Fingernail Injuries and Black Fingernails

When you injure your fingertip and the nail starts turning black, it can be tempting to think "It's just a fingernail so it will be fine in a few days". Unfortunately that's not always the case, and sometimes medical treatment is required to keep it from getting worse. An injured nail that turns black is called "Subungual Hematoma", which just means blood under the fingernail.

WebMD: If the pain is mild and the hematoma (blood collection) is less than 25% of the area under the nail, then home care is recommended.

If the hematoma is 25% or more of the underlying nail area, then medical attention is required.

If the injury that causes the subungual hematoma is severe enough to cause intense pain and tenderness or if the blood collection beneath the nailbed occupies 25% or more of the nail area, you should seek medical attention. The mechanism of injury for this condition can cause a fracture to the bone at the end of the finger or toe or a laceration to the nailbed under the nail that may require further medical attention.

Location, Location, Location

When planning a corporate event, location can be everything. Today for example, I'll be reading hands at an event being held at another golf and country club. Sounds like a great idea to give VIPs a free day of golf followed by a dinner party, especially with the beautiful weather we've been having here the last weeks. Unfortunately Mother Nature seems to have decided that we need a day of rain, and today's the day. The sun is just starting to disappear behind the incoming clouds, and the weatherman is calling for wet weather the rest of the day (and clearing up again tomorrow, of course).

Times like this I'm sure glad I'm not the one organizing these events. At least I'll be indoors where weather is not such a factor.

Catch-up Time

My wife starts 3 weeks of vacation today, which means that I'll finally have some time to catch up on work and correspondence while she looks after our daughter. Hopefully I'll even have enough time to take care of some much-needed website updates as well.

How Sensitive are the Fingertips?

Most people take for granted the amazing design of the human hand, and how sensitive the fingertips can be.

ChatNChill - The human hand has a particularly refined sense of touch. According to Smithsonian magazine, researchers found that our hand can detect a dot just three microns high. (A human hair has a diameter of 50 to 100 microns.) However, by "using a texture rather than a dot, the researchers found the hand can detect roughness just 75 nanometers high"—a nanometer being one thousandth of a micron! Such remarkable sensitivity is attributed to about 2,000 touch receptors in each fingertip.

Certain functions once lumped together under touch are now regarded as senses in their own right. For instance, pain receptors respond to and distinguish between mechanical, thermal, and chemical forces or agents. Other sensors signal an itch. Evidence suggests that we have at least two kinds of pressure sensors—one for light surface pressure, another for deep stimulation.