mr. big toe
Posted by katymoe on May 28th, 2009i probably left you all dramatically excited to hear how far i’ve been running and cycling and how many times i got in the pool this week! sadly, i have to report, that there has been none of the above mentioned things going on. i do have a really good excuse though, and it goes something like this.
last thursday i was helping brett look for stuff in his storage unit, and noticed i could help him out a bit by pulling a desk out to give him some space. not noticing that this very heavy desk i was pulling straight back towards my body with all my body weight pulling on it, was in fact about an inch higher than my foot (that it was headed towards) was . well maybe not an inch, about big toe nail height to be exact. (can you see where this is going?)
just as i’m getting some momentum on this heavy desk, thunk! it drops with all it’s might with backward momentum (cuz’ i’m pulling on it!) and rips my big left toe nail back (about half way i’m guessing by the partial crack half way down my nail).
now, having experienced a sudden big toe nail removal in the past, i knew that the first thing i needed to do was prevent my Birkenstock from filling up with blood from the gushing mess (i’ve had a blood filled TEVA in the past, hmph!) i instantly smash my toe nail back down on my toe and yell at brett not to look (he gets queasy), but my toe nail is off and bleeding everywhere and i need help with my shoe.
brett then begins the exciting journey of climbing out of the storage unit, i think he was kinda under and behind EVERYTHING. by the time he gets there the birkenstock is safely off (NO BLOOD AT ALL! wa hoo!) but there is a trail of blood already to the car, where brett nicely hands me a sock to absorb the blood from my dripping mess of a toe.
when i got home and inspected it, the toe nail was actually attached in a few places still so i could keep it on while it healed underneath. phew! last time the toe nail came off instantly (it actually was hanging by a thread, blah!). i trimmed it back ever so slightly, took ibuprofen, cried, and laid in the floor with my foot up all day! still unable to walk at 9pm i called in sick to work the next day. boo. things were going pretty well, but after a long weekend of walking and swimming in a lake with friends over memorial day weekend……it was looking pretty gnarly (even though i was cleaning it all the time!!).
i decided to trim the nail back as far as i could to clean it really well and get a good look at the damage. basically, it ripped my toe nail off about half way back and it was REALLY attached because it pulled off a lot of toe meat in the process. i have some deep gashes under there! YUCK. and suck. because this is going to take a while to heal. i’m already 1 week out and NO WAY i can run. cycling hurts….and i’m going to stay away from swimming especially in the lake since it’s still a huge open wound under my toe. so sad. this means no splash n dash this weekend. i’m bummed out. 
Tags: brett, toe nail, triathlon training
I’d just like to add that 1) I’m about 65% sure that I’m not nearly as big of a sissy as some might have you believe and 2) I didn’t get queasy. So there.