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Three weeks ago I stubbed my big toe in a major way - walking fast on a broken sidewalk in canvas espadrilles. It swelled and turned black and blue and finally on Day 8 I got brave enough to poke a needle into the base of the nail and it spurted blood. The blood-letting helped the pain, swelling and throbbing though it continued to be pretty sore.
I was at the beach for a few days this week and noticed that my big toe nail is lifting off my toe. It is only hanging on to one side right now so I have it taped down so it won't move around. What should I expect when it falls off? What will be underneath? How long will it take to be normal again?
Yep. I had mine removed because they were growing sideways into my toe. Looks like toe-nail shaped skin. Not very noticeable even in sandals. For a while I was painting my toe nails and would paint them, too. Got tired of that.
Three weeks ago I stubbed my big toe in a major way - walking fast on a broken sidewalk in canvas espadrilles. It swelled and turned black and blue and finally on Day 8 I got brave enough to poke a needle into the base of the nail and it spurted blood. The blood-letting helped the pain, swelling and throbbing though it continued to be pretty sore.
I was at the beach for a few days this week and noticed that my big toe nail is lifting off my toe. It is only hanging on to one side right now so I have it taped down so it won't move around. What should I expect when it falls off? What will be underneath? How long will it take to be normal again?
Just from my own experience, once that toenail starts lifting off, or pretty soon afterwards, there will be a new toenail starting its growth from the bottom of the nailbed and up. It's very slow growing, and its growth along the sides of the nailbed as it makes its way to the top are what will gradually lift the injured nail away from where it is attached. At some point before the new nail reaches the top the old nail will come off, leaving you with a partially grown new toenail and bare skin. In my experience (it's happened to me twice), that process takes a long time, it took mine over a year to grow a new nail.
I'm sporting a partially lifted off toenail with a new one growing underneath it right now, come to speak of it. This is a result of an injury to my big toe where I hung onto a pole I assumed was attached to the floor of a porch on a shed I was looking at
(I used the pole to keep my balance as I went down the porch steps), but it wasn't and the bottom of the pole jammed onto my big toe. Hurt like billybedamned, there was blood and a couple cuts extending down into the nail from the top, the nail lifted off partially but I couldn't tell how far (I really didn't want to know), so we just treated the cuts and put a bandaid over the toe.
I thought perhaps I had not pulled the nail or injured it enough to lose that nail, and it didn't come off. But as the months went by (this was last summer, so perhaps August or so), i noticed that toenail appeared to be lifting, and was not attached at the top where they would normally be. And sure enough, as I looked closer, I noted there was a little piece of new nail starting to grow in at the bottom. It's grown maybe a quarter up the nailbed, and the old nail is still there. Eventually the old nail will fall off, when the new nail grows some more. In the meantime, I have both the old and new nail painted witn sparkly nail polish.
Now that I te-read your post, I see you must have injured your toenail enough to have pulled it partially off, and if it's hanging by one side only it may fall off before your new nail has grown very much. In any case, though, I'd still expect a new nail to make it's appearance within a few months at least, but it may well take a year or more to grow in completely.
Did something similar last year on the day my movers showed up to pack (BTW, they were a day EARLY Ran around like a wild mad thing for 2 days trying to stay one step ahead of them grabbing the stuff I needed for my trip). Once the pressure of the bruise had been relieved it didn't hurt nearly as much, but I knew the nail was probably doomed. Gradually the nail lifted off more and more so to prevent snagging it on something, pulling it off prematurely and tearing the nail bed, I started trimming it. It finally came loose several months later. The skin underneath wasn't that sensitive and over time it was more like a callus. Literally a year later there's a new healthy nail.
Last edited by Parnassia; 05-10-2018 at 12:12 PM..
Just from my own experience, once that toenail starts lifting off, or pretty soon afterwards, there will be a new toenail starting its growth from the bottom of the nailbed and up. It's very slow growing, and its growth along the sides of the nailbed as it makes its way to the top are what will gradually lift the injured nail away from where it is attached. At some point before the new nail reaches the top the old nail will come off, leaving you with a partially grown new toenail and bare skin. In my experience (it's happened to me twice), that process takes a long time, it took mine over a year to grow a new nail.
My experience as well. A few years ago, I let my big toenail grow too long and it started splitting near the middle after I stubbed it on something. So it wasn't the whole nail coming off only the top third or so, but clipping it off would have exposed part of the nailbed. I decided to let the nail grow back, and after a while had to hold the falling-off nail together with a bandaid. I had to periodically put bandaids on the toe for many months before I felt I could clip the old one off....like 7 months probably.
Thanks! This is good to know - I was afraid that the skin underneath would be super sensitive since it isn't designed to be the top layer.
It will be supersensitive but only for a little while and then it toughens up..
Everything posted above regarding personal experiences is exactly right and what you would expect...
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Ran around like a wild mad thing for 2 days trying to stay one step ahead of them grabbing the stuff I needed for my trip). Once the pressure of the bruise had been relieved it didn't hurt nearly as much, but I knew the nail was probably doomed. Gradually the nail lifted off more and more so to prevent snagging it on something, pulling it off prematurely and tearing the nail bed, I started trimming it. It finally came loose several months later. The skin underneath wasn't that sensitive and over time it was more like a callus. Literally a year later there's a new healthy nail.
