Does this need medical attention? (Yucky photo included)

[BlindGuyMcSqueezy]

My DH dropped a tin on his foot at work, he could see a blood blister forming and it was very sore.
He’s just come home and taken his shoe off and it looks like this 🤢

He doesn’t know if he should soak it, dress it, pop it or go to a pharmacist.

Does anyone know what the best thing would be to do?

People being a tad hysterical on this thread. It really just looks like a huge blood blister - no reason (unless OP hasn't told us everything) to think it's infected. Sure, sticking something into that might introduce infection but use common sense, get a sterile scalpel blade (or sterilise it) and nick it, let it drain and give it a day. If you get seen at an A&E within 12 hours for a badly bruised toe I'd be impressed. And if you do get seen, they're going to drain and clean and bandage it, and you can do that yourself.

I mean, using an impossible-to-clean drill bit is a bit medieval.

the toe nail did its job - protecting the toe.
they are not invincible though.
toe nails grow really slowly. If he hasn’t lost it today it’ll grow out as the new one grows underneath (unless he picks at it) and it’ll probably take almost a year.

He isn’t a builder, he’s a sales manager in a builders’ merchant. He’s usually in the back office but they were short staffed today so he stupidly offered to help with some stock.
He admits he tried to carry too much at once and that’s why he dropped it.

That reminds me far too clearly of the time my brother was showing off throwing darts near my bare feet. The inevitable happened, of course. It was incredibly painful.

I told him to take photos when it’s being drained but he told me not to be so gross 🤷🏻‍♀️

LTB. This is a most unreasonable response.

Nah, Savlon is far too modern, you want my (long deceased) Dad’s small, round, metal pot of Germolene, my Grandmother gave it to him to when he was evacuated to Norfolk from The Elephant & Castle during WW2.

It saw me and three brothers through all our childhood scrapes, and he was still using the tin in the late 2000s. It was that proper Germolene though, fluorescent pink and very smelly, it seemed to stick to skin for a week or more, was a bugger to remove! No, I don’t think the age of it had anything to do with its miraculous adhesive properties! 😉

I love that you are posting from the apocalypse

yes does need attention. im one to live things but this really does need seeing to

Ouch poor bloke that looks painful.
However he is letting you down by not taking photos OP. Does he not understand the rules of sporner?

I wonder if it’s an age thing, or a bringing up thing?

It’s an education thing, @PrizedPickledPopcorn. We understand more about the causes of sepsis and how to not let relatively minor injuries become major ones.

I don't think anyone is being hysterical
Hospital will probably want to X-ray before they burst it. They'll have the fear of turning it into an open fracture. With concerns of infection getting into the bone.

I actually can't believe anyone would tackle it with a manky drill bit. Even cleaning a drill bit, its not going to be suitable for surgical use.

My experience NHS 24, should know where to send people. I wasted a nurses time, who in-turn wasted a Doctors time before doing the sucking air in through his teeth thing, 😬you'll need to go to A&E

Really? I watched a Dr in A&E carry out this exact procedure.

My daughter (4 yo) did the exact same thing about 2 weeks ago and her toe looked identical. We got her to A and E and there was 2 camps of opinion - one said nick the blood blister and release the pressure and see what the nail wants to do afterwards or leave it alone and see if the pressure and swelling goes down on its own. The 2nd camp one as they weren't keen to create an opening due when there wadnt originally one as it could lead to increased infections. As it happened, the next day, the one time she got off the sofa having had it elevated all day, her brother accidently banged into her foot and the thing burst! Im so sorry for the detail there! Her toe looked so much better and after the initial shock of it she said it felt so much better but the nail poor thing was barely hanging on. So we got her back up to the ward and they were great. Quickly assessed, saw the nail was not going to make it, gently removed it and she didnt even need a local brave girl, a quick clean up and bandage and she was on her way. Walking on it within 2 days and bandage was off and its been doing great. Sorry for the novel, hope that's helps some and that he isnt in too much discomfort ❤️

Not sure about drill bits and some of the advice on here, but maybe we could save the NHS by having sporner volunteers in Minor Injuries/A&E, although there would be tumbleweed in Sporner's Corner....

I’m so sorry but this made me howl. Your poor curry!

😅😅😅😅

@BlindGuyMcSqueezy you should send him loads of Sporner Corner links to keep him occupied while he waits

heavily Invested in this thread

😂😂😂

The nail will drop off.

To add loss of.a big toe due to infection is life changing.

Get husband to A&E.

The nail will grow back and having read the updates glad he's getting it drained.

He does have lovely feet.

Or a spiders web, pretty sure they were highly recommended in the Middle Ages, and let’s face it, you never see spiders with infected feet and they have eight of them so the chances are 4x higher.

This thread is excellent

@BlindGuyMcSqueezy tell your Husband of the Elegant Feet that he'll have a bunch of fans for life if he can take some photos of it being drained

I'm the first one to have a squeeze normally but even I'd be up at minor injuries,some of the advice on this thread is ridiculous! Hope he's better soon OP.

Tiktokker's not wrong, in that a paperclip heated over a flame was what they used at A&E (which is where the walk-in clinic had sent me) when I had the same issue with a finger nail 20 years ago. No way I'd have done (nor anyone else should do) anything like this at home though.

Turns out the finger tip had broken too, it was very painful. The doctor said to me after the first examination that they were concerned for the future of my finger, which I'd not even considered as a possibility! I'd waited a few days before going in however, I was a daft early 20-something and didn't take the injury that seriously.