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?
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