if you ever slam your finger in the door...

... and your nail is turning purple and it feels like your finger is going to explode from the throbbing pain (the doctors call this subungual hematoma):

1) don't go to your primary care physician because you will wait an hour to see him, and then he will tell you that you need to get your nail removed and he can't do it

2) you could go to the emergency room afterwards and wait about 4 hours to get an xray and to finally see a resident-in-training who will poke two holes in your nail (yeah, kind of like when you open a can of fruit and need to drain the syrup), which takes her about 5 minutes - but don't forget, now you need to now pay the hospital for the robbery they call emergency room bills

3) but what you should *really* do, as i learned today (5 days too late) is go to your dermatologist! she will do the poking of the nail and you won't need to wait forever. and you just pay her your normal non-emergency co-pay.

just wanted to share this tidbit of advice. because it's bad enough when you get your finger stuck in the door and think that it's going to fall off; worse when you have to wait 5 hours to relieve the pain.