A cactus needle has been stuck under one of my fingernails, now there is redness and tenderness around the cuticles, not getting any help from soaking and icing

Remedies For Fingernail  Injury

Usually soaking a part of the body in cold water is enough to rid the inflammation in the area and consequently some pain relief; however, if this is not happening in your case, then there is a pretty bad infection of the nail bed that has occurred. What you need to do is get the thorn out of your nail bed and after that you need to allow the nail bed to heal. There will be some pain even after doing this, which can be reduced by the use of analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs but it would be greatly reduced in comparison to what you are going through right now.

When a wound occurs in the body, the body goes through the following stages of wound repair: clotting, cleaning, rebuilding circulatory structures, and skin formation. Clotting is the first step that occurs where coagulating bodies in the skin immediately form a seal around the wound. The second stage involves the immune system bodies moving into the area and clearing the debris of injury away. This debris can include tissue and the white blood cells also destroy and infectious agents in the area. The third stage involves rebuilding the circulatory systems in the area as well the formation of skin cells at the perimeters of the wound to form a formation that will pull the resulting skin tightly over the area. The final stage involves the creation of collagen cells that give the final texture of skin to the wounded zone. The skin cells at the perimeter then shrink in size and pull the new skin tightly over the wound before dying away leaving the area as good as new. Sometimes the wound is so great as to cause scar tissue to form as well. This depends on the extent of the wound itself. In your case, the wound is stuck in the second stage because the debris is still stuck in your nail and more bacteria might have moved in to cause further infection.

Doing any kind of operation yourself is tricky and ideally, going in with a pair of tweezers after cutting away tissue might not be a good idea in this. Go to the doctor and get the thorn out of your flesh. After that, continuously apply tea tree oil to the region to kill off the bacteria. Have a lot of garlic during this time so that the body can fight infection from within. Apply aloe vera topically to reduce inflammation and drink lots of ginger and feverfew tea.