This year I grew *Solanum Sisymbrifolium* in my garden (for the edible fruits); the entire plant is armed with impressive needle-sharp spines, even on the leaf ribs and the calyces.
So I was separating one of the ripe fruits from it’s calyx and one of the thorns got me; it broke off in there and I can just faintly see a little sliver of thorn deep within (or possibly under) the skin.
last time this sort of thing happened I dug it out with a needle which was really nasty and painful; the thorn isn’t particularly bothering me (although if I happen to press on the skin in a particular way it hurts a lot); what will happen if I don’t dig it out? - will it make it’s way to the surface naturally? will it get absorbed or encysted?
I got a solution for you, and I couldn’t believe how well it worked for me, because it just seemed like an old wives’ tale.
This is in your finger or hand? This evening, just sit around and soak your hand in a bowl of water for a few hours, as long as you have the patience to do it. Tomorrow morning, the thorn will be right at the surface, maybe even sticking out a bit. You can pluck it right out withou any problem or pain.
Sorry, I suppose this doesn’t specifically answer your OP. But I figure it’s a good alternative to possible sepsis. A nurse told me to do this for a deep wood sliver, and I just didn’t believe it would work. But it did.
Living on a farm as a kid I got lots of stuff stuck deep in my skin. Sometimes I could get it out, sometimes I couldn’t. If I couldn’t, usually it would soon be surrounded by a small, pus-filled sac. When it got annoying enough I’d stick the sac with a sterilized needle and the (now very soft) splinter would pop right out. Then I’d douse it with hyrdrogen peroxide and band-aid it.
Not particularly sanitary, no, but I never had any little red lines running up my arm trying to kill me.
Assuming it doesn’t get infected, it can either become encysted (the body forming tissue around it) or it will eventually work its way back up to the surface. I’ve had splinters that stayed for months, but eventually came out.
Soaking in warm water does help get it back to the surface.
One of my friends once stepped on a nail the beginning of the summer (I assume it was a small nail). It hurt for a little while, but then she forgot about it, and it came out one day at the end of the summer. She had forgotten it was there and was surprised it came out all of a sudden. A nail is different than a thorn, but the principle is the same. But yymv…it probably depends how it goes it and where it is and whether it gets infected and all that
This post was many years ago-I wonder if they ever got the thorn out. I have had a bunch of cactus thorns - prickly pear - stuck in my left hand for over 8 years. Everyone here is partially right. Your skin will form around the thorn-I never had one fester in all these years. The callous will get to a certain thickness and then peel off. In this way, over the years, the thorns have worked their way up to the surface of my hand. Now, when I peel the callous off, I can usually take a pair of pointed tweezers and pull the original thorn out. They no longer look like a cactus thorn. While your body doesn’t necessarily absorb it or break it down, being in my hand, the thorn was in pieces and very dark. Once the irritation of the thorn is gone, your skin no longer forms a callous there. This has been a very painful, very slow process. I have been to a number of doctors who were no help at all. NONE.
Dermatologists, hand surgeons, general practitioners - they all looked at me like I was crazy. I’m not, just a person that picked up a pot of potted cactus and didn’t realize the handle was covered in thorns.
Prickly pear glochidia are the worst when it comes to being impaled by sharp plant parts.
Thankfully medical science has come up with sophisticated methods for glochid removal.
“For injuries with multiple glochidia, the removal can be done by applying a layer of household glue over the site of injury and then peeling it away, hopefully taking the spines with it. An alternative method is to use adhesive tapes. Both of these methods have limitations. Adhesive tape has only been shown to remove 28%-30% of spines. Household glue requires 35 minutes to fully dry before it can be removed.”
I have three pieces of glass embedded in my scalp - result of a traffic accident 25 years ago.
My normal approach with punctures that I am unable to remove immediately with tweezers is just to wait until they become infected, but apparently the glass was clean enough. Each piece is triangular (or sort of a rough pyramid) so very hard to remove with tweezers.
They seem to float up and down in the limited space they have between my skull and scalp. Right now only one is a (very small) open wound, the other two are dormant.
I had one in my elbow, too, but I got a doctor to slice in and remove it, it was causing pain.
For the most part, superficial stuff in the skin either causes the immune system to react, like most plant matter and organic material, or does not, like most glass.
If the immune system reacts, it sends angry cascades of chemicals and lots of B and T cells, which form a ball of pus around the object (antigen) and usually gradually expels it. Skin punctures increase the risk of infection, which may or may not occur depending on the circumstances, but might also activate the immune system. These range from mild irritation to limb threatening reactions, often in diabetic patients who lack good blood flow and nerve sensation in their feet. But this may also expel the object.
If the immune system does not react and no infection occurs, the intruder might just sit there. It might be gradually expelled by growth or everyday movements. There are small chances it could hit a nerve or blood vessel. I have seen bullet fragments enter a blood vessel and travel to the heart or brain. This is not recommended, and is not always covered by warranties on older models.
I had a palm thorn in my palm, it was there for months and not moving. but this was the end of a long thorn, the thorn had pushed in deep, down into the bone or joint between the hand bones.
The thorn in the foot is under quite some pressure, which may drive it into the skin , and so it may work its way out… But in your hand, its just living in a sack of puss and going to stay there until its removed. The foreign body inflammation can possibly able to trigger joint inflammation …
You could wait to see if it just resolves. Leave it a week. It will probably get pushed out … since it is close to the surface, its still in the skin … and the fluid pressure should keep the skin from healing closed… If its still in there, you will get foreign body imflammation , will be palpable (able to be felt)
If its close to the surface, better to get it out now rather than risk it being pushed deeper…
I’m afraid I don’t remember what happened to this thorn. I still have all of my fingers, so I guess it didn’t turn gangrenous.
I have a dim recollection that the area around it became a little calloused, and that the thing worked its way to the surface as my skin exfoliated naturally, but I might be remembering a different thorn.
Yeah, I have a bit of pencil lead in my hand, too, from back when I was in middle school. There’s a visible gray spot there, but no other indication, not even when I press on it. If it were going to do anything bad, it would have, long ago.
Here’s another anecdote: I once fell into a thorny hedge (don’t ask, I was young and alcohol was involved). I had quite some thorns in my skin, especially in my hands, which I was able to remove except for one thorn that stuck deep in the base of my left thumb. I tried with needles and tweezers, but it was too deep and I gave up and left it alone. I can’t remember if it got inflamed, but if it was it couldn’t have been that bad or long because I never had to consult a doctor. So this thorn stayed with me for the following 20 years, always visible, but it never hurt at all or was any kind of trouble. In the end, it just came out naturally without me doing anything, and I was surprised to remove a thorn that had stuck in my skin for 20 years.
