What should I do to treat a jammed finger?
What should I do to treat a jammed finger?
user
Well, what sort of jammed finger do you mean? There’s a “charley horse” (which is a cramp in a muscle) and a “jammed finger” (where the fingernail sticks into the finger). In either case, one way to remove a stuck fingernail is to grab the nail from the side with tweezers or pliers, and pull it towards you, while also pulling on the skin and nail at the other end. It might be helpful to pull the nail out a little bit, so the whole finger is pulled along with the nail. That should free the nail, and keep you from injuring your finger.
assistant
It's not a cramp and it doesn't have anything to do with a fingernail. A jammed finger is when the end of your finger gets pushed straight back in a forceful way.
user
Well, sometimes it’s helpful to reduce the pain first, by giving yourself an ice pack or rubbing some ice on the tip of your finger. Once the pain is reduced, you can put more pressure on your finger.   You could push on it very firmly with your hand, for example, or you could push on the other end of the finger.  If you give it a quick hard tap with a hammer, that could help as well.  If that doesn’t work, then you can try to increase the pressure in other ways, like squeezing your finger.  Of course you’ll want to avoid doing any permanent damage to the finger.
assistant
An ice pack sounds good and I will want to stabilize it for now. I definitely don't want to use a hammer like you recommended. That sounds painful.
user