Ow

[jayfurr]

My right thumb mysteriously began swelling and paining me yesterday. I hadn't done it any injury that I knew of, but there it was, acting all infected and everything. There was no visible entry wound or nick or scratch to smear antibiotic ointment on, so about all I could do was smear it anyway and wrap the tip in a Band-Aid in hopes of somehow, some way doing some good.

That didn't work. It's more infected and painful today and starting to ooze a small amount of blood at the left side of the nail. It's very painful. I was in so much pain when I got off my Burlington-to-Chicago flight just now that I decided to go find the O'Hare medical clinic and see what they thought. Fortunately, I had a lengthy lay-over before my Denver flight, or I'd have had to just tough it out and hope gangrene didn't set in.

The doctor on duty said I probably had a tiny hangnail inside the flesh, causing the infection and swelling, and that it looked like we'd caught it early enough that we wouldn't need to anesthetize it and surgically drain it. Instead, he had me soak it in hydrogen peroxide for about ten minutes and then put more antibiotic ointment and another Band-Aid on it... and then gave me a lovely bottle of erythromycin tablets to combat the infection. He recommended that I soak it in hydrogen peroxide each night until the swelling goes down to help wash the blood and pus and stuff away. I said I'd get right on that as soon as I got to Denver and we parted friends.