How To Deal With The Pain Of Getting Your Hands Stuck In The Door Slit

Getting your hand or finger stuck in a door slot can be quite painful. Depending on the severity of the situation, you will likely need to seek medical help to prevent long-term pain or injury. However, if you don’t need to see a doctor, there are tricks you can use to deal with the pain at home.

Table of Contents

Coping with Pain

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Apply ice to the injured area. ^{[1] X Research Source} For medical reasons which will be explained in the next section, this is the first thing you should do after getting your hand stuck in a door slot. However, aside from medical reasons, the cold temperature of the ice cube will help numb the hand if you apply it long enough. Although the harsh cold of the ice can be uncomfortable or painful at first, you should work through it and keep the ice in place. Eventually, you will gradually lose sensation – including pain – in the area where the ice is applied.

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Keep calm. Your first action will probably be to panic, but you should try not to let yourself get too excited. Agitation can increase blood flow, and lead to more dangerous swelling. In addition, research has shown that anxiety increases pain perception, although this issue focuses on chronic pain rather than acute trauma. ^{[2] X Trusted Source Harvard Medical Schop Go to the source} However, staying calm will help you maintain focus and manage pain in the short term.

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Take an over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever. ^{[3] X Source of Research} Although for a serious injury you should see your doctor so he or she can treat your injury and prescribe a more severe pain reliever for you, for a manageable situation Rather, over-the-counter medications will help you cope with the pain. In general, over-the-counter pain relievers can be acetaminophen (Tylep, Panadp, etc.) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, etc.).

Take medication as directed. You need to take acetaminophen every 4-6 hours, and ibuprofen every 6-8 hours.
If you have stomach or kidney problems, or are pregnant, you should not take ibuprofen without first consulting your doctor.
People with liver disease should not take acetaminophen. ^{[4] X Trusted Source US Food and Drug Administration Go to Source}

Focus on your breath. ^{[5] X Trusted Source PubMed Central Go to the source} Breathing deeply will help calm you down and lower your heart rate. Focus on feeling the air in each stage of the respiratory process – how do you feel when the air enters your nose, when you hold it in your chest, when it quickly exits through your nose or through your mouth. Think about these feelings and not on any other factor.

Breathe in the air deep into your body slowly so that your belly, instead of your chest, expands.

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Once you’ve inhaled as much air as you can, hold your breath for a few seconds.
Exhale slowly and carefully, controlling the amount of air rather than allowing it to come out all at once.
When the exhalation is complete, pause for a few seconds before continuing this cycle of breathing.
Repeat this process until you feel comfortable releasing your attention.

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Distract yourself. To stop thinking about painful pain, you should allow your mind to focus on other stimuli that may be appealing to your senses. you can listen to your favorite music album, watch a TV show or movie, talk to someone, or do a gentle activity that doesn’t stress your hands, like walking walk. Research has shown that focusing on the five senses makes pain more manageable. ^{[6] X Research Sources Hoffman, HG, Richards, TL, Bills, AR, Van Oostrom, T., Magula, J., Seibel, EJ, and Sharar, SR (2006). “Using FMRI to study the neural correlates of VR with pain relief”, CNS Spectr., Jan, 11(1), 45-51.}^{[7] X Research Sources Cepeda, MS, Carr, DB, Lau, J., and Alvarez, H. (2006). “Music for Pain”, Cochrane Database Syst Rev., Apr 19, (2), CD004843}

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Visualize food. Research has shown that using guided visualization, in which a person or audio recording helps the person in pain focus on a mentally relaxing image, can help ease pain. chronic and acute. ^{[8] X Sources of Research} However, recent research has shown that simply visualizing one’s own favorite food can have the same effect without additional help or guidance. any other from the outside. ^{[9] X Source of Research} You just have to fantasize about eating your favorite food in detail – whether it’s chocolate or a cheeseburger –, imagine the taste and its feel. Allow these happy thoughts to take over your mind and the pain will go away.

Addressing Medical Concerns

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Apply ice immediately. ^{[10] X Trusted Source University of Rochester Medical Center Go to the source} The most important step after an injury is to apply ice to the hand as soon as possible. The cold temperature of the ice reduces blood flow to the area, helping to reduce swelling or inflammation that can make an injury worse. The extreme cold will also numb the area, providing relief from the pain described above.

If you don’t have ice on hand, any cold item will work. A bag of vegetables in the freezer is just as good as a bag of ice cubes.

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Raise your finger. ^{[11] X Research Source} Point your finger to the sky. Similar to cold compresses, the goal of this action is to reduce blood flow to the injured area to reduce swelling. When you apply cold to the wound, you should raise both hands and fingers to the sky.

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Check the injury site on the hand. ^{[12] X Source of Research} If the pain is most severe in the palm of your hand, or if any of your other joints are affected, you should seek medical help as soon as possible. However, if you slam the door on your fingertip and don’t injure the joints or the nail bed (the skin underneath your fingernail), your doctor will likely recommend resting your hand and wait.

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Make sure that the nail bed is not injured. ^{[13] X Research Source} You can easily tell if your fingernails are separated from the surface of your skin by looking for a black mark underneath the nail. This discoloration is a sign of a hematoma under the nail, and you should contact your doctor for advice on how to deal with it. If it’s just a small amount of blood, the injury will heal on its own. However, a large build-up of blood can be quite painful, and requires action. Your doctor may ask you to come to the clinic so they can see how much blood has accumulated under your finger, or they may teach you how to do this yourself.

Your doctor will need to remove the clot if it has accumulated for less than 24 hours. If 48 hours have passed, the blood has clotted and cannot be removed. The patient needs to conduct a neuro-vascular examination of the hand. Flexibility of all knuckles should be checked.

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Follow your doctor’s instructions on how to remove blood that has accumulated under the nail. ^{[14] X Research Sources} Do not attempt to remove a blood clot without consulting a medical professional first. However, if they allow you to do this, you can get rid of the blood that accumulates under the nail by following your doctor’s instructions. Be sure to wash your fingers before and after this process.

Heat the tips of a paperclip or pin over the fire until they are red to sterilize. Secure them with pliers or protective gloves to protect your hands from burns.
Touch the hot metal tip to the tip of your finger, where the blood is accumulating. You don’t have to use too much force, the heat will burn a small hole in the tip of your finger. In most cases, the process will be quite uncomfortable, but not painful.
Allow blood to drain from this hole to ease the pain.
Your doctor will probably prescribe antibiotics for you.

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Seek medical attention if needed. In many cases, depending on the severity of the injury, you can simply apply ice to your hand and wait for it to heal on its own. However, you should consult your doctor if you are experiencing any of the following conditions: ^{[15] X Source of Research}

Can’t bend fingers
Injury to the joints or bones of the palm
Injury to the nail bed
A deep cut
Fracture
Dirt at the injury site needs to be cleaned to prevent infection
Any signs of infection (redness, swelling, warm skin, pus, fever) ^{[16] X Source of Study}
Injuries that cannot be healed or improved

Advice

If your hands have cuts, lacerations, or cracks, you should pay attention to them first.
You can apply a frozen bean bag to the injury.
If you think you have broken a bone, you should go to the hospital or urgent care center right away.

Warning

If your finger doesn’t go away, you should let your doctor know as it could be a sign of a more serious problem than normal pain.

Steps

Coping with Pain

Addressing Medical Concerns

Advice

Warning

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