My cat scratched my pinkie right next to the nail, deep enough to draw blood. Immediately afterward, it felt like the skin was being stretched, which makes no sense at all. Can somebody explain my fingers confusion?
Getting scratched is an unavoidable result (of the totally avoidable act) of using my hand as a pet toy, so I’m used to getting scratched. I’ve just never encountered that particular sensation before.
I am not a scientist, but my theory is that normally your skin is stretched out to some extent over your bones and other internal stuff, and the degree to which your skin is stretched in these circumstances is considered “normal” by the nervous system. When you get cut, the skin is now stretched less than it was before and your brain is interpreting that as something outside the norm.
So, your skin feels stretched when it is stretched more than usual and less than usual because the signals sent to your brain are the same for both.
Again, this is just a guess.
Dried blood and/or swollen flesh?
Maybe the proximity of the nail is forcing the flesh to move more in one direction than another.
It’s all to do with Nociceptors - What Are Nociceptors? -
Pain is complicated.
Two options I can think of : it could be that this particular scratch cut across the “pressure” nerve in the area. We’ve got a few different kinds of nerve cells - some are responsible for feeling temperature, some for pressure, some for pain. The interactions of these nerves’ signals are what give us more complicated sensations. For example, there’s no nerve that signals “wet” - but if you stick your hand under a running faucet, the nerve for “pressure” and the nerve for “temperature” will both send signals, and your brain interprets the combination as “wet.” If you put on a thin latex glove, so that the same temperature and pressure combination is triggered, your hand will still feel like it’s getting wet, even though it’s not.
So if your kitty got to a pressure nerve, it could feel like it’s being stretched in that spot even if it’s not.
The other option I can think of is that it’s actually getting stretched. If it was over a joint, particularly, then the natural, healing inflammation that happens to prevent infection and speed healing will indeed cause the skin to stretch as the area swells. Extra blood to bring more oxygen and take away damaged tissues, extra white blood cells to search out and destroy bacteria…this takes up room in your tissues. If you injure yourself in a tight spot like a knuckle or joint, this really can make the skin stretch a little bit.