How to Remove Glass from Your Foot

Yesterday, as is my clumsy nature, I dropped a glass jar (of jelly, no less – thankfully it was nearly empty), and it shattered.   These are times I kick myself for not having some paper towels in the house – it’s really hard to get all those little pieces of glass off the floor!

Well, wouldn’t you know, a few hours later, I walk through the kitchen and I feel the pinch of glass in my foot.  I try to remove it with my splinter tweezers and I just couldn’t get the sucker out – it was so small I couldn’t even see it.  So, I left it alone and figured it would work it’s way out on it’s own.  Wouldn’t you know that the pain from that minuscule piece of glass woke me up in the middle of the night?  I had to do something about it!

I did some research, and here’s the advice I found:

 1) Soak the affected area in hot water with salt dissolved in it.   

This is supposed to ‘draw’ the foreign object out of your skin.  It didn’t work for me, but it did soften my skin and help to open the little wound up a bit.  It was also nice to have an excuse to soak my feet for 10 minutes!

2) After soaking, use tweezers to remove the object from your skin. 

This probably works for most people – as I said, your skin softens up and it should be easy to remove whatever it is that’s stuck.  However, this glass was so, so small, I couldn’t see it.  Plus, it was on the bottom of my foot, which made it even more awkward.

 3) Use half a bottle to create suction to vacuum the object out.  

I probably wasn’t doing this right, but what you’re supposed to do it place the top part of the bottle on the affected area, then the bottom part in the water.  Or you put the bottom part in the water, then the affected area on the top.  Either way, it was way to difficult for me to do on my own.  Didn’t work for me!

4) The Elmer’s Glue Trick 

Spread glue on the area, let it dry, then pull it off – hopefully pulling the object with it.  I don’t have glue – but I do have this stuff, which is very, very sticky.  I used it on the bottom of my foot…and it didn’t work!  Argh!  I was getting quite frustrated.  Then…I was rescued.

5) Have someone help you.  

My husband, who is truly a knight in shining armor, had been offering to help me all morning.  I’m an ‘I’ll do it myself’ person and really don’t like asking for help…but finally after exhausting all the options, I let him help me.  With surgeon-like precision, he deftly removed the glass from my foot.  *swoon*

Here’s a blurry photo of the offensive glass – you can barely even see it!

Have you had any fun ‘medical’ type adventures lately?  Share in the comments!