I wouldn’t fuck around and drain an abscess on your own. They not only have to be drained, but packed as well with sterile gauze to prevent infection. You’ll also need antibiotics.

Speaking first hand experience. I had an abscess in my arm back in 2007. I didn’t know what it was, and it got pretty big. I thought it’d heal on its own. It eventually got so bad, I went to the ER. They drained and packed it, but I ended up having to be admitted for two reasons. One, because the pain of moving my arm was fucking unbearable, I didn’t move my arm (like stretch it fully out) so my muscles got tight, and the dr couldn’t fully extend my arm. If I waited a few more days, I may have lost my arm. I ended up with a staph infection. Had to have surgery and they had to cut the entire infection out, followed up with having to wear a vacuum on my arm for a week. I didn’t know how deep it was until they took the vacuum off. I almost fainted. The hole in my arm, could’ve hidden a golf ball. I still to this day, have a nice scar on my arm from it.

Yes, some of these procedures look easy…but there is more to them than you may realize. Just be careful.

I wanna see how this tattoo removal goes.... --

Dude. Both my parents were/are in the medical field and while minor stuff is easy enough at home. There’s a reason autoclaves, pressure controlled rooms, and tons of other sanitization tools and precautions are in place. A house (especially with pets) is never going to be sterile. Too many ways it could go wrong. I wouldn’t want to be stuck at home 30 minutes away from a medical professional when I ignorantly cut some nerves away or rupture an artery. Just be smart man. Minor stuff with topicals is relatively safe… but I would NEVER try to remove an abscess at home. Maybe drain a cyst. Too much cutting, tissue, and identification for at home. It worries me that’s it’s so commonplace you’d rather perform self-surgery than go see a doc. Insurance is cheap these days.

You nick a nerve or a blood vessel while cutting something off, I just see to much going wrong here. You surely shouldn't need lidocaine for injecting steroids though.

Lidocaine is what I get injected into my jaw when I have a filling done - can't say I'd want to be messing about with that stuff.

Your barking up a dangerous tree. As a practitioner I would highly advise you to not.

Say you did get some lidocaine, you have no idea of the complications, max doses, procedure. What if someone gives you xylocaine instead of lidocaine? You put 5cc lidocaine with epi in your finger, and necrosis sets in because you didn’t know epi causes vasoconstriction in the capillaries. You just turned you lancing procedure into a $20k finger amputation. I could go on with examples, but my point is made.