A+E for a splinter!

skunkwerx · September 2023

Ello gents.

So yesterday I was doing archery things as per normal and I picked up a target stand and caught a shard of wood in the finger.

Pulled the shard out, thought nothing of it.

Last night was a little sore so had a look and could see what I presume is a splinter left under the skin?

See that little black line?

Could be a blood trail from the original pullage of the shard but anyway.. I attempted to cut it out with a pair of scissors and tweeters.. to no avail.

I made things worse..

This morning its painful and hard to bend the finger.

It doesnt look like a total bag of smashed assholes yet but it's made the original 'splinter' hard to see lol.

So I called 111 to get advice on who to see, obviously infection or tetanus being being of main concern..

Doctors called me back and said, you need to go A+E because end of the day, its going to need to come out and local out of hours wont do it, or could make it worse.

Now I'm guessing it will be a minor injuries centre rather than a+e, but really? I feel like I'm going to get there after work and be laughed off.. or they'll just tell me to go away.. seems so tiny..

Any experiences?

Annoyingly I need this finger for Sunday coming as I'm competing in the Essex field championships hence I wanted to get it sorted asap..

Just for fun, here is another recent love tap I picked up from a very poorly executed shot!

Stratavarious · September 2023

I had a splinter like that turn into a painful pus filled mess after digging it out myself (badly). So worth getting out or cleaning/disinfected.

I did get a fly fishing hook in my face… that was fun and did require an A&E visit to cut and push it through, I was given a tetanus shot.

I did think I was being silly but they see things like this all the time and were really nice about it.

They’ve seen it all before.

VimFuego · September 2023

as a registered medical professional (well, I work in healthcare and am on several registers) I'd say amputation is probably the only option.

Emp_Fab · September 2023

I agree with Vim. However I have no medical experience but I am good at Googling. Google says it's probably fatal so I'd make sure your will is in order.

kaypeejay · September 2023

Were you ironing?

skunkwerx · September 2023

VimFuego said:

as a registered medical professional (well, I work in healthcare and am on several registers) I'd say amputation is probably the only option.

Will I get a wheelchair or do you think the legs will be ok to be left as is?

ICBM · September 2023

When I was working on a particularly dirty guitar about thirty years ago, I stabbed myself with a string end getting the old tied-through-the-post ones off... I thought nothing of it at the time, but in about half an hour my whole hand had started to swell and turn a worrying colour, and I was feeling quite ill. I went to the nearest medical centre where the doc took one look at it and gave me a large injection of antibiotics. Apparently that sort of infection can lead to sepsis, which is often fatal. I was told to go straight to the hospital if it hadn't got a lot better by the morning - luckily it did.

Dominic · September 2023

sterile needle ,some Hibiscrub and you're done .........no need for A and E

Shrews · September 2023

When I broke my leg a few years ago, after my op I was on the ward and two guys meant to be on another ward joined us. One of them had pricked his finger with a thorn, it got infected, the infection travelled and he ended up in hospital. His arm was in a sling bound tightly to his chest and infected hand bound to his opposite shoulder.

He looked in more pain than I was.

drofluf · September 2023

Don’t worry they’d rather you went early than late. My wife felt foolish going in with something similar but they were great

GoFish · September 2023

People have died of less (pre antibiotics). Bloody hell, we're so lucky to be alive when we are.

Shrews · September 2023

GoFish said:

People have died of less (pre antibiotics). Bloody hell, we're so lucky to be alive when we are.

Yes, we are incredibly lucky. Enjoy every second of living in this time, it will be gone soon enough

skunkwerx · September 2023

Hour 3 of A+E urgent care clinic:

My freedom ebbs away.

My plans for getting a takeaway are diminishing.. all the pizza joints will soon close.

I've let my manager know what I think of her for not giving me holiday tomorrow morning.

Hopefully I will get seen soon.. though.. I have also requested a carer because.. wiping my ass left handed can do one.

My request has fallen on deaf ears.

The man with a black eye and his chavvy harem have been seen. I heard all about the fight and how the police are 'gonna get 'im this time Margaret'.

I've also seen a guy here wearing a Fender T shirt.

Thought he was worth a mention.

skunkwerx · September 2023

I will now google 'ebbs' to see what it means.

CavemanGrogg · September 2023

I'm actually not surprised you where told to go to A&E. And I don't mean this in a sarcastic, joking, laughing, or even making light of the splinter. I'd actually be surprised if you where not told to go to A&E to have it looked at.

axisus · September 2023

When I get bastard splinters I cut them out with a surgical scalpel blade.

yocky · September 2023

Can they save the jeans?

Keiko · September 2023

Was doing some gardening a week ago and could only find the crap gloves. Somehow I got a thorn in the end of my finger just after the nail cuticle. Didn't know exactly what it was at first as it was well under the skin, but 24hrs later it was sore and going red, so figured there must be a thorn or splinter in there. I tried to dig it out with a needle. No joy, it was in too deep, and too much blood to see it, so I just left it. About 3 days later the swelling had gone down and there was a little scab where I had been hacking away at it. Removed the scab, and there was the arse end of it poking out, like a blackhead. I squeezed it like a spot and it shot out. It was a good half cm or so, a lot bigger than I was expecting.

swiller · September 2023

deffo no need for A&E

Rob1742 · September 2023

I’d be embarrassed to go for that, like highly embarrassed. That’s a needle to gouge it out. Then sone sudacrem and a plaster for a night and it will be fine. A and E, never

Emp_Fab · September 2023

I once went to A&E because of a blister on my heel. My GP couldn't give me an appointment for at least two weeks so I had no alternative, not being wealthy enough to afford private healthcare. After waiting in A&E for six hours, having to endure an endless stream of skanky crims, usually accompanied by constables, plus the odd old lady on her last legs, I decided the only sensible option was to cut my foot off.

In hindsight, it wasn't my best decision.

TTony · September 2023

Emp_Fab said:

I decided the only sensible option was to cut my foot off.

In hindsight, it wasn't my best decision.

If only you'd said before.

With only one foot, you definitely need an auto.

skunkwerx · September 2023

Well im out. Only took 5 hours of waiting then a nurse gouging away at it with a pin.

Found some debris and then put a plaster on it. Said I dont need antibiotics or a jab so off I went.

I mean.. doctors orders to go but yeah..

Emp_Fab · September 2023

FFS. I could have done that for you!

GP surgery staff and the NHS Direct call centre staff just tell everyone to go to A&E because it means they don't have to do anything or take any responsibility for any advice they might otherwise give. Far better to do nothing and just cover their arses by pushing you to the local overstretched and understaffed A&E dept.

If they introduced a scheme where they got £50 for each patient they treated properly without sending them to A&E, the waiting time would be halved.

TeleMaster · September 2023

Emp_Fab said:

FFS. I could have done that for you!

GP surgery staff and the NHS Direct call centre staff just tell everyone to go to A&E because it means they don't have to do anything or take any responsibility for any advice they might otherwise give. Far better to do nothing and just cover their arses by pushing you to the local overstretched and understaffed A&E dept.

If they introduced a scheme where they got £50 for each patient they treated properly without sending them to A&E, the waiting time would be halved.

£50 is nothing to trusts in this industry. It's like someone offering you a penny sweet to do 10 minutes of work properly. And while it seems mad to send people to A&E for a splinter, people over the phone can't see what they're looking at, and if someone says 'it seems infected and I can't move my finger' the latter part is a real red flag. So if they say, no, it'll come out on it's own, it's fine, and the person loses their finger that's gonna cost a lot more than £50 for everyone involved.

Ultimately a local treatment centre or the GP would have been the logical option for them to suggest, but you can't blame someone for following the advice given to them.

The current scheme is employing other trusts to work within other trusts and paying them excorticate amounts of money to triage patients using their staff. The whole thing is just an exercise in robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Emp_Fab · September 2023

I meant paying the individual clinician / staff member £50 every time they didn't refer a patient to A&E but treated them there and then.

TeleMaster · September 2023

Emp_Fab said:

I meant paying the individual clinician / staff member £50 every time they didn't refer a patient to A&E but treated them there and then.

I think that might encourage bias, even subconscious bias in the advice given

boogieman · September 2023

Shrews said:

When I broke my leg a few years ago, after my op I was on the ward and two guys meant to be on another ward joined us. One of them had pricked his finger with a thorn, it got infected, the infection travelled and he ended up in hospital. His arm was in a sling bound tightly to his chest and infected hand bound to his opposite shoulder.

He looked in more pain than I was.

A local farmer who trims our neighbours hedges (with a big fuck off tractor rig, not a namby pamby domestic hedge trimmer) was around last week. He looked really skinny and quite ill compared to the last time I saw him. Turns out he got stabbed in the neck by a hawthorn thorn earlier this year. At certain times of the year apparently they’re quite toxic. He ended up in hospital for months with sepsis and organ failure. He’s just about recovered but he says he’s as good now as he’s ever going to be, which is not that great.

Btw, splinters are easier to get out if you soak your finger in hot water for a while. Then use a needle sterilised in boiling water to dig it out.

Kittyfrisk · September 2023

I had a crash a few years ago where my car spun on a muddy road & bounced off a fence straining post & section of hawthorn hedge. My drivers window was smashed & I had some minor cuts & scratches on the right side.
Over the next few weeks my right wrist joint became more & more sore & inflamed, yet X-rays showed nothing.
One day in sheer pain & rage I gave the angry red lump a good squeeze & a hawthorn came rising out in a sort of pus volcano. It was about 1cm long & left a small scar that I still have today.

Going to A&E with 'just' a splinter seems to have brought out the macho side of a few here, yet that is just what the 'accident' bit is for...
Once upon a time I would have suggested going to a Minor Injuries Walk In unit instead. They were a great idea, taking pressure off serious cases in A&E in the wider Sunderland area. Guess what happened?
They were 'adopted' by an unelected group of local GP's acting as a consortium. The walk in aspect was scrapped & appointments had to be made, rendering the useful part of the service useless & putting pressure back onto over strained A&E's. Genius at work...

Jetsam1 · September 2023

Kittyfrisk said:

Once upon a time I would have suggested going to a Minor Injuries Walk In unit instead. They were a great idea, taking pressure off serious cases in A&E in the wider Sunderland area. Guess what happened?
They were 'adopted' by an unelected group of local GP's acting as a consortium. The walk in aspect was scrapped & appointments had to be made, rendering the useful part of the service useless & putting pressure back onto over strained A&E's. Genius at work...

Someone somewhere made a few quid out of it and that all that matters. Any "service" provided is incidental.

RobDavies · September 2023

Don’t feel bad about going to A&E with a splinter. The last time I was in Southampton General’s emergency department, it was to have the cotton from a cotton bud removed from my ear.

I still enjoy sticking them in my ears now but ALWAYS use Johnson’s and not Asda own brand.

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A+E for a splinter!

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