Toe-To keep or to lose it? Nail related

Yesterday I went for a fairly long skin, my big toe on the left foot became increasingly tender and painful as the day went on. The boot kept seeming to get smaller and smaller, big toe kept getting more painful with each stride or step out of the basin. Got home noticed a slight discoloration compared to the other toe, but no black and blue right off the bat.

Fast forward to this am. I came in from the garage with the dog food and I happened to kick the lip on door sill with my toe. All of a sudden i notice this darkish red/brown stuff on the floor beneath my toe. Then i notice blood. OH shit, great, i just split my toe open.I sit down, exam said toe, realize there are no cuts on it, but still something liquidy. Then blood starts to trickle from the toe, not long after said brownish red goo starts. I press on the toe thinking great, i can relieve some of this pressure. After a bit, i push down on the nail and notice it feels kind of spongy, then i pull slight up on the nail, low and behold it is only being attached at the edges.

Besides Sac ing up, what is the best course of action:

A) Pull the nail off
B) leave it attached and let if fall off on its own
C) Duct Tape

and D, my LEAST favorite, cut the toe, i have 9 more eh?

I know it sounds trivial, but hey, this is MY gimp question right?

Thanks for any help. Never had this issue before

The question is... are you planning on taking it easy anytime soon or are you going to continue skinning and generally abusing it?

If you are gonna mellow out and not cram it into ski boots, I would leave it alone and let it run its course (wear some flip flops for a while). If you are planning on cramming it in the boots, either go see a doc and ask him or duct tape. Pulling the nail off sucks unless the skin has had time to breathe and not be so tender. This would also be detrimental to keeping ski boots on for any extended period of time.

my $.02, but what to I know, I'm just a knuckledragger. ;)

i think that's probably the best possible scenario other than the nail just falling off on its own.

Just get some very small medical scissors, (or the scissors from Swiss army knives actually work pretty well) and cut out the parts of the nail that aren't connected to skin bit by bit till you cut most of it away. The couple times I did this there wasn't any pain moving the scissors around underneath the nail, just a sort of odd itchy feeling. The rest of the nail that's still attached to the sides or back will just fall out on its own after a while.

Obviously just make sure to keep it clean.


I have never understood why people do the "lets just tear it out all at once" method, seems pointless.


EDIT: Just hack the toe off yourself, it won't change your balance or anything.

I plan on some more tours, sadly, taking it easy isn't my forte. Knuckledraggers have toes also, so i will take your advice and try some duct tape first before anything else. Hopefully that will do that trick, only time will tell eh?

As for hacking my toe off, i could man up and use the pnumatic snips, however, over the years, i have grown rather attached to the big ol thing, think i am going to try and hang on to it for the time being....

B by and far the best way. I've crushed nails and had them ripped at to come off and surgically removed. It does not go well. It will fall off in it's own time and the new nail will be half grown in already when it does.

One thing you can do is take a paper clip and heat it red hot and burn through the nail to let shit keep coming out and get the swelling down. Sounds bad but feels so good when you go through and that puppy gushes out all that pressure.

I don't think i have the problem letting shit out, it keeps leaking whatever is under the nail bed when ever i put pressure on the foot regardless. Will putting duct tape ont eh toe help stop the leaking or is it good for it to continue to seep?

Keep the nail until it is just about to fall off by itself for protetcion. Wrap lightly in gauze to absorb drainage and then tape over the gauze to keep everything in place. Be sure to keep it clean and watch for infection.

How long does it take usually (I know we are all different in our healing times, but generally...) does it take until the new nail comes in fully. I have been lucky to have never experienced the fun of losing a nail. I have broken them, cut them, chipped them, chewed them, caught them on fire, but i have never lost one to some sort of injury.

First and foremost, if the toe gets red, keeps having discharge, you notice any pus, this may be superinfected and go see a doctor.

As far as your multiple choice quiz, foregoing toe amputation, do not just pull out the nail. The nail grows from a region under the nail fold called the germinal matrix (an area under the skin fold where the nail originates). Whenever you remove a nail, you need to place something over the germinal matrix so it doesn't scar to the overlying skin - in the Emerg Dept we tend to use either a petroleum/iodine soaked gauze or even a piece of sterile aluminum foil that makes up the suture packaging. In your case, the actual nail is acting as a cover and once the new nail grows it will push it out. Consider taking it easy to prevent further damage.

Healing time on toes is longer for a host of reasons.

Increased perspiration, (usually) compression and a snug fitting piece of footwear exacerbate the issue. Has the toe turned completely black yet?

I've lost a few big toe nails, and as I recall, they take months- four to seven- to grow back completely. Years ago good friend recommended not to pierce my toe nail with a hot paper clip. This was excellent advice. I say the same thing now. Try to leave everything in its place and never rip off a toe nail. The increased trauma from the ripping/tear is way greater than the original injury. I know guy who have ripped off the toe nail and pretty much had to end the season as pressure/infection/pain was more than they could tolerate.

Is your toe just oozing or is under pressure? Is it throbbing?

Can you force more more "brownish red goo" from the toe?

From a medical point of view, I would recommend seeing a doctor if it is excessively painful or if it gets infected.

If you were at my boot bench, first I would suggest rest so the injury can heal. Usually that's not in the cards, so I would recommend grinding/punching the toe (or at least the liner) to create more toe room and tightening the boot around the ankle so that the increased toe room does not increase or magnify the bang effect of said toe room.

Ahhh...the last great question: Do you have a footbed or orthotic that stabilizes your foot in the boot to prevent excessive movement in the boot?

didn't we discuss this ever when you were at my house? did I not show you mine? I must not have...

for $300 a piece I had both big toenails permanently removed by a podiatrist. It sucks for a few months then it's way, way better forever.
I don't have the words for how highly I'd recommend this course. 110%? Super Uber recommend?

do remember though, that you'll be crippled for a bit while they heal. But really, it's an investment in no more big toe pain ever. Very very very worth it.

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Originally Posted by YetiMan

for $300 a piece I had both big toenails permanently removed by a podiatrist.

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?????......

what's the question? If you have chronic issues with toenails from ski boots and long downhill hikes carrying weight there's no better thing to do. Go to a podiatrist and ask to have your big toenail permanently removed. They numb it, rip it off, and burn the root away with acid and it takes like 6 weeks to heal and then you're good to go. I did the one foot first and for the year that I had one done and one not done there was no comparison so I had the other one done. Very very very worth doing if you're stuffing feet into tight footwear on a regular basis for many years and dealing with the resulting toenail issues.

I'd say it can take a full year for a nail to fully grow back but who really pays attention. Who cares when the nail is fully back? The 3 - 6 months before that happens are the best, no clipping, no catching, no banging it on anything until it grows in fully. The old nail would usually get pushed off in 3 - 6months. It really depends on lots of things.

But thing about it.... what was it, the boot just didn't fit at all? Or your toenails were massively too long and catching on something with the movement?

Fuck, this is a yearly thing with me. Right now I am about 2 weeks from losing the nail completely. I trim it back so it doesn't snag on things like my socks.There is nothing worse than being half asleep, pulling on your sock and bending that bitch straight back. I am usually fully healed by November just in time to start the process over again.

Oh yeah, the goo. I had that last year. I didn't notice it until I was trimming the nail back and the edge of the nail punctured what must have been a sack of primordial ooze. I drained it, put some iodine on it (hubba hubba) and let it air dry. In the summer, I hit the beach and soak it in salt water. I don't know if it helps but it feels good.

I'm on B and it's not so bad. I'm basically waiting for this fucker to fall off ... it's completely unattached on the right side and totally attached on the left side. So this might take a while. It took two months before it became completely unattached on the side where it bruised ... riding a 210 cm snowboard in hardboots down moguls helped with that one!

I'm just extra careful putting on and taking off socks, and keeping it trimmed so it doesn't overhang my toe.

I thought for sure it'd be gone after some booting about last weekend but nope.

Not sure how it is skinning in your boots, but most people on the threads here have chattered about losing the nail as the result of riding in the backseat and then banging your toe. It's different in snowboard softboots. I screwed mine up from some really hard landings.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YetiMan

what's the question? If you have chronic issues with toenails from ski boots and long downhill hikes carrying weight there's no better thing to do. Go to a podiatrist and ask to have your big toenail permanently removed. They numb it, rip it off, and burn the root away with acid and it takes like 6 weeks to heal and then you're good to go. I did the one foot first and for the year that I had one done and one not done there was no comparison so I had the other one done. Very very very worth doing if you're stuffing feet into tight footwear on a regular basis for many years and dealing with the resulting toenail issues.

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You, Yeti,are so much more commited to the skiing lifestyle then I or other mere mortals could ever aspire to I am,for lack of better terminology, grossed out.This would be a great idea if my wife could stomach the squished end of toe look.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Meanfruit

You, Yeti,are so much more commited to the skiing lifestyle then I or other mere mortals could ever aspire to I am,for lack of better terminology, grossed out.This would be a great idea if my wife could stomach the squished end of toe look.

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Foot fetishist? Who else looks at toes?