Thursday, October 11, 2012

What to do if you Step on a Piece of Wood, Glass or a Rusty Nail?


Fall is in the air and it is the perfect time of year to go camping and build a bonfire. There are a lot of important things to remember to bring when you go camping, probably one of the tope ones is the marshmallows for the campfire. But, while you are collecting the wood for the fire and setting up the tent make sure to remember to wear good sturdy shoes.

Shoes protect us from a whole slew of things including sticks, bugs that live in the dirt, broken glass and rusty nails. It is important that we keep these things out of our feet because our feet are so narrow that it doesn’t take much for a nail to poke through from bottom to top. Once it goes in, there is no way to tell if it has injured an important structure or not.

Removal of a foreign body can be a tricky thing because certain objects don’t show up well on X-ray. It is also difficult to tell exactly what size the object is. So, taking it out can be as easy as an office visit to remove the object or can take as much as a minor surgery to remove the item. The other thing that we have to very careful about is the area getting infected. Some items, such as those rusty nails or slivers of wood can carry bacteria on them that can lead to pretty serious infections if not treated immediately.

Reality is though, many of us have gotten splinters before and we just take them out and move on with our lives. However, should you get something into your foot that you are having difficulty removing it is best to go and see your podiatrist. If you or someone you know has stepped on something and you can’t get it out of your foot, please give Dr. Wachtel a call at (978) 794-8406. Our offices serve the Reading, Tewksbury, North Andover and Chelmsford, Massachusetts areas.

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