Paronychia: home remedies and treatment.
Hi all, I wanted to write about a specific infection that affected me about a couple weeks ago. it’s called Paronychia, many of you who have experienced it or are experiencing can agree with me that it is a big torment.
Paronychia or as called in Tamil, is an infection on skin near fingernails or toenail (isn’t exclusive to only these), bringing about swelling and inflammation with pus filled blister. Bacteria and fungi are known to cause Paronychia.
When untreated, it can spread around, leading to several implications.
For me, my right toenail was infected. A gap was formed between my nail bed and lateral nail plate causing impurities to accumulate and eventually forming pus. The abscess was plump-y and showed discoloration. It developed slowly over a period of month and I didn’t pay much attention to it until there was an excruciating pain. But luckily I started treating it before it got into hands of a physician for surgery.
There are two cases of Paronychia which are acute and chronic. The former develops abruptly and heals within weeks and the latter develops over time and persists for more than 6 weeks, which can cause serious fungal/bacterial infection, in deep cases, causing the finger to be removed too! (Ouch).
Causes:
· Biting nails
· Trimming nails too short
· Nails that are ingrown
· Manicure
· Pushing or cutting cuticles off
· Working in water for prolonged periods I.e dish washing, rinsing clothes, cleaning floors etc. and not letting hands and foot dry thoroughly.
How I treated:
When I first felt prickling pain on my swelling right toe, there was a creamy whitish colored pus coming out of it, which I wiped off and didn’t take much heed. The following days were normal, there were no symptoms. And then after a couple of weeks I couldn’t bend my toe without feeling a throbbing pain. I soaked my leg in salted water and placed a lemon on my toe, which were in vain. So I went with a few methods to drain the pus and heal the wound which are:
Hydrogen peroxide solution –
H2O2 is an antiseptic (available in drugstores) which when poured on bacterial surfaces, foams. Therefore on contact with my toe it foamed, forming a milky white liquid-y substance (It doesn’t foam on clean surfaces). It may clean the impurities slowly but it delays healing. In fact, the wound inflated more and was more painful. Hence I stopped using it.
Hot water –
Now this is how I restored my toe (thank God). Placing the affected area in very hot water for a minute for 4 or 5 times a day, helps draining out the pocket filled with pus and helps ease pain.
I did this over a week and completely dried my toe after each hot water compression. Pain reduced eventually and the bridge that had formed between my nail fold and lateral nail plate began getting intact.
Vaseline and a tight knot –
This is from the years of experience dealing with Paronychia, which runs in my family, I was asked to apply Vaseline or Vicks balm on the wound and tying it with a clean cloth – very, very tightly. The pain you’d feel will be immense, but trust me, that helped me a LOT. Don’t do this if you worry it will aggravate your pain and make it worse, because it is just a cultural remedy and not a physician’s advice.
I tied up the wound from time to time for three days bearing the pain and weirdly, after I removed the knot it just felt numb! Naturally anesthetizing the pain. Weird I know. But hey! Each their own, right!?
With occasional hot water compression I finally was able to fully recover on my own.
I hope this helps you,
but these methods are experiential cultural hacks for Paronychia that may or may not work for you, so do seek professional help if needed.
Take care ❤️
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