Swollen, painful thumb- any ideas?

[ananas]

My thumb has been hurting (especially when touched or moved), for a few days now, and since last night, it has been swollen and VERY sore. The swelling and pain seem to be mostly around the base of my nail, particularly on one side, and the area beneath my nail is very sore also.

I'm going to try to get into the clinic today or tomorrow and get it checked out, but does anyone have any ideas on what might be causing this? A few ideas I got from browsing online are that it could be an ingrown fingernail (I don't know if those really happen at the base of the nail like this, though), or possibly a bug bite?

I've been soaking it in GSE, in case it's an infection of some kind that I just can't see. Any other suggestions to help with the pain/swelling would be great also.

[kjbrown92]

Sounds like it could be an infection. My DD2 had an infection on her big toe a couple years ago, and it went from "ouchy toe" when she woke up to vomiting at 2pm, to ER at 8pm with high fever and needing drainage. Sounds similar. Any fever? They said hers was possibly an ingrown toenail as well, but it went from bad to worse pretty fast.

[ananas]

I went to the clinic yesterday and yup, it was infected. The cuticle, specifically, but the whole thumb is/was swollen. I'm on antibiotics now, and the swelling does seem to be going down. It's not three times bigger than the other thumb anymore.