would they 'lance' this?

[loopylou6]

my dad got what he thinks was a thorn stuck in his finger a few weeks ago, after suffering for a while he went out of hour docs as the area between the finger nail and the middle joint of the finger was very swollen and sore, so much so the pain was keeping him awake at night, he was given AB's, they took most of the paina way but it remained swollen, now today the pain is back and kept him awake last night, his finger is swollen and very hot to the touch, after much convincing he says he will go the doc tomoz now my question is, what will they do? theres obviously something stuck in there isnt there? (even though there is no head or opening at all around the affected area)

There might not be anything in there - the antibiotics may just not have killed off the infection and he may just need a longer course or a stronger dose.

Send him back to the GP anyway.

will do, thank SH

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hmmm gout, am gonna google that now cod

from what ive read, it only lasts 2 weeks max, my dads had this for longer than 2 weeks, but the symptoms are exact

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will report back when hes been doc's if your right u will have to change ya name to 'dr cod'

I was also thinking gout.

Unless its a very deeply embedded thorn with some residual infection kicking around. Did the thorn go into the actual joint? Either, way I doubt it would be lanced as that is far more likely to introduce new infection.

thats the mystery, there is no hole where you can see if anything is inside, so maybe he just thought it was a thorn, hes a landscaper so used to dealing with thorns etc and normally my mum just digs them out and all is fine. so what tests would be done to determine gout? or would it just be a diagnosis on presentation?

A lot of the diagnosis is clinical- a red, hot, VERY painful joint. Typically big toe/fingers/knee/ankle at first presentation.

Blood tests are also done to check for uric acid levels, inflammatory markers and rheumatoid factor to weed out other potential causes. However, these sometimes need repeating or doing a few weeks down the line as they can be normal during acute gout.

thanks emma, very helpful
what are uric acid levels? is that something to do with the kidneys?