Cut it last night when mincing shallots. Down to the nail bed, but not through it (I’ve done that before, so I know the difference).
Bleeding stopped in 10 minutes. Loaded it down with Bacitracin, today, tiny throb, but the nail is free to the air, not flopping, actually quite stable.
Nail doesn’t grow back, right? But could I tape it down so I can get on with life with my left hand? Or is there still life?
A doc neighbor told me I shouldn’t trap bacteria or other nastiness.
On the other hand, a classical guitarist friend of mine crazy glues his fingernails in emergencies.
I am not seeking medical advice. I don’t think. If I die let this be a record that SD is in the clear.
You can glue nails back together, but that’s generally if you just break a small area of your nail. If there is a smidgen of bacteria in there it would be a bad idea. I’d recommend going to an urgent care for a prescription of antibiotics and ask them if it would be OK to glue it. They would probably prefer to dress it.
I wouldn’t recommend gluing it for now, but if it bled for 10 minutes, any bad stuff got washed out in the process. Of course, if it shows any signs of infection, you need to see a doctor. Otherwise, just keep it clean and bandaged for now.
This happened to me a few months ago. The nail mostly came off, but is growing back underneath.
A nail plate which has become loose secondary to trauma can be place back on the nailbed to serve as a splint while the nailbed hardens up. Nail plate and nailbed should be cleaned. Some antibiotic ointment is fine; oral antibiotics are not necessary. Adhesives are not indicated. After the denuded nailbed hardens, nothing special is needed, and a new nail will grow from the germinal matrix at the proximal end of the nail. A lacerated nailbed is usually repaired as this makes it less likely a nail will be permanently deformed. If the germinal cells are not damaged and the nailbed itself is intact, this is an injury that will heal on its own.
Thanks all. Sorta what I figured. (For the into-nailbed cut from last time I went to ER.)
You know what’s a bitch? I had my piano tuned yesterday for the first time in eight years, and two weeks ago I started playing it again for the first time in eight years.
It had been my life work, and profession, on and off.
It’s irritating, but I think that after a day or two, you won’t notice the pain much. If you use a strip of bandaid just to hold it together while you practice, you ought to be fine. You’d be encouraging blood flow to your fingertips, in fact.
I am not a doctor and have no medical knowledge whatsoever. Probably very little in the way of common sense, either.
OK, that’s out of the way. Now, my experience:
I’ve done all kinds of horrible things (accidentally) to both fingernails and toenails. Smashed my foot against a rock while riding a motorcycle. My big toenail turned black and fell off. Wore steel-toed boots while riding after that one.
Cut a finger very badly. Sounds just like the OP’s cut, except mine was across, rather than along, the finger.
Right now I’ve sort of smashed another big toenail. Something heavy got dropped on it (not by me) It cracked, somehow, lengthwise. It’s not turning black or falling off, though.
And others. My point is that nails seem to be pretty resilient. Mine have always grown back, no matter what happened to them. Never got an infection, either.
Surprisingly, the nail–about 1/3 of width–fell off today. Tender new growing nail bed, a small contusion (?–dark spot). Man that was fast.
The knife blade actually began carving in about .3 cm in from the tip, which explained the stability of the loose part, which hovered above the wound fairly securely. I was debating whether I should lightly band-aid the hood (car analogy) down while it healed, and saw the finger had had a mind of its own.