Minor accident - help needed this morning

funkey_monkey

Hi,

I'm in Spain at the minute and I had a minor incident in my hotel room where I jammed my finger between two windows that slide payst each other.

It resulted in a deep cut to the pad of my finger and a blood blister under the nail on opposite side.

Nothing major, but the throbbing pain has resulted in me getting no sleep and it is not much better this morning.

So, I need to get some thing to reduce the throbbing, get some proper dressing and maybe get the nail punctured to relieve the pressure caused by the blood blister (although if I could get the throbbing pain reduced that might be sufficient).

Where do I go? Do I initially go to pharmacy or a medical centre (servicios sanitation) - I'm in a small town, so no hospital.

I've got travel insurance and my EHIC. Travel insurance need pre notification for spend over £300.

Advice?


Thanks.

Tilly

The chemists is your first port of call. They'll try sort it and if they can't they'll advise you to go to the medical centre.

funkey_monkey

Is beginning to ease now. Has anyone ever tried relieving the pressure using a heated paperclip to burn through the nail?

I don't think I'll do it now, but was curious as I've spent some time looking into this today.

I've read that after a day the pressure should equalise.

Dr Turk Turkelton

Heat up a needle and thread it through the nail. Relief will be instant.

funkey_monkey

Thanks - didn´t need to do this in the end. The blood blister came close enough to the tip and side of the nail that I was able to pierce it directly there and relief some of the pressure.

Just waiting for nail to drop off now - that will definitely happen?

cobham

I would have iced it and elevated it as soon as.... I did something similar and the fresh nail just regrew from the bed and damaged bit took 6 months to grow out. It looked a bit unsightly and split a bit so did have bandage on it sometimes and used a bit of plain nail varnish to strengthen it.