Ok I know this ‘toe related’ rambling is getting tedious… but it’s a blog and if I can’t whinge here where can I do it? 🙂
So today, I got to the specialist after I managed to find a space at the other end of the car park. Naturally, as I approached the building itself two people pulled out of parking spaces right alongside!!!!!!!!!!! Typical that.
The specialist (who was as strange this week as last) looked at my toe slowly oozing away quietly, and decided it really wasn’t improving as much as it might have and decided the nail would have to come off. Couldn’t help but agree, it didn’t look at all healthy.
He snipped off the stitches and away it came leaving a lovely soupy looking mess. He said the ‘soupy’ look will clear up quickly if it’s kept exposed to the air (???) so he wants to me to spend as much time as possible with it uncovered. Since I’m spending most of my time at home he thinks this is ideal… hmmm! However he also thinks it would be good for it to be covered when I go out… not for my benefit but for the general public because they’ll freak out Eww…… charming!!! 😀
As far as the rest of my life is concerned, I can now go back to doing whatever it is I want to do (except for making sure the toe has a dressing on it whilst I’m out and about). One immediate benefit of his decision was that without the nail my toe stopped ‘hurting’ immediately. I assume the nail was digging in somewhere, or maybe the stitches were pulling or something… either way it feels better.
I have to keep it ‘clean’, mostly by showering, but occasionally bathing the foot in a salt solution wouldn’t hurt it either – tho he doesn’t think salt baths are particularly effective (tho *I* do and that’s what counts!). 🙂
Either way…. I’m now less one toenail. Lucky me.
Another handy decision was that I can go back to the gym when I like! Before I make a start back on the treadmill, I think I’ll wait a day or two to give the nail a chance to bed dry out a little, and especially before I try walking about in trainers! Even then I’ll need a dressing on it while I’m wearing them – at the best of times the inside of trainers isn’t the healthiest of places. 🙂
So – towards the end of the week I’ll drop in and start ‘testing it out’. If I can walk for 30 mins or so with no undue pain or damage I’ll he happy… if exhausted. I can start properly next Monday and… maybe… this time I can start to *lose* weight again! Oddly enough, I can hardly weight… err wait.
Will the nail regrow… if it does what will it look like… watch this space for future developments… or not! 🙂
The Eclectic Interweb 
Much better to get shot of the nail than try to save it. Without of course the drama of dropping a toilet basin on my foot I’ve lost quite a few over the years especially during marathon training.
And as you are planning to do – I found the best solution was to dress it when exercising or walking for any length of time – but then leaving it uncovered at home.
Every time I’ve lost one a new nail has grown back – eventually. It is a bit disgusting for a while but again like you it felt much better once the nail was off rather than that in between period where it’s neither one thing nor the other.
Have you tried underwater jogging? The water helps support your weight ; you don’t get any impact damage on your toe ; and it’s a pig of a workout?? You can buy stabilising weights which keep you balanced in the water and in all seriousness it is as good at fat burning as any exercise i can think of!!
I know what you mean, I lost a nail or two while I was on the treadmill last time. This one is a bit more complicated by the infection and the broken bone underneath which is still repairing itself.
It’s still sore since it still has an ‘open wound’ but it’ll fix itself eventually.
The ‘underwater jogging’ is a good idea but again I’m a bit concerned about doing it while there is already an infection. Once I’m sure the ‘weeping’ has stopped I’ll get over to the public pool (ours is too small to do anything serious) and do some exercising.
On the other hand… I *am* going to get back to the gym towards the end of this week and then back full time next week. 🙂
The doc said that when people lose nails, usually the old nail stays in place and keeps the nail bed in the right shape. This direct the new growth to the right shape and it looks more or less normal afterwards. When the entire thing has been lifted off totally there is a real chance the nail will deform as it grows and in the end the nail has to be killed off to stop it causing damage!
We’ll see 🙂
That is truly disgusting! I can see how the broken nail bed complicates things a bit. Perhaps if you don’t get an appropriate response from the DIY store you could camp out at their front entrance and urge people to boycott them and see for themselves the damage they have done to your foot.
You could turn it into a family activity day. The kids could make anti store suits, hats, streamers, and if they get some placards made they could march up and down in their car park with collection boxes for the legal fund (which you’ll clearly need when they counter sue).
If all else fails Deb could demand money with menaces – I’m sure she’d be good at that!! :o))
You could look pathetic and roll around screaming in agony whenever anyone from their staff (or potential customers) turn up – thinking about it why stop there? Invite the local media down , podcast from your sickbed, do an undercover exposee of their shocking safety standards from crutchcam – assuming you can find some suitably ancient crutches from someone who really needed them?
I’d better stop now – nurse is calling us back into the dayroom.
Talking of lifting the toenail from the nailbed – that happened to me when I caught my left big toe on the plinth of the kitchen cupboards a good few years ago. It has grown back all thick and horrid and it hurt if pressure was put on it – if I was brave I might have gone to see about having it removed but the Chiropodist filed some of the nail from the top and it seems to have settled down and doesn’t hurt at all any more. Of course when it was hurting and the grandchildren were passing me which toe did they tread on – not the good one thats for sure.