Got a bum finger, and I’m worried.

This is new to me. I hope everything goes well. Please keep us posted and let us know if it works.

 

Damn, that looks nasty
I’ve had bits and pieces of stuff get under my skin. Usually it just blisters up and “pop” it’s gone.
I did have a sliver of hand blown crystal in my foot (a long and boring story) that had to be surgically removed

Good luck

 

I say just do what the doc says and give your index finger a break. Things don't get better overnight sometimes. I tore the skin On my index finger and middle finger So bad I almost needed a skin graft. Took forever to heal. Good time to start working your other digits! Maybe pick up a slide. I know it sucks but it doesn't look too bad. Try to keep on pickin!

 

Did those bulbs contain mercury? Might have been best to remove it right away.

I have had a lot of things get embedded under my skin and they normally would move to the surface on their own, blister up, and exit on their own. I have never seen the liquid nitrogen approach and not really sure I understand the thinking behind it. Having sufferred some deep frostbite above the arctic circle, I don't see how using liquid nitrogen on skin tissues would ever be a good idea.

I am with you, I think slicing it open, probing for and removing the glass would have been the better approach, but I deliver mail and hold degrees in English and Geology so what the hell do I know about medical stuff?

 

You need a hand surgeon, not a dermatologist. Like, tomorrow.

 

About 20 years ago I had a grinding wheel come apart and something hit my forehead (I was wearing goggles). I was bleeding so I patched myself up and continued working. Three days later the injury puffed up and was looking pretty bad; I could feel there was something in there. Went to the doc and they x-rayed it and saw a small 3mm piece of metal against my skull. I asked if they could take it out.

The doc said it would work itself out. I said, "I'm here, this is a hospital, you're a doctor, why not take it out?" But the doc and the nurse were adamant that I let it come out on its own. On the way home I stopped at the Walgreens and picked up some peroxide, gauze pads, butterfly sutures, and a scalpel. When I got home I set up a mirror and some bright lights on the kitchen counter and did surgery on myself. I got the piece out (yeah I kept it as a souvenir) and taped up the area. The next day I was way better.

Sometimes you have to do things yourself.

 

what your shouldve done

ice finger til numb

clean with alcohol

use sharp xacto blade and cut it out yourself

 

I surely hope that's not your trigger finger.

 

get another doctor.... right now.

or lop it off.... you'd still have more fingers than Django

seriously, thats BS, you need a Pro

 

I don't think that's good idea. There are tendons in there.

 

You'll be fine. It's the same way they remove warts, they freeze the skin. It forces new skin to come up from layers underneath rather than just forming scar tissue the way it would if they just cut a section of skin out. It'll also get any other pieces that might still be there besides the one.

 

In the early 2000’s I picked up a round toothpick between my big toe and the middle of my foot. I looked at it and there was just a bit of a broken stub protruding from the meaty sole of my foot. I yelled for my daughter to come help.
By the time I got to my tweezers in the bath... it had swelled over and I couldn’t find the end.
Directly in the E.R. the M.D. made an incision and asked, “are you sure it’s in there?”
I said (in my true a$$ hole fashion), “you’re gonna’ get it out, or I’ll just have to find a Dr. who can.” I still have the 1-1/4” piece. Took two incisions to find it???

 

I had a splinter from a pressure treated piece of wood in the palm/thumb area of my hand. Tiny thing but PT is nasty stuff. Created a hole in my hand that didn't want to heal and it didn't want to come out. Infections, anti-biotics in mass quantities a couple times, etc. A couple months of "hope it works it's way out".

Ended up at the orthopedic surgeon as he was presumed to be the best qualified to operate in the muscle area. Plastic surgeon didn't want to touch that zone.

Point #1 - it was operating room scheduling time, not office visit. Not x-acto knife (which I've been known to use :- ).

Had the hospital visit scheduled... when luck would have it, it came out by itself a few days before. Doctor was surprised. Another round of strong antibiotics to kill what was left and I was done.

Point #2 - If the doctor didn't put you on strong antibiotics already, I'd find another doctor. That's clearly badly infected.

Point #3 - That looks way worse than mine ever looked, and I had antibiotics and surgery scheduled. I think you need to find a new doctor.

 

The idea with a wart is to force your own body into killing the virus. That's not the same as an infection. If you have missing skin, whether it's from cutting it out or from freezing it or whatever, it will always grow from the bottom. The only thing that happens from the top is when you have something they stitch together and your body rejoins the two sections... and that's more "on the horizontal", not "from the top". A little bit at the top will die anyway.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the Internet.

 

The medical advice you get on a guitar forum is almost as good as the tax advice you get on a go-kart forum.

 

Hmmm.
Dermatologist?

I had an infection in a finger that resulted in a lump I thought might be some of the remaining splinter that got infected in the first place.
I was sent to a hand surgeon, not a dermatologist.
After exam and X rays he scheduled a "surgery" to remove the lump but gave it enough lead time that it might just be a longer term lump of scarred/ infected tissue that might go away, and it did go away without surgery.

This seems different from a skin problem, and fingers are pretty critical parts that need to work well

 

Very true!

Sadly though, Doctors have given bad medical advice too.
Here a consideration is that a specialist will sometimes take on a case that's not really their specialty, if you make the mistake of deciding for yourself what kind of specialist you need to see.

Kind of like telling your primary care doc you want them to prescribe the latest med you saw advertised on TV.

If you break your back and make an appt with a chiropractor, they will probably try to help you, even if you really should be going to an orthopedist.
Hell a psychiatrist might take on the broken back too, if you're a woman. He'd tell you it's all in your head, you need to calm down and take these tranquilizers.

 

Over the years I must have dug 100 or more hunks of wood, metal and glass out of myself with pocket knives, utility knives, X-acto knives and sewing needles. That's what i was taught to do as a kid, you take a sharp tool and dig out whatever is stuck in you.
Course, my Mother was from Germany and they are as brutal as the German children's books hint at.

Cut when it's fresh!
Git it outta there pronto!

In the mirror though?
Yeah that's another story...

 

Geology shares a few concepts with surgery?