Numb Finger

[naomi24]

A couple of weeks ago I broke a very fine crystal wine glass and picking up the pieces got a small shard stuck in the palm of my hand half an inch or so below the ring finger. It went in quite deeply and after I removed it my hand bled profusely. It took ages to stop the flow. Since then my finger has been rather numb – and occasionally when I pick something up a very sharp pain shoots through it. What might I have done – and will it mend?

[Samuraisan]

I stabbed my palm through with a knife, trying to remove an avocado stone in a stupid way, a few years ago. Fortunately I recovered most of the feeling in my palm and can move my fingers properly, but the side ofe my ring finger is still numb and tingles. The dr. said I MAY recover it in time..........But I have got used to it, can even type, more or less, I just have to be careful lifting a full mug or cup. So maybe you have damaged a nerve too. I remember I was prescribed high strength VIT B for a while.

[spathiphyllum]

I think you have nerve damage in your hand.

[spathiphyllum]

It takes a long time for nerves to repair, sometimes up to several months. I suspect that it will heal.

Samuraisan, that is very common. avocado hand

[woofgang]

I have got a similar area on the side of my thumb caused by slicing it on a broken plate some 30 years ago. The sharp pain no longer happens but a degree of numbness remains. Samuraisan, people sustain the same injury as you when opening oysters.

[Sqad]

I agree with all of the above posts.

[Khandro]

n. Are you absolutely certain that there isn't any glass still in there?

[naomi24]

I don't think so, Khandro. The wound bled so much after I pulled the piece of glass out that I'm pretty sure anything left in it would have washed out.

Thanks all for your answers. I guess I've damaged a nerve then.

[BagPussAA]

The answers to this question have interested me..

Sqad.. I fell down the stairs at Easter, not far but enough to cause a nasty carpet burn on my shin. The burn has now all healed but I am numb on the side of my shin, can't feel a thing. Would this also be nerve damage? and will the feeling return in time?

[Sqad]

Bagpuss.....that would depend upon the area of the "burn".
Not only does that area need vascularising (blood vessel growth) but it also requires nerve growth and that may well be 1mm/day, so as you see it may well take time for that area to be innervated (nerve growth).

[Khandro]

n. You said; //and occasionally when I pick something up a very sharp pain shoots through it. //
Sqad; If the nerve is damaged why would there be occasional sharp pain?

[Sqad]

Good question Khandro........so i will proceed to bu..***...;-)
I don't know, same reason that one gets pain in a phantom limb, it being a part of nerve regeneration.

[Sqad]

Khandro.......I can't rest.
You feel that there may be some retained glass and you may well be right, but if there was, then one might find one in a bit of a pickle looking for it.
"Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread."
Just leave it alone and see what transpires.

[Khandro]

sqad; I ask because I sometimes get the tiniest of steel splinters -usually from stupidly using coarse steel-wool without using gloves and I know it's possible to have a piece in the skin so small that it can only be just about seen with a magnifying glass and yet it can give excruciating pain when touched.

But glass ! ?

[Sqad]

Khandro...I know! I know! but in this cse it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

[naomi24]

Khandro/Sqad, just to clarify, the area where the glass went in is only very slightly sore to the touch because it's not quite healed but I occasionally get a shooting pain the length of the finger when I pick something up.