Is my thumb infected? Gross pic

[Fabellini]

I had a kind of hang nail thing at the edge of my thumbnail last week which was sharp, almost like a splinter. I caught it when I was changing the bed and it ripped off, which fucking hurt!
I stuck a bit of germolene on it and went about my day after I’d stopped swearing at it. Since then it’s been a bit throbby, but I’ve noticed tonight it definitely looks a bit redder, and the pad of my thumb feels a bit hard and swollen.
Would a pharmacy tomorrow be enough, or do I need to try and get a gp appointment?
My thumb knuckle (?) always looks like that btw, osteoarthritis…

Can you post a pic where your thumb is in focus? 😂😁

Don’t know if this is any better…just using my phone camera I’m afraid 😊

Dd had a whitlow which became infected. It was hot, red and had yellow pus under the skin. Trip to urgent care (bank holiday weekend and the minor injuries unit wouldn’t touch it and sent us to the urgent care at A&E) and a course of antibiotics sorted it. As her nails grown out she’s got a mark on her nail where the infection obviously got into the nail bed.

Keep an eye out for pus or spreading hot redness and a trip to the doctor might be in order.

I would soak it in hot salty water regularly and pus will no doubt come out, then speak to a pharmacist in the morning, but I think regular soaking in hot salty water will help

Yes it looks infected and best to have it checked.

It’s infected, it’s already throbbing and and if not attended to you will be in terrible pain from the pressure. You need to get to the GP asap, please. I can see the outline of the infected area can you mark the outline up tonight with a pen and check again in the morning? Don’t delay OP.

You need to take your nail polish off (this will hurt like fook) to see the bed of the nail.

Similar happened to my thumb years ago.
About 1/4 of the nail (attached part) was white. It throbbed, was swollen and was hot. It was SO painful....and I do have a high pain threshold. It kept me awake.

In the end I soaked it It hot salt water for a few hours and popped it with a needle and squeezed it out 🤮 then continued with the hot water/salt soak. This fixed it.

An infected nail can lead to sepsis and can be very dangerous...I only read this after.
Go to pharmacy first thing tomorrow.
Take ibuprofen to help with pain/swelling x

Aw crap…it’s shellac on my nail and I don’t have anything to remove it with here. I’ll do the hot water salt thing just now and go to the pharmacy in the morning. Under my nail isn’t sore, but the pad of my thumb feels a bit swollen and sort of numb.
Thank you for the advice.

What colour was the nail before? Was it purple or has that just happened since the accident?

That’s shellac! It isn’t naturally lilac with green and gold sparkles even when it’s not infected 😁

Yes. I've had this a couple of times. It ends up hurting like fuck. Basically you can draw the pus out and/or pop it with a sterilised pin because that's all the doc will do for you. They may also prescribe antibiotics to keep it at bay. If it happens to me again I won't bother with seeing someone unless something goes horribly wrong.

Sorry, I could just see purple which indicates a haematoma under the nail. I didn't see any gold sparkles or green, nor did know it was shellac! I assumed the purple was from the trauma.

@SM4713 Sorry if I offended you…I appreciate the picture quality isn’t great, but in real life there’s no way you could think it was my actual nail!
I wasn’t being mean, I just thought it was funny.

I'm not sure why you thought you offended me??? In real life, maybe your nail does look like varnish- I'm only seeing pics with no other nail to compare to and how would I know they are all purple? You described a nail which had suffered trauma, which would often form a haematoma underneath from the result of said trauma, and then turn purple.

If you are concerned about infection around the nail (paronychia) start with a pharmacist who might advise an antibacterial cleanser to start with. If it progressed, pus coming out or a systemic reaction such as a fever, see your GP.

You can peel Shellac off. Terrible for your nails but it can be done. You just need to get hold of an edge; you might need to bite the top of your nail and very carefully and slowly, lift the edge with a pin.