# Forum More Stuff Oops!  elusive splinter

## shauck

Ok, back in the oops section. 
I'm pretty careful/vigilant with tools and such but I do get a few splinters from time to time. Usually I can get them out but this one (swiped a piece of pine) got stuck in my palm, pretty chunky and deep. Hard to grab things with it in the palm so I went to the doctor and figured he'd make a slit and pull it it out. He numbed the hand and had a pretty good dig around for about half an hour and wasn't getting anywhere. Not fun. Said he couldn't cut too much so sent me off to Ballarat hospital where they could deal with that sort of thing.  
Back to work site, pack up and finish screwing down the floor sheets that had been glued and partially fixed already. Off to Ballarat. 
The next doctor had a go the same as the first. Oh great, some stupid laughing gas (not funny, don't like it), more numbing of hand, more vigourous digging about, no success. Ultrasound, couldn't find it as a whole piece (first doctor possibly decimated it) but found some, perhaps surgery? - what!!! Wait for surgeons opinion. Okay, no surgery as it's small, will have to let it find it's way to the surface and go back to doctor when it does, for more digging....  
Ok, just wait and we'll give you a drip for antibiotics, it'll only be another hour... then a prescription for pills and don't drink with these - Arrrgh!! 
Time of splinter 11.30am.  Home after all the rigmarole 7.30pm  
A splinter!! 
Moral of the story, don't swipe timber.

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## Moondog55

Thanx S
Reminds self to wear his gloves when cutting firewood from old timber

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## SilentButDeadly

Why only then?  I always use the new breed of mechanics gloves when working with construction timber these days - or my old bike riding gloves (Fox Dirtpaw).   
The fancy pants part fingerless gloves for carpentry are the best bet though...

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## Godzilla73

G'day, 
Purchase Ichthammol ointment (also known as black drawing salve) over  the counter at a pharmacy. They may not have it out on the shelves but  if you ask the pharmacist they usually have it. You don't need a prescription. Put a small amount of the salve on the splinter  and put a band-aid over the salve. In a day remove the band-aid and  the splinter will usually be drawn out of your skin into the band-aid. 
My microbiologist aunty showed it to me ages ago, always worked for me.

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## shauck

I bought some Magnoplasm. It's used the same way. I'm hoping that anything left in there will come closer to the surface. Others swear by it so...

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## r3nov8or

My best splinter story. H4 treated pine batten. Slid into right palm, below thumb. Ouch! WTF was that!  Had a dig around myself. "It'll come out by itself". Work to do! Ignored it for a week. This is getting sore. Real sore. Just a _little bit_ more concerned this is H4... Off to GP, off to ultrasound, found a 25mm piece, tapered from a needle point to a 3mm thiick end!! Off to surgeon, a plastic surgeon to boot. General anesthetic. Yes, a general! I still have it in a jar somewhere. Good thing it's TP - it should keep forever  :Smilie:

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## r3nov8or

> ... then a prescription for pills and don't drink with these - Arrrgh!!
>  ....

   More antibiotics? 
Drink and be merry!_ 
"The VD Clinics of the 1950s and 1960s gave the somber and serious advice  that alcohol should absolutely not be used while taking penicillin. But  there were no significant chemical interactions between penicillin and  alcohol. The real reason that this advice was given was for moral  reasons, not pharmacological reasons. The medicos of the day were  worried that alcohol would reduce the inhibitions of the sufferers, and  that, while under the influence, they might get a little "frisky" and  pass on their infection to another person, before the penicillin had a  chance to cure the sexually transmitted diseases."_  Alcohol and Antibiotics  News in Science (ABC Science)

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## shauck

I'm glad no general anaesthetic or op. I think a tiny bit came out after using magnoplasm. Hard to tell but it was the right colour (pine). Interesting about the alcohol. Mostly I ignore the whole alcohol thing and in fact I usually ignore the medication too. In this case, they'd been digging around in my hand, in a hospital One of the medications is for staph and hospitals are the place to get it. The other one is Metronidazole. Look it up and you'll see some full on side effects, some associated with alcohol. I stopped taking it day before yesterday because I got some weird flushes and adrenalin rushes and headaches. Talked to local GP since, who took a swab and said just keep your eye on it, we'll have a look in a few days and if it gets worse, give you something else. So just taking the Staphylex500 at moment. Best thing, can have a beer now.

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## shauck

I had that damn splinter in my hand for nearly three weeks. It seemed like it was wanting to come out through my skin and has been pretty painful. I went back to the local doctor on Wed afternoon. He was a different doctor to the first one. I managed to coax him into having a go at getting it out. I was sure it wanted to come out at a certain spot. Sure enough, with a little slit in the skin and a gentle (for once) nudging, out popped it's head and voila, pulled it out. So happy. He was pretty stoked too. It's 17mm long and about 2mm thick. Wonder why the ultrasound couldn't see that one. At least now they believe me that it was actually still in there.

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## r3nov8or

Pretty scary the radiologist didn't find it with an ultrasound. My similar sized one was plain as day. Maybe yours ran directly beside a major ligament or some suich thing.

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## shauck

No idea what happened there. It kind of s****s me that they think perhaps it's not there when you're telling them it is. Doctors can be so sure of themselves and forget that people have lived in their own bodies for so long that they know what they're talking about. They need to trust that. Glad it's gone tho. I can feel it getting better already.

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## Bloss

Docs probably just assumed you had timber in your veins like all good chippies . . .  :Smilie:

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## intertd6

A fellow asked me the other day whether tallowood splinters effected me in any way, to which I said that they festered up very quickly. He then said that he got a  TW splinter & by the end of the day it had paralyzed his hand & his Dr said some people have this reaction to it.
regards inter

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## shauck

I'm lucky it was plain old pine. That sounds real nasty. Imagine having that stuck there for three weeks. Yer hand would probably fall off.

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## Black Cat

I generally wait for them to fester if they are relatively small. then they pop out with the pus (ewgh). Or drawing ointment - wonderful stuff as endorsed by others above - have some in the cupboard at all times. It doesn't seem to go 'off'.

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## shauck

I like to dig at em. Maybe I'll become a surgeon in my next life.

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## goldie1

Its amazing what you can do with a Stanly knife

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## shauck

> Its amazing what you can do with a Stanly knife

  but not after cutting malthoid.

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## goldie1

> but not after cutting malthoid.

  Cutting up your orange at lunch time cleans it ok

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## shauck

> Cutting up your orange at lunch time cleans it ok

   :Doh:

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