The One with the Missing Toenail

Just a fair warning.  This post may be a little TMI.  Proceed at your own risk!

 
Our Saturday afternoon took an unexpected turn as we went from watching TV at home to driving to the closest urgent care clinic.

Let me start from the beginning.

It all started when we got home from Detroit last month.  I was getting my heavy bag out of the back of the Uber.  I guess I pulled it out too quickly because the next thing I knew it hit my big toe on my left foot causing me to scream in pain.  Vishnu ran over, calmed me down and we eventually made our way upstairs. 

Even after icing it, the pain was still there, so Vishnu wrapped it up for me.  I went to bed and woke up with an achy toe, but it was nothing compared to the excruciating pain from the night before. 

Over the next few days and weeks the pain went away.  However, I noticed that my toe was badly bruised (my nail was black and blue).  I didn’t think much of it since the pain was gone.  Life went on.

That brings me to this past Friday evening.  As we were getting ready to go to dinner, I noticed that my toe was throbbing a little and there was discharge coming out of my toenail.  When I showed Vishnu, he told me to make the next available appointment with a podiatrist.  I cleaned up my toe, put a Band-Aid on it, and made a note to find the closest podiatrist.

The pain continued in the background for the rest of the night, but when I woke up the next morning it was gone.  I did a little happy dance and continued on with my day.  Vishnu and I went on a pain-free run, I ran errands, etc. 

After getting home and eating a little snack, I settled in on the couch with Vishnu to watch TV.  A bit later, I got up to get some water and lightly hit my toe on the coffee table.  When I looked down, my toenail was completely detached from my toe on one side. 

I looked at Vishnu with tears in my eyes and panic in my voice and told him what happened.  I was a bit traumatized at this point and am so glad he was there to take care of the rest.  He asked if I wanted him to try and remove the rest of the nail.  I asked if it would hurt, and he said yes.  I suggested we go to the hospital.  Vishnu didn’t think that was the best idea because of the long potential wait time, and so he started to look up urgent care clinics in our area.  After calling and confirming that the one he found would be able to see us, we drove over.  

The doctor on duty was super nice and really patient.  He and Vishnu brought a lot of humor to the situation which helped a ton.  Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to save my nail.  He gave me a shot to numb the area and pulled the toenail right out.  I didn’t feel any pain (thank goodness!) but was absolutely disgusted by the look of my toe.  The doctor (and Vishnu and my FIL and my sister) reassured me that it would grow back in 12-18 months and said that it wasn’t as bad as it looked.  At least it wasn’t broken.  That definitely helped me bring some perspective to the situation.  And let’s be honest.  This wasn’t a life or death situation.  Everything was and would be just fine.

And now here I am.  I will likely have to wear a bandage on my toe until the nail grows back.  But all things considered, I’m doing great!  There’s no pain, and I even went for a run this morning and felt fine.  It still looks really gross, but I guess I’m just going to have to get over that.

And believe it or not, but we found a silver lining in this whole ordeal.  While Vishnu is upset that this happened, his eyes lit up when I told him that I would be doing my own pedicures for the next year saving us $30 a month.  Haha! 

Thanks for reading and happy Monday!

What’s the most physically traumatic thing that’s happened to you?