Draining Blood From Under a Nail
The Big Man was not thinking clearly yesterday. While trying to loosen a bolt, it let loose, and he rammed his finger against the hitch of the tractor. (I think. I was too distracted by his finger to remember the details.)
His finger swelled and blood pooled under his nail. I tried telling him he needed to drain the blood to relieve the pressure. Well, he’s stubborn and said he’d wait it out.
Before bed, I talked him into trying to heat a knife or a needle to melt a hole in his nail. We weren’t successful. We went to bed and by 12:30, he asked how much it would cost to go to the doctor to get it done. I told him close to $200. Having a hole melted in his nail by a doctor wasn’t worth $200 to him. I don’t blame him! So I searched the internet for other ways we could fix this.
Hmm. Here’s one that seemed promising.
Disclaimer: I’m not a professional nor do I pretend to be one. I’m not suggesting you try this at home. I’m only telling you what we did. Go see a doctor if you have a medical issue.
Step 1. Smash finger.
Optional: Jump up and down while screaming bad words. Hey, I’m not judging. I know how bad it hurts!
Step 2. Ice and Elevate
This is pretty much universal advice for most injuries, right?
Step 3. Properly prepare to drill your finger.
I’ve worked in the IV room of a hospital pharmacy, so I know a thing or two about sterilizing. However, the Big Man just sort of took over and didn’t prepare as much as I would have liked him to. We used hydrogen peroxide to clean a 1/16” drill bit(the smallest size we had at the moment).
Optional: Take a couple shots of alcohol to ease your mind of the fact you are about to drill your nail.
Step 4. Start drilling
Slowly twist the bit by hand to make a hole into your nail. (Using a power drill will most likely end in a trip to the ER.)
Step 5. Slowly keep going until blood starts to drain.
There we go!
Step 6. Clean up and bandage.
After it stopped draining, we rinsed his finger with saline solution, put triple antibiotic cream on gauze, and wrapped up his finger.
Well his finger felt better this morning, so we made some progress. Now just to clean and redress it for the next couple of days, and he should be good.
Has anyone else tried this technique before?
Your optional steps were the funniest! Real life for sure! I vaguely remember my mom doing the hot needle thing in my childhood but for the life of me I can't recall if it was me or my brother that had an infection under a fingernail. I guess it was traumatizing.
Is his finger doing better now?
Those steps were his idea lol. And well... idk, it’s still quite swollen. But it doesn’t seem infected, so? I guess we’ll see as time goes on. But my son stubbed his toe last night, so now his nail doesn’t look too good either. He hasn’t complained, so I’m really hoping we don’t have to worry about his nail now.
When it rains it pours, huh?! I hope both your men recover all right!
My 3yr old revently had an ingrown toenail (so we think) on her pinky toe.
It was so red, swollen amd had a white spot under the nail.
We did epsom salt
warm water soaks 4x a day. Then topped eith bentonite clay, activated charcoal, tea tree oil & lavender oil as a paste and applied, then let dry after each soak.
By the 4th soak, the infection was draining out.
She ended up loosing the nail, but its healed well and nail grown back.
Thanks for the info! My son’s pinky toe still doesn’t look normal, but it doesn’t look infected either. I’m not quite sure what’s up with it. I’ll have to keep an eye on it and see what happens. If it doesn’t get better, I’ll try the soak first.
All of my littles inherited my father-in-law's funky punky toe nails... Ugh.. So far only one has had an issue!
Use Comfrey root on the finger. My local healthfood store has it, your likely will. Make a tea, and put the grounds on the finger, and seal it to keep it wet. Cover the entire tip, and leave it for a day. It will do wonders. It can be bought in a tincture, but that might hurt through the hole in the nail. One day heals most bruises, then the nail will need to be kept clean as it grows out.
We did the cherry red hot needle method on @beardo when he pinched his finger in a chair. He looks goth with his black fingernail now.
I think we were both too timid to get that one to work. Lol guessing he’ll lose that nail now.
Probably. I smashed my finger at work a year ago, but it was behind the nail, no where to drill without going thru flesh. It took 4 days for the blood to be pushed in to my nail and another month I think before the nail fell off.
Ouch! Was there anything you could do to relieve the pain in those first few days?
Nope. Just suffer thru it.
Wowww... Nope, never did this before!!
Looks scary, kinda gross, and cool! Ill keep this in the memory banks in case any of us smash our finger that bad.
Thanks for sharing the info!
(And fun step by step guide!)
Haha you’re welcome! My husband much preferred this method over heating something sharp.
Yes, I think no matter how you do it, it seems pretty bad... but this seems a little better than something sharp. Id be afraid of stabbing into my fingerbone or something... LOL
Good idea with the drill bit! Not sure I would try the hot needle method!
Yes, this way you can take your time and make sure you don’t go too far. The internet is full of useful info!
This post gave me shivers throughout my entire body. Hope I never have to deal with it but at least I know how now.
Lol! Having a couple shots of alcohol helps too!
Whiskey and get to it! Eeek I hate smashing something! Glad he's feeling some relief!
Good idea ......
Tell me more ideas like this ,😚😁😁😁😁