Drilling a hole in daughter's toenail

[Dex]

My ex called me this morning and said that my 4 year old daughter dropped a toy on her toe last night. I haven't seen it yet, but apparently this morning the toenail is blue, the skin around the toenail is red, and it is "throbbing" (my ex's interpretation of what my daughter was trying to tell her it felt like).

My ex called the doctor and the doctor recommended to bring her in so that he could drill a hole in my daughter's toenail to relieve the pressure.

Has anyone had this done or heard of having this done?

The thought of this being done to my daughter kind of freaks me out.

I just want to go give her a big hug.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
My ex called the doctor and the doctor recommended that they drill a hole in my daughter's toenail to relieve the pressure.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm hoping this meant the doctor recommended they bring her in so he can do it?

Personally, I'd probably just slap some ice on it. How old is she? I'm sorry to hear she's hurt. I hate hearing about kids getting hurt.

[Shajen]

1) take her to a doctor, if doing it yourself is a concern.

2) an alternative would be to heat up a needle red hot and use that.

[MrWookie47]

The doc told you to drill the hole? I think I'd want him to do the drilling. And with something more sanitary than the drill in my shop.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
2) an alternative would be to heat up a needle red hot and use that.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am not even sure that the doctor meant literally drilling a hole. This seems so obviously the correct answer.

Btw it rocks seeing someone do this to their own toe. haha

[LALDAAS]

I watched my dad do this.

A 4 year old, shesh let the doctor do this.

[imported_The Vibesman]

Buddy of mine's dad did this to his fingernail when he smashed it, and it turned black, in order to let all the blood out. If it's done carefully she shouldn't even feel it.

[Larimani]

Wtf?? There is no way you should drill the hole yourself!!! If it's too painful bring her to a doctor.

[MrTrik]

I had this done to a fingernail once after a painfull accident with a sledge hammer. Iron sleeve meets 9" steel spike, finger inbetween while trying to get the spike started in a railroad tie.

I actually went to urgent care after a few hours due to the pain and throbbing. Doc drilled two small holes in the nail close to the cutical. Blood spurted up a few inches. It was instant relief.

The doc said no matter how it heals I'd lose the nail. Which I did about a week later. Oh and the drilling didn't hurt at all except from the pressure on an already pressured situation. Only took a couple seconds though till I felt relief.

[pokerdirty]

Compound W Freeze off. I'm pretty sure you have some lying around. You can live without a toe.

[Dex]

[ QUOTE ]
The doc told you to drill the hole?

[/ QUOTE ]

No!

Sorry if the OP was unclear; I just edited it. He said to bring her in so he could do it.

[Shajen]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The doc told you to drill the hole?

[/ QUOTE ]

No!

Sorry if the OP was unclear; I just edited it. He said to bring her in so he could do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, then disregard my answers. The hot needle is the trick though, assuming you'd be doing it on someone who wasn't 4 years of age.

[Toro]

I had this done by a doctor once. All they do is use a device that burns a tiny hole. It's totally painless and once the hole is made, blood spurts out relieving the pressure.

[jokerthief]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
2) an alternative would be to heat up a needle red hot and use that.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am not even sure that the doctor meant literally drilling a hole. This seems so obviously the correct answer.

Btw it rocks seeing someone do this to their own toe. haha

[/ QUOTE ]

You've seen someone do it?

[orange]

I've had it done before. I was in maybe 6th grade when my sister accidentally caused a metal stocking holder to fall on my toe from the fireplace still. The thing was maybe 10 pounds, and my toe was really f*cked up.

My doctor used a laser type of device to create a small hole to relieve the pressure. I was a bit scared at first, but the actual laser did not reallly hurt. It was short and mostly painless.

[Escape]

I once cut through my finger nail at the age of 6 with a scissor, I was in a lot of pain and it was bleeding like hell. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
You've seen someone do it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah I was on a ski/snowboard trip with my church and my like room leader was a super kick ass skier and he would get stuff like this all the time and so he just popped open this portable stove he had, heated up a needle and drained it out.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry if the OP was unclear; I just edited it. He said to bring her in so he could do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

ok. I could easily see me doing this to myself, but if it was my little girl, I'd want a doctor.

[MrTrik]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sorry if the OP was unclear; I just edited it. He said to bring her in so he could do it.

[/ QUOTE ]

ok. I could easily see me doing this to myself, but if it was my little girl, I'd want a doctor.

[/ QUOTE ]

It sounds like they have lasers now. But when I had it done a while back it was a drill. Much like the saws they use to cut a cast off your arm. The doc demonstrated with the drill that as soon as it hits tissue that gives it stops. He touched the moving drill bit to his open hand and it stopped before chewing up the skin.

So yeah, I'd recommend a doctor do this regardless of the tool he chooses.

[fyodor]

I messed up my finger many years ago when I worked on the boats. The pressure was like the most insane migraine you could imagine but concentrated in the finger. The boat I was on at the time was docked in Sault Ste Marie and was leaving in less than 2 hours. I was positive I could not handle the pain if it was going to last more than another day.

I hopped in a cab and went to the hospital emergency. I didn't have time to sit around all day so I told the nurse I did not care if I saw a doctor, a nurse, or the cleaning lady, just do something about the finger.

So the nurse herself heated up a needle and it like instamelted throught the fingernail. The pressure being relieved was as good as a lot of orgasms I've had.

Few days later the nail fell off.

[daryn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The doc told you to drill the hole?

[/ QUOTE ]

No!

Sorry if the OP was unclear; I just edited it. He said to bring her in so he could do it.

[/ QUOTE ]


it was pretty clear from the original pre-edited post that you weren't going to be doing it yourself.

in the future, dumb it down a little for the OOT crowd

[M2d]

it's not a huge deal. basically a blood blister that forms under the nail. as others have suggested, heat up a needle and poke it through the nail. blood will come gushing out and relieve the pressure. then the nail will die and fall off. eventually a new one will grow back.

[BottlesOf]

Good idea. Ignore the doctor's advice because it's a little unfamiliar, and instead of addressing her toe that's about to fall of, just hug her.


/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[BottlesOf]

[ QUOTE ]
I had this done by a doctor once. All they do is use a device that burns a tiny hole. It's totally painless and once the hole is made, blood spurts out relieving the pressure.

[/ QUOTE ]

AWESOME!

Post deleted by Dynasty

[CrazyEyez]

That's disgusting. Trim those toe hairs.

[theweatherman]

I'd do it myself, no big deal. But I've had some first aid training. It shouldn't hurt since you have no nerves in your toenails, just be sure to stop before hitting the skin beneath.

Also, I cant beleive that some people have never heard of this before, seems pretty common to get toes/fingers smashed.

When I was a kid I slammed my thumb in a car door. Luckily we were right in front of a small doctors office and i got rushed in there and he drilled a hole in my thumb. I don't know why no one else here seemed to feel pain while doing it, it definitley felt like a drill going through my nail.

[PocketJokers72]

I would just do it myself with the smallest drill bit I had. You DONT use a power drill for this, you just spin the drill bit between your fingers and it 'drills' through the nail rather quickly. Don't waste the money going to a doc.

Its better than the 'hot needle' trick, especially for a small child. Dip the drill bit in peroxide or alcohol (not the drinkin kind!) and then go to work. Don't use a rusty ole drill bit either.

Hugs, kisses and a band-aid afterwards will be all the little tyke needs.

I shut my hand in a door in college (not a morning person) and went 3 days before going to get it checked. They burned a hole in the nail to drain the blood. It hurts a little when the needle gets through and hits skin, but not bad. I know it seems like a harsh thing to do, but it'll hurt worse overtime and can get infected.

It's a move with positive EV.

[diebitter]

Yeah, I had this done as a kid in a casualty unit. It wasn't a drill, he heated an opened paperclip(!!!) to red hot, and stuck it in the nail (finger, in this case). All this dark blood came out, but I didn't feel a thing. Felt a lot better afterwards.

I can't believe people go to the doctor over little things like this.
I got my thumb crushed moving firewood. Took a needle and went in under the nail. My thumb was hurting so bad, I felt very little additional pain. The blood oozed out, and everything was fine.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
I can't believe people go to the doctor over little things like this.
I got my thumb crushed moving firewood. Took a needle and went in under the nail. My thumb was hurting so bad, I felt very little additional pain. The blood oozed out, and everything was fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. But we're men. We were talking about Dex's little girl.

[jakethebake]

One of the sickest feelings of my life was when I squashed my sons hand in a door way. He was about 1-1/2 and I didn't even know he was standing there. He had his hand shoved between the door and the frame on the hinge side. I was just shoving and shoving and couldn't figure out for like 5 seconds why the door wouldn't close. Finally I look down and he's standing there in shock staring at me as I squash his hand over and over. I think that may be the guiltiest I've ever felt about something. I felt sick.

[LALDAAS]

[ QUOTE ]
One of the sickest feelings of my life was when I squashed my sons hand in a door way. He was about 1-1/2 and I didn't even know he was standing there. He had his hand shoved between the door and the frame on the hinge side. I was just shoving and shoving and couldn't figure out for like 5 seconds why the door wouldn't close. Finally I look down and he's standing there in shock staring at me as I squash his hand over and over. I think that may be the guiltiest I've ever felt about something. I felt sick.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is one of my earliest memories of my brother and I as kids. He was 2 or 3 and I was 4 or 5.

We had just gotten out of the car and pops was yelling at us for fighting. He slammed the car door, I mean completly closed and there is my little brother standing there with his hand closed in the door /images/graemlins/blush.gif.

I remember clearly the look in his face..It was like....WTF!

He didnt even cry until my pops freaked out it was amazing!

[Dominic]

I thought this the subject of the thread was going to be a euphamism for something really nasty. I'm disappointed.

[Blarg]

I had the doctor do this to me. I dropped a weight plate on my big toe once. Of course, I tried to play it off like it didn't hurt or didn't happen...

Anyway, same thing happened with my toe. Tried to ignore it, but the pain was so bad it actually woke me up. So I went into the doctor and the bum charged me over $200! Here's what he did.

Took this little thing that looked like a pen and had a hot tip. Carefully touched it quickly to the middle of the nail on the big toe a couple times, which it burned through really quickly. POW out came some liquid -- a pretty decent amount of blood mostly. Then he dabbed it with some swabs, smeared a little disinfectant over the hole, and wrapped the toe in some gauze. Whole thing took maybe two minutes, and I was out about $230 or so for it. Sheesh.

No pain whatsoever, by the way. The pain was in not having the thing fixed, not fixing it. The toenail has no nerves, just the part underneath it, which had already been separated out by the swelling. I wouldn't hesitate to do this with my kid, and would try. This was really someething absolutely anyone could do. But I would do it with something hot, like the doctor did, not by pressure. Pressure would be very painful, and if you break through the toenail with pressure you would jam whatever you're using right into the raw flesh of the toe and probably pretty hard. You'd lose a lot of kid trust doing that.

I'd heat up the tine of a metal comb, fork, icepick, or maybe needle till it was very hot, after sterilizing it. And wear glasses so the blood doesn't squirt out into your eye. It's under a lot of pressure there under the toenail.

Normally I wouldn't say for regular people to do a doctor-type thingy, but this was so quick and painless and obviously required so little skill that in this case, I wouldn't hesitate.

[MuckerFish]

Geeze, I've had to do this so many times, it's ridiculous. But then again, I am a doctor.

Truth is it's not that hard to do, but I've had a few people come in who have tried to do similar things themselves and botched it up. A couple of things can go wrong. The biggest worry is developing an infection called a chronic paronychia, which depending on the organism can be a real bitch to treat. Also, an assesment needs to be made of the nail and the nail plate to see if the nail should be removed right then and there. But the above are unusual situations and based on your initial description it's probably no biggie.

But it is your daughter, just see a doc, better safe than sorry.

[Dex]

Just got done taking the kids trick or treating. It turns out that after she saw the doctor, he didn't think it was bad enough to do the procedure.