Just Simply Holly

As some of you already know, I’ve dealt with an ingrown toe nail for a few months now. Because of different things that were going on and then ultimately losing our insurance for almost two months, I just haven’t been able to do anything about it. If it started bothering me, I’d soak it a couple of times in some really warm water with Epsom salts, then I’d have my hubby trim it back for me.

This week I knew it was getting to the point that I needed to have it taken care of professionally. I was hoping that I could just keep doing what I had been doing through the holidays, then have it taken care of then. Mostly because right now I just can’t afford to miss time from work. That all changed when I woke up this morning!

As soon as my feet hit the floor when I woke up, I KNEW I had problems. Just the act of putting weight on my food sent waves of pain through my toe. When I got out to where there was better light and looked at my toe I kind of freaked out! My toe was almost double it’s normal size and was really red, except up near the top of the toe nail, where it had an almost purple tinge. I immediately started soaking it, hoping that it would soften the nail up enough for my husband to be able to trim it back a little more to relieve the pain. Rather than providing even the smallest amount of relief like it normally did, soaking my foot pushed the pain to what I would call severe.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a chicken when it comes to pain, my tolerance for it is VERY low. What I would consider the worst pain I’ve felt in my lifetime was giving birth to my daughter without even an IV in my arm. She was a 100% natural birth. My pain this morning was easily 10 times worse than that pain. I would be OK one minute, then the next I was in so much pain I was on the verge of throwing up!

Finally, around noon, the reality of a trip to the ER was an absolute necessity kicked in. So hubby and I loaded ourselves up in the van and headed off to the closest one in hopes everything would be done and over by 4 PM because the kids had somewhere to be at 5. We got to the ER and seen that security had the entrance blocked off. When we stopped to ask what was going on we were informed that Life Flight was coming in. Add that to the fact that the ER parking lot was COMPLETELY packed, and we both looked at each other and decided to go to one of the other hospitals that is covered by our insurance. That ended up being a good choice because not only was the ER not busy, I got the CUTEST male nurse and doctor I’ve ever seen…LOL!

So, to make a long story short, they ended up numbing my toe with several shots of lidocaine and removing almost half of the toenail from my big toe. I felt like an idiot for going to the ER over an ingrown toenail, but both my doctor and nurse assured me that if I hadn’t have came in and had it treated when I did, I was actually on the edge of having a severe infection that could have ended up costing me my toe, rather than just my toe nail.

For those with weak stomaches who don’t like gross stuff, the rest of this post will be “after the fold”

Now, being the whacked out person I am, and considering the fact that my toe was so completely numb that for the first time in a long time I had absolutely no pain from it, I had to take the chance to “document” the occasion….LOL! So I grabbed my cell phone and turned on the camera and took pictures of both the chunk of toenail that was removed as well as my poor bleeding toe…LOL! Although the pictures aren’t “that” bad, they are kind of weird, so if you don’t like the site of blood, don’t look at them.
First we have the chunk of toenail that was removed, as well as my hubby who was the one brave enough to pick it up and show it to me…LOL

Next we have my toe, after the removal, with blood streaming down from it. The poor thing bled like a stuck hog…LOL

So there you have it. I’m glad that the problems I’ve dealt with over the past couple of months are over and that it won’t be giving me any more problems. I’m also glad that I had a cute male nurse and doctor who didn’t make me feel like a complete idiot…LOL! I’m even more glad for the good drugs they gave me that will send me off to LaLa land….LMAO!