my big toe!!

woodstock

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
9,342
Location
Out of a suitcase
Display Name

Display name:
iTravel
don't read over breakfast. this has nothing to do with my medical but I thought I'd put it out there in case anyone has experience with it.

maybe some of you remember last summer I thought I had broken my toe? fell down the stairs and landed funny?

my big toe-nail got black and blue. didn't lose it though, not then anyway.

the past 6-7 months it's had a decided ridge in it. slowly working its way to the end. I was maybe less than a month away from clipping it out. the stuff behind it looked fine, as of 6-8 weeks ago or so. I have since noticed a second, smaller ridge trying to grow up behind it.

so far, so good. then upon closer inspection a few weeks ago, the nail itself was trying to come loose starting at the second ridge - just on that side though. I figured at least it was protection, no reason to try to do anything to it and it would grow out. wasn't bugging me. (then again it's open toed sandal season soon - ugh!)

yesterday went hiking, maybe 1.5 hours. when I got back my big toe was kinda bugging me - nail bed. last night TWICE in bed shuffling my feet around I evidently snagged it and made it even looser. iyiyiyiyiyi

upon inspection this morning the whole dang thing is loose but for a strip on the opposite side. I know darn well I am going to snag it a good one at some point. I started wiggling it and it kinda hurt and I'm chicken. so I at least clipped part of it, halfway, so there isn't as much leverage.

now what the hell do I do? will it come off eventually by itself WITHOUT A RIPPING NOISE or should I go see a doc and get the rest of it?

why would it take so long for this to happen?

there is "nail" underneath but it's rough and not super thick like my regular toe nails. is this going to preclude hiking (once the nail is all the way off I mean?) given how far back it is, this is at least 6 months away from being a normal nail again - grown all the way out I mean. what else can I do? will the rough/thin nail part grow thicker again?
 
It'll grow out again. But something (not just the running) is getting in the way of the nail bed...the nail is the 3 month record fo your metabolism. A medication perhaps (chloroquin?)? There's no pain free way to deal wlith this...but the guy who would know is an orthopedist and/or podiatrist.....
 
I bet you get a perfect little nail grow out in the next coupla months, I had a blood blister trapped under mine and the ER doc rammed the scissors under the nail, cut in two and then tore each half off left and right. It grew out fine. Although I lost a little hair from the screaming in pain, he could never block the thumb properly. Western Frontier medicine I guess. "Quit whinin' ya baby, ah've done worse ta my ah-bawl." I would put a bandaid over top of it until it can take some bouncing around because it might be tender without a nail to protect it.
 
Liz,

I get ingrown toenails semi-regularly. Soak your foot in warm water and epsom salts every night for 15-20 minutes. After towel drying you'll find it much easier to work with the nail, and much less painful.

Apply antibiotic cream too. :)

^-- not a doctor. Any advice followed above is done so at your own risk.
 
Greebo said:
Soak your foot in warm water and epsom salts every night for 15-20 minutes. After towel drying you'll find it much easier to work with the nail, and much less painful.

:yes: The Greebster is right. Your nail will soften considerably if you soak it. Even plain warm water will be a tremendous help. Then you can trim off the loose piece much closer to the ouchy part. Happy snipping!

-Skip
 
Do you really need to clip it off? I'd try to anchor it with tape, putting something non-sticky and possibley sterile over any exposed tender flesh. I've gone through similar episodes where a nail got partially torn and this worked for me.
 
lancefisher said:
Do you really need to clip it off? I'd try to anchor it with tape, putting something non-sticky and possibley sterile over any exposed tender flesh. I've gone through similar episodes where a nail got partially torn and this worked for me.

I wonder if that new (or fairly new anyway) liquid bandage stuff would work for this? I've used it on some pretty nasty cuts, and I love the stuff. MUCH better than plain old bandages, band-aids etc. Things seem to heal a lot faster using it. Might keep the rest of the nail stuck down until it's ready to come off by itself.
 
hey thanks everyone. update: I did wear bandaids all week, but one night took it off to go to bed. SNAG! bandaged it up again and the next morning just yanked it off. done. whew.
 
you wanna see pics of its progress? a week by week account? ha ha

it's not that bad, the new nail was coming in already anyway.
 
You can tape the toe to stabalize the nail as suggested until it is ready to come off on its on. There will be another shorter nail right underneath like losing a tooth- sorry no ferry godmother. What happened is you crushed the area around the base when you fell. the swelling caused a condition called a "compartment syndrome" in the nail bed. Remarkably you didn't need to have it drilled to release the pressure; it resolved on its own. The semicircular area at the nail base generates the nail and is called the lunula (like lunar or moon shaped) and this is where the new nail will be coming from. After the nail sheds, the toe will be a little tender for awhile.
Curtis - Sr. AME, General Surgeon
 
Hmm - interesting. How about what happened to me? Warning - semi-graphic wound details follow.

Some years ago, I injured the inside of my left thumb with a table saw. The tendon was unharmed, the nerve bundle slightly frayed, and the artery in the thumb pretty much shredded. No treatment was possible - the wound was too distal - the only thing to do was change the dressing regularly (oh my god the first time hurt so bad I nearly passed out) and let it heal on its own.

The wound started out at the width of the thumb (7/8" or so), approximately 1/2" long and perhaps 3/8" deep (did not expose bone).

After the wound finally closed, I noticed that my thumbnail had an odd ridge form parallel to its base which gradually grew outward as the nail grew. On the outside of the ridge, the nail was thick - thicker, in fact, than the nail on my uninjured thumb, but on the inside of the ridge (moving up the arm) the nail became noticeably thinner - perhaps a millimeter or so - but noticeable to anyone who cared to look.

Eventually the nail grew out and now the entire nail is somewhat thinner on the left thumb than any nail on any other finger.

My theory: When the wound began to heal, the body sent extra nutrients to the thumb to encourage healing. This caused the nail to also grow thicker, but the increase in thickness happened imperceptibly - perhaps as the wound got smaller, more and more nutrients were available for the nail to use. That is, the amount of extra nutrients sent remained fairly constant but the amount needed in the wound diminished over time. Once the wound healed, the body switched off the extra flow, and suddenly the nail had less nutrients available than before because of the damaged artery affecting blood flow. Result? The sudden drop in building materials resulted in the sudden change in thickness causing the ridge that formed - and the continued loss of material due to reduced blood flow makes the nail thinner, permanently.

Does that seem likely or am I really just way off base here?
 
Greebo said:
Hmm - interesting. How about what happened to me? Warning - semi-graphic wound details follow.

Some years ago, I injured the inside of my left thumb with a table saw. The tendon was unharmed, the nerve bundle slightly frayed, and the artery in the thumb pretty much shredded. No treatment was possible - the wound was too distal - the only thing to do was change the dressing regularly (oh my god the first time hurt so bad I nearly passed out) and let it heal on its own.

Does that seem likely or am I really just way off base here?

I'm no doctor either, but I suspect that the tissue that your nail grows out of simply degraded over time in response to the trauma.

A long time ago (I was maybe 13) I managed to split the last section of my left index finger (including a bit of the bone) with a hand saw. The eventual result is a slightly different shape of both the finger and the nail which had been cleanly sawed in two. That nail is also more prone to breaking but otherwise healthy. I think when you damage the nail bed, the result is a permanently deformed nail.
 
eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! what is it with men and saws!

my toe doesn't look all that bad and the tenderness is gone already.

tough feet!!
 
woodstock said:
eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! what is it with men and saws!
Well its how we make all those improvements that women keep wanting...
 
A guy I used to work for at a Bar-B-Que Restaurant, was using a meat slicer. This is a machine that has a great big circular balde driven by an electric motor. it slices the meat in clean slices. Anyway, you can guess what happened. He sliced his thumb right down the middle, with both sides hanging off. I don't remember if his sliced right beside the bone or straight down the side of the bone. He was not that bright, by the way. Oh, yeah, no the meat that he was slicing at the time was not served to the customers.
 
Been there with the meat slicer! We were using it to cut fruit, and a little piece was wedged in there, so I decided to push it through with my hand. Didn't even feel the cut, only knew I cut myself because all the citric acid was introduced to the open ends of my left ring finger and pinky. That wasn't the worst part. The worst part was when we quick threw a butterfly bandage on the end of it with no ointment and then wound began to heal and started to fuse to the bandage and I had to remove it.
 
woodstock said:
upon inspection this morning the whole dang thing is loose but for a strip on the opposite side. I know darn well I am going to snag it a good one at some point. I started wiggling it and it kinda hurt and I'm chicken. so I at least clipped part of it, halfway, so there isn't as much leverage.

now what the hell do I do?

A bottle of tequila, a pair of pliers and a sadistic friend. It only hurts for a moment, and if you're ticklish, have them tie you down and tickle you when they do it.:blowkiss: :dance:
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.
Back
Top