I never knew until today that you could get an ingrown fingernail and have it get infected.
I have one. My right index finger! Noooo! I'm right handed, so this is my weapon hand. Crappity. It's red and swollen on one side. I poked the skin with a needle and drained some of the pus. It was gross yet cool at the same time.
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All of my toenails are ingrown. What's more, it's slowly getting worse and more painful with time. I may end up having to get some of them permanently removed.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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If you are facing a squeamish opponent you will have one more formidable weapon in your arsenal.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I had a huge problem with ingrown toenails in high school. I've lost count of how many I had to get cut out. Thankfully, one podiatrist told me how to cut my toenails so they don't get ingrown (mine naturally grow into the skin, curving down on the sides). I can NOT cut them too short, or they grow in.
Not sure about this fingernail. It's the one that fell off a couple years ago after I shut my finger in the car door.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I had a friend in college who had a cyst in the small of her back that had to be lanced, and then had a wick set in it for drainage purposes. She claimed to be able to kind of projectile-squirt pus from the thing by flexing her rhomboids, but she never actually demonstrated this for me, so it may have just been wishful thinking on her part.
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It's too bad that it wasn't your middle finger, Mack. I can just envision you waving it around like a weapon.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I'll spare you the story of draining, cutting away and bandaging my European blisters - three that were the size of silver dollars.
As for the fingernail...wow, tough one. You can either clip it off yourself which is probably gonna hurt a lot and then disinfect it, or go to a nurse and have him or her do the same thing, except with drugs and a higher price tag.
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Mack, try applying heat to it, like a really hot, wet towel...that should halp to draw the rest of the pus out. Make sure that if you lace it again you sterilize the needle before and after, and then soak it in Hydrogyn Peroxide to dry it out. Don't overdo the HP, it can make it too dry and cause other problems.
If it becomes more inflamed go t the hospital...under no circumstances try to pry the nail up yourslef, that can get infected really easy and turn septic.
Try the lancing/wet heat for a bit and see if it helps, sometimes it does.
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Oddly enough, I have to see the doc tomorrow morning for whatever illness I also have right now. That would be my face hurting from clogged sinuses, throat hurting, ears hurting (they wouldn't pop on the plane last night), headache, and fever.
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