toastyr
reply to post by Aleister

 

You really should try to remove the splinter if it's at all visible. Antibiotics suck, lots of recovery time from those. If you have access to extra virgin coconut oil, you should give that a try, it'll numb it right up too. Coconut oil is also good for allergies, I take 1 tablespoon a day and no longer need allergy medicine. It will also relieve toothaches and promote health through oil pulling. Here is a web site on other uses. Coconut Oil Uses www.hybridrastamama.com...

Have you seen the liposamal vitamin c thread? Good stuff.

edit on 16-2-2013 by toastyr because: Added link for more uses coconut oil.

Thanks everyone, and thanks to toastyr as a noob (gave you your first star). I'll just do a few days of antibiotics as long as I started them (the first I've taken in over 35 years, grrrrrrrrrrr). Interesting about the coconut oil, I don't have allergies but a good friend of mine does and I'll tell her. That's a keeper of a weblink. As for Vitamin C, I started a thread on it (not the Johnny-come-lately liposamal threads, which I totally recommend by the way - haven't tried it yet but it sounds great). Thanks again for all the advice!!!

reply to post by LUXUS


I have no idea but Hydrogen Peroxide is not listed as an ingredient! Check out their website and decide for yourself!

Its likely that a piece of the splinter is still in there, you need to get it out before it can heal.
If it is currently hurting now, you need to get that splinter out, then squeeze the pus out.
This happened to me once, I had splinter but didnt realize how big it was, a few days later it started hurting real bad and my thumb was a little bigger then normal, so I got a sewing needle and went to town on it, carefully breaking the skin above the splinter until I could grab it with a pair of tweezer's. When I pulled it out the thing was almost an inch long and pretty thick too. I just squeezed the pus out and it was fine in a few hours, no need for a doctor.