My Big Fat Left Toe... Warning! Graphic Foot descriptions.

 

 

 

 

I went to school this morning wearing my knee-hi's and shoes, and came back with this: 

 

                                     

How, you might ask, did this turn of events come around?

I went to the Podiatrist this afternoon, just before school dismissed. I have never visited a Podiatrist before, but alas, my own family doctor recommended it a couple of months ago.

He gave me three options: 1.  three months of Lamisil (it's very expensive, insurance won't cover it, may tax the liver, takes a year for the new nail to grow back);

2. File the entire nail down real thin, then apply some high end topical treatment to kill the fungus every day. It's an aggressive treatment. Works 50% of the time. Will take a year for new healthy nail growth.

3.  Remove the toenail (what?). When the nail bed heals, apply expensive topical treatment every day as new nail grows back, and within a year, I will have a new healthy nail.

The least expensive, with best results, and least impact on my body's major organs was to opt for the latter. And the good doctor said he could do it right there and then. At 3:30 this afternoon. I asked if he could do it this coming Friday afternoon, you know, give me the weekend to get my foot back into a regular shoe for school. He checked his calendar, but no go... he was filled with podiatrical appointments all the day long.

So I made an executive decision all by myself, and said, "Take the toenail." But only after I drilled him on the after effects, like "how much pain will this be?" and "I have to be on my feet all day tomorrow (EOG testing, you know), so will I be in pain tomorrow?" and finally, most importantly, "I want to sleep tonight.. I don't want any pain waking me up at 3:00 a.m."

I do not deal easily with pain in my mouth, or pain in my feet. I had imagined the pain of a removed toenail could be throbbing, like a bad tooth-ache. Shuddder!

He assured me that the only pain I'd feel was the needle stick when he injected the local anesthetic into my toe (I'm good with that). He dismissed my concerns for tomorrow, saying that Tylenol would take care of any pain I would encounter during the day. Finally, he promised to prescribe Vicodin for any pain I might experience during the night.

So he numbed up the toe. He was right. I only felt three needle sticks. I took a peek at one point to see what he was doing, but just watching him manipulate the poiny silvery thing around the edges of my nail made me look away. I didn't want to see what he was doing. I turned my thoughts to other things, like how nice my toes would look this summer... no more thick, white, disgusting appendage at the end of my delicate little feet.

Yeah, so if you ever injure your toenail, be warned. It happened to me, it can happen to you. If you see a split or crack in your toenail, don't just ignore it. Such a minor appearing injury can let in the grungy fungus. I have no idea where I picked it up at.

My guess is the shower stall in the dormitory room two summers ago at a well-known university in a small mountain town of NC. I had spent many hours of the day wading in water, and then hiking in wet shoes that week... possibly that helped maintain the kind of environment fungus grunge likes to live in. I should have taken better care of my feet, but I didn't even think about it... was having too much fun learning about macroinvertebrates

                                                                         

and learning about The Lorax, and how to save our environment (beginning with educating our children).

                                                           

I had taken a picture of the Lorax portrait here that was painted on the office wall of one of the Pisgah Institute's professors. I don't know who the artist is.

Supposedly, my toenail will be well enough in two weeks to begin painting on the medicine that will prevent the fungus from returning as the new nail grows back. But for this summer, I will only have nine toenails.

When it grows back, I will show you my new healthy toe nail!!! (Like anyone is interested).

So I'm off to elevate my foot for the next twelve hours. Not much pain at the moment, just a minor throb to let me know I better not overdo it or I will pay for it later.

Sure hope I made the right decision. I wonder how my students will react. I hope no one gets clumsy and steps on my toe tomorrow!!! I'm thinking I'll be wearing a special shoe, the one they let me wear home today.

Wish me luck.

 

PS   I apologize for the enormosity of the foot photo, but I could not edit it to a medium small size. The new aol picture tool allows us to select a size (small, medium, large, original... I think these are the choices). Small is way too small, like you would add to your sidebar-small. Medium is what I selected, but that is way too large for this particular shot. So I thought, no problem. After I get the picture I can just manipulate the corners using the mouse and make it smaller. After I made it to the size of my liking, I saved it so. However, the size I made it does not translate onto my page. It has remained 'medium'. I've got to find out how to reduce and enlarge beyond the standard, preset sizes that aol pictures has created for us.

 

 

Tags: Toe nail fungus, treatments for nail fungus,