I started barefooting about 3 weeks ago after getting a pair of vibrams a week prior and loving the experience. It's funny to think that I don't even think about grabbing shoes anymore when leaving my house now when that used to be at the top of my mental list. It's liberating and feels a lot better for my feet. I had been flatfooted my entire life and I'm developing an arch already. But anyway I digress, I was at a party last night and got pretty drunk.. I guess I got the splinter there and didn't notice it, so it had time to work its way in there pretty deep. This morning I woke up and it kind of hurt right between my heel and midfoot so I checked it and lo' and behold, my first splinter in 10 years since I was a kid. Can anyone provide any insight to this? I tried using tweezers but couldn't get it to budge, maybe I'm just being a bitch and need to really get in there but I'd rather not tear my foot up too much if I can help it. Thought of this as I was typing midstream, soak it in warm water? Thanks for your help. edit: I guess this is my introduce myself post too, I found this forum about a week ago and made the account a couple days later but hadn't gotten around to posting yet. Hi everyone!
I got a splinter in the same place last year, and couldn't get it with tweezers, so i left it to nature, and eventually skin grew around it and pushed it out. It took several weeks, though, so just be patient!
well when I get one splinter , or a thorn, I always manage to get it out. tweezers are not enough, i use a (clean, disinfected) pin and a blade to cut the thick layer of sole skin , rather insensitive, and when I've managed to open a hole i proceed squeezing to spit it out. white glass splinters are difficult to spot by eye, but if you touch one with a steel pin you'll easily sense it. occasionally i have to cut a little bit of live flesh to help the splinter out, but it is worth the pain because the splinter will plague you way more than a small clean wound which will heal, once that the foreign body has been expelled, in just a few days. in my experience, thorns are worse than splinters, but splinters hurt more. also, glass lasts forever, while thorns, if they're not expelled, will be eaten up by flesh with time.
oh wow that's good to know, fortunately I haven't gotten any glass stuck in my foot yet and hopefully I don't have to experience it. I stepped on a shattered bottle while getting out of my car last week. It didn't leave a huge gash or anything, more of a tiny prick, but after that I learned to watch even my first step.
Agree completely. This happens to me at least once a year from hiking barefoot in thick woods off the trail. Sometimes you can pierce the end of the splinter with a needle and pull it out. I put the pin in an oven at 400 degrees F to sterilize it.
If it is bothering you and you do not want to dig, I have made a paste with baking soda and put it on the splinter, it causes the flesh to swell and then the splinter will come out easier. If the tip is out but not enough to grab with tweezers, use white Elmer's glue, put a dollop on the spot and let it dry. Peel it off in the direction that the splinter went in. Good luck.
on a lot of broken glass I thread gently, so i never got splinters while walking on quantities of broken glass on sidewalks. instead i got micro splinters, in places where there wasn't broken glass at sight, running or shuffling feet on the asphalt (which is a major mistake !). doing that once i got a very painful one, triangular and long about 3-4 mm. among my toes , in tender, sensitive skin. the swiss knife, inclusive of tweezers and pin, saved my day.
Thorns are my big problem. Tweezers, pin, knife, magnifying glass are prerequisites as well as a partner who knows the "check my foot please" routine. Many an evening has been spent taking turns at removing "stuff" from the soles of each others feet. ( I just use the flame from a cig lighter to sterilize pins)
who said that life of a couple is boring ? actually i never had any of my partners available for this kind of things, good for me my leg joints and muscles are still elastic . the worst thing i have to do by myself is sewing heel cracks, sometimes it requires contortionist abilities from my side and it ends up with a rather strange situation in which the needle piercing the skin is less painful than the posture i have to keep to perform this vile, but sometimes necessary "surgery".
