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One of the things I've tried not to think about as it truly gives me the heeby jeebies and now it has happened.
Should I worry? It is just sitting in place but in reality the nail is not much different then a pice of paper sitting on a desk. It's just there!
A couple of weeks ago I was helping put an ice laden cooler on the boat. It was heavy with 2 40lb bags in it plus a heavy duty cooler as well. Needless to say I lost a grip and the corner found my big toe. Hurt like hell the rest of the day. And the next week. And the next weekend when I went fishing again.
Then it stopped hurting and felt like it was getting better, though not growing like the others. Now it's been about 2 weeks. This week I picked up a couple of boats to wash so I have had wet feet and my toe started itching. Today, after coming home I scratched it a bit and saw practically my whole nail just hanging off to the side with a redish cavern where it should be . After the heepy jeeby quivers went away I placed it back. It isn't hurting but there is a slight soreness and an itch.
It's now been a couple of hours and I got up enough nerve to try to pull it off. Made it untill I saw the red and I quickly placed it back. Now I'm here typing.
Now my issue! :shocked : I am fishing tomorrow and we are leaving at 5AM. It is for work and I need the money. It will be wet. It will be a very long day as we probably won't be back till 6 and then have to wash the boat.
What precautions should I take. Everything I read is to not get it wet but my place is right in the wettest part of the boat. For safety purposes I must wear shoes. I'm thinking of tieing that one not so tight and finding the loosest fitting sock I have. I also plan on checking it every couple of hours. Perhaps wrapping a bandage around it to keep it on??? I just want to make it through a painless day fishing and look into seeing a DR friday. Ideas???
I'm sure delayed medical attention will cost you more than you can make in that one day of fishing.
I broked my toe in 3 places 3 years ago and the nail died. It has not grown one iota since that time. The toe is still about twice as big as a regular toe and the nail is white grey. I could pull it off if I want to but why would I do that. I dry it very well after every shower and doc says not to mess with it. I would see the doc sooner than later and not take any risk of it getting infected.
Big toes are extremely important for balance and gait and it would be a shame to lose it.
I had a similar experience. I dropped something on my big toe, right where the nail stops and the skin starts. Well, it hurt but I didn't think anything of it. The next week I got a pedicure and the nail tech said "you are gonna lost this nail" but I didn't believe her. Then one day I looked down and my nail looked kinda weird....the entire nail was loose except one part on the right side was holding it on!!!!!! Yikes! It was almost like a page on a book, and I could lift it up a lot.
I put a bandaid over it for a few days to protect it until it grew out a little more. Then I cut away the loose part and trimmed it as well as I could on the 'attached' side and tried to be careful with it. Took about 6 weeks for my nail to look normal again.
If it inconveniences you its time to remove it. Regrowth will be slow. I lost mine in an accident at school, just before summer recess. I went swimming in a chlorinated pool every day that summer and wore open toed shoes (sandals) for months. My nail grew back in an odd shape and after 45 yrs is now not as noticeable. I'm a bit worried about you getting an infection with an open wound in dirty water.
My daughter lost her big toenail last summer. She was extremely upset about it, but it grew back. It took a couple of months to grow back. She wasn't great about keeping it clean and it got infected, so we had to soak it in hydrogen peroxide a couple of times and put Neosporin on it every day for a while.
^^ I lost a different toenail once and poured peroxide on it a couple of times a day and put some Neosporin on it. It was fine. If it looks like its getting infected, have someone look at it. Probably a couple of nice warm salt water soaks wouldn't hurt, either. I learned that from a Dr. years ago when I had an infected toe.
unless it gets infected you really don't have much to be concerned about. Yes, as someone said, you can go to the pediatrist or even go get a pedicure and get it trimmed off if you have to. There are lots of reasons for losing nails, fungus, injury, and others. It isn't going to cause any real problems and will grow back.
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and now it has happened.
