Finger Foo

[hrj]

I'm one of those people who bruises if a butterfly brushes past me, so I'm pretty used to noticing odd purple spots without remembering when I bumped into something. But I'm having no luck at all figuring out what I did to the tip of my left middle finger. At first I thought I'd clipped a little too close when I was cutting my nails and gotten an infected hangnail or something -- it was swollen and warm and painful, but no radiating streaks, no oozing or pus or other serious infection symptoms, so I figured I'd just leave it alone to get better. But after a couple days it was behaving more like a burn -- sort of shiny and tender on the surface but no obvious "center" to it all. Except I think I would have noticed splashing something hot on it, and there isn't the sensitivity to temperature that you usually get with a burn, and that wouldn't explain the slight swelling of the whole fingertip. There's one little tiny red pin-spot, which made me think either a staple puncture (a hazard of pulling staples to photocopy documents -- but see above comments on infection) or maybe a bite of some kind. The problem with the bite theory is that it hasn't itched at all (which a regular spider bite always does) and the reaction isn't severe enough for it to be one of the really bad spiders. Odd, very odd.

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I'll skip the "too much information" warning, since anybody reading this has already shown an interest in medical details.

Thanks for all the feedback. I have now confirmed "localized infection" status, and the exit-point of the pus supports the hypothesis of "hangnail or nail-clipper accident", although thinking back on the weekend, another possibility is rose thorn. I remember picking some thorns out of my fingers after doing some stuff in the yard (and I know from past experience that rose thorn stabs can get nasty).

Rest assured that I'm familiar with the signs that an infection is turning into blood poisoning, and none have appeared. And now that it's getting the drainage taken care of, the situation is improving.

One thing I'm very glad of is having a robust immune system.

[wulfsdottir.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. :) Well, you know what I mean. I almost asked if you'd been doing yardwork again - I used to get those sorts of things from "hay jaggers." I don't know what they were, but they were insidious and nigh-on invisible, and in the middle of bucking a truckload of hay into a loft, one doesn't always notice such little things.

Also glad to hear you know what to look for. A scary number of otherwise intelligent people have demonstrated No Clue when it comes to their own bodies, and the amazing recuperative powers and coincident frailty of same.

*looks around, wonders if the antibiotics ate her brain, and wanders off again*