On 2010-04-27, William Wixon wrote:

[ ... ]

doesn't it suck when you've got a splinter and the very tip of it is exposed
and rubs against something, it's like a direct connection to the pain center
in your brain, but nearly invisible and you can't find it to get it out.
ooch. puts me in a damn bad mood the whole day till i get it out.

Yep!

One approach which sometimes works is to put a sharp knife blade
(or single-edged razor blade) vertical to one side of it and slide it
sideways (not lengthwise, unless you want a nice cut to keep the
splinter company). If this does not work the first time. slide the
opposite direction. If that fails, rotate the blade 90 degrees and
slide both ways as before. If the splinter is not a hardened steel the
blade will lay it down in one direction or another, dig into the side,
and pull it out.

After *that* fails comes the surgery to try to expose it.

i used to wonder if like an MRI machine would have enough magnetism to pull
out a steel splinter. lol. what do you think? i doubt it huh?

They worry about it moving steel splinters around in the eyeball
and stirring things up -- and possibly cutting the lens or some other
part of the eye on its way through.

However a calloused fingertip is harder to cut through -- so I
would suggest soaking the fingertip long enough to soften the skin quite
a bit before trying the massive medical super magnet.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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