# Surviving Splinters



## GPS1504 (Dec 13, 2013)

When the time comes to get busy with the rebuild of society as well as our own personal lives that may have been damaged by conditions when the SHTF, we are going to have to use our hands quite a bit. Whether it is planting food items to nourish us, building structures to shelter us, or cleaning up the messes left behind, our hands will be kept busy. Since your hands will be working so hard and thus such an integral part of survival, you need them to be in tip top condition.

Wearing gloves when possible will go a long way towards hand protection, especially in times after a natural disaster or similar event when sharp objects are scattered about. The list of things on which you can cut yourself is endless; items you might not even consider sharp can do plenty of damage to delicate skin. There could be insulation blown from your home that you will have to pick up in addition to broken glass. Insulation fibers can get into your skin, causing itching and burning. Glass can have sharp edges that will cut you deeply or may possibly even leave small shards in your hands in the form of splinters. Investing in a good pair of gloves may prove priceless down the line when you are forced to call upon them.










The possibility of getting a splinter, be it through glass, wood, metal, or anything else, may not sound like a huge deal. Sure, you\'ve hand splinters before. We all have and we all lived to tell the tale. In a changing world, however, a splinter is of greater concern, especially upon reaching the subcutaneous layer where it can move around and do further damage. If you have limited access to water, odds are your hands will not be as clean as they should be, which opens you up to the possibility of infection. If you scoff at the thought of a little old splinter giving you an infection, do keep in mind that you will not have access to antibiotics should such a thing occur. Don\'t forget that your splinter could result in something as serious as tetanus, which is no laughing matter at all. Tetanospasmin ranks right up there with botulism as among the most potent known microbial poison on this planet. Should you get tetanus bacteria in a wound, even a wound as small as a splinter, it can germinate in that wound. When the product of this germination reaches your blood stream, it starts shutting down your nerves from the outside inward. This results in a malfunction of nerve signals that will stop your muscles from being able to relax and give you contractions such as lockjaw. With all of this in mind, it seems like a good idea to get that splinter out and take care of that wound to the best of your ability.










Removing a splinter can sometimes be done with a properly sterilized needle, safety pin, or some tweezers, but what if it is too deep to be reached with those means? When a splinter works its way into your skin, there is no stopping it; it can maneuver itself to depths beyond sight or touch. In this case, the splinter needs to come out even more so than a surface splinter would, as the risk of infection is greater.










To remove a deep splinter, you can do two things. With either Epsom Salt or Magnesium Sulfate Paste (both of which are cheap and very similar in composition so you only need one, not both), create a bandage and cover the splintered area. All it takes is a small application of either product against the skin and a Band-aid or other type of bandage to keep it in place. Over the course of a couple days, the splinter should slowly back out of your skin, and these products will help alleviate infection while that backing out process happens. You can also create a soak with Epsom Salt and soak the splintered area a couple of times a day.

So next time you forget to wear gloves, no worries as long as you don\'t forget how to treat any splinters you may acquire. Even though it seems like a splinter is nothing more than a minor inconvenience, it still warrants attention. Take the necessary precautions to prevent such injuries and know how to heal them if they happen because it would be a shame to be taken out of this world by something as small as a splinter.


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