Ewwwwww....

[fenchurch]

So, last week I was out weeding and hadn't bothered wearing gloves (I often don't, because it can be much easier to pull some weeds barehanded). The next morning, I realized I had apparently gotten a small thorn in the back of the knuckle of my left thumb. I could see a small black speck and there was some major inflammation around it. We tried getting it out with tweezers, but it seemed like it was too small to get a grip on. I put some Neosporin on it and figured I'd let it sit overnight and see if I could get it out in the morning. By then, the inflammation was down and it really did look like just a small speck, fairly buried under the skin. It didn't seem to be bothering me anymore, so I thought I'd just let my body push that sucker out over time.

It's been mostly okay over the last week, although it didn't seem to be making any headway in exiting the knuckle. Some days it would get a bit swollen, but most of the time there was just a small bump where the thorn was. Well, last night it started swelling again and *seriously* itching. So, today I decided it was waaaay past time to do something and did a bit of checking online for ideas on how to get it out. I ended up using the needle and fingernail clipper method... insert needle to the thorn and sort of expand any existing hole, then use the fingernail clippers to trim back the skin. I worked at it for a bit and then gave it a squeeze. Imagine my shock when a QUARTER INCH thorn came popping out. O.o That sucker almost had to have been down all the way into the *joint* because there's just not that much room there. I had really thought it was just a teeny tiny tip of a thorn, not the whole friggin' thing! Wow.

I've got it slathered in Neosporin and thoroughly bandaged now, but, yeah... I'm thinking in the future I'm not just going to trust my assumption that it's nothing. Especially if it keeps acting up like that. Because ewwwwww....

Crossposted from my Livejournal.

Comments

[gwyn]

Are you up to date on your tetanus shot? Most people don't realize that they need boosters every five to ten years, and something like that can actually give you tetanus. I found that out the hard way years ago when I first started gardening. Basically dirt + blood = possibility for tetanus. Lately I've been updating pretty frequently, because I'm constantly cutting myself or getting severe splinters in the garden.

[fenchurch]

My last tetanus shot was December 30, 2005 (pretty hard to forget, since it was the day of the car accident). I should be okay... but I'll confess that I had no idea it might even be an issue!

BTW, I *love* your icon!!! I actually belonged to the Blue Blaze Irregulars back in the day. I still have some of my newsletters around here somewhere.

[gwyn]

You know, it's funny, I was in dire straits a while back and I sold off all my Buckaroo memorabilia except for a couple small things. Including all the newsletters and skience papers and whatnot. I've always really regretted it. But I didn't have much money, and some of those things were really rare, so they had to go. Now if I can only lose some weight, I could fit in to my Team Banzai shirt. But I'm NEVER getting rid of the Team Banzai headband.