ouch

[leorl]

um, so i was playing basketball tonight and got my toes trampled on. the big toes of both of my feet are black, like they've got blood under the nails. any chance of infection, and how do i get them to stop hurting so much?

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[Kadyra]

Oh no!! Poor leorl! I hope they don't fall off. That happened to one of my thumbnails once. And as I recall, only time made the pain go away. And it hurt for like 2 weeks. Mine did not get infected and I was 15 at the time and in France pretending to fit in (I wasn't showering except for like 3 times a week... it was gross). So if my experience is any indication, it's hard for them to get infected.

 

[BlackPuma]

girl go see a doctor ASAP...or watcha will slap you silly!!!!

it happened to me once,and my nail startet growing into my flesh!!!! YUK YUK took 2 months to solve the problem!!!! ARGGGGGH

so go see a doctor ASAP!!!

 

[drmoon]

I'll give you some advice from a podiatrist.

It's unlikely that you'll get an infection from this type of injury. You may have fractured one of the phalanges or done some other soft tissue damage, but only an x-ray or thorough physical exam can tell. If it ends up being a fracture of the phalanges, the only thing to do is buddy splint the affected digit(s) and off weight as much as you can for 4-6 weeks. This might be why it still hurts.

In most cases, in the absence of other injuries, the nail will fall off in time and another new nail will take its place. Depending on how deformed it is, it may do what your friend mentioned and start growing into the flesh. In this case, it may be necessary to have local digital block and have the whole nail avulsed.

Another common technique to reduce the pain and swelling is to decompress the hemorraging underneath the nail by inserting a sharpened or heated instrument. This will sometimes allow the blood to extrude from the nail bed, thus limiting the discomfort.

We usually do a physical exam, take x-rays, and if everything is negative, decompress and tell the patient that time will take its course.

Good luck

 

[Purifyer]

I had a friend whose (sp?) big toe was smacked by a hockey stick. His nail fell off, but it never came back properly !! That was a couple of years ago, and it still grows back yellowish, and hideously deformed.. (doctors had tried treating it)

Theres not much longer for you leorl!$@!$

 

[Scooby Doo]

I was skiing and went off a wicked ass jump and landed pretty far back on my skis. My right toenail got jammed up into my boot but b/c it was snowing and I couldn't completely feel my toes I didn't knwo what was wrong. When we went in for lunch I took off my boots and then my toe started to ache really bad! I looked down and my sock was drenched with blood. I had jammed my toenail up into my toe and it was purple underneath. I could barely walk after the blood started flowing to my foot again. I had to walk my self to our medical center at my college (about 1 mile!) b/c I didn't know anyone with a car back here...and then they took a hot needle and stuck it through my nail to relieve the pressure. The pressure was the worst part of it! After that was relieved, I was happy

Go to the doctor so he can drain it for ya!
My toenail came off....and then it grew back fine...so nothing too bad

 

[killerrabbit]

I was a long distance runner through college and this use to happen to my toes all the time. Usually you could just take a needle and relieve the pressure by insterting right underneath the nail from the front. I probably had this happen 25 times in college, once my nail fell off and once I also had an infection and needed an antibiotic, but generally I agree you just need to get the pressure off.

 

[E'01]

awww sorry to hear that LEorl! Same thing happened to my thumb once. The blood pooled under the nail and really increased the sense of pressure. Anyway, it clotted, and so I took a sterilized needle and picked it out which was mucho fun! All the caked out blood came out and I still had my original nail

 

[leorl]

Thanks all!! Heheh actually, my twin logged onto my name and asked the q so imagine my surprise upon finding a thread that I didn't write . But yeah, her toes are pretty black so I'm telling her to go the doc. She was highly amused by your sympathetic stories though, and says THANKS!!! <img src="graemlins/laughy.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughy]" /> her. <img src="graemlins/pity.gif" border="0" alt="[Pity]" /> me to her.

 

[drmoon]

The podiatrist has some further info for you.

Sometimes, the nail trauma is so extensive that it damages the nail matrix which is just beneath the proximal nail fold. If the cells are damaged, there is no chance that the nail will regrow properly, thus the discolored/dystrophic appearing toenail. If this is the case, you'll probably need to have the entire nail avulsed and have the matrix ablated with either a sharp instrument or phenolic acid. If the procedure is successful, you will never have a toenail on that digit again and the surrrounding tissue edges will begin to slowly encircle the nail bed reducing the overall area of the nail bed.

 

[johnM]

I hope she is doing alright! My brother had a similar problem a couple weeks ago when I smashed his thumb in a wood-splitter! It was all black underneath, and my Dad swore that we needed to take action. It may sound a little primal (as it did to me at the time) but we heated a paper clip over the stove and poked a hole in the nail. It lets the pressure out, and really seemed to help. Later I talked to my sister (an ER nurse) and she told me that they do something similar at the hospital, but use a needle heated with an electrode or something.

 

[E'01]

johnm - great minds think alike

 

[Daredevil]

I used to play soccer when I was in grade school, I would get "dislodged" big toe nails a few times. Fortunately, the 'dead' nail would eventually fall off, replaced by the new nail that would grow right underneath it. My foot odor, however, remains to be a problem.. hehe

 

[tussy]

Originally posted by johnM:
•It may sound a little primal (as it did to me at the time) but we heated a paper clip over the stove and poked a hole in the nail. It lets the pressure out, and really seemed to help. Later I talked to my sister (an ER nurse) and she told me that they do something similar at the hospital, but use a needle heated with an electrode or something.•••

Hmmm, i did my ER rotation last month, and we used a paper clip heated with a cigarette lighter!!! Sometimes low-tech works best!!!

 

[nitro girl]

My friend had a toe nail prob this summer...i advised him to see an MD after it started getting necrotic. no kidding. looked like anatomy lab all over. yuck. The doctor he saw drained out the blood via a hole in the toenail and it took a month to heal.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Have you tried putting a leech on it?

 

[leorl]

mmm, lemme just go grab a leech from the river....

Okay, so...one toe isn't so bad. The other toe is completely gray/black underneath like there's definitely dried blood underneath...but it doesn't look oozing or completely mangled or anything. So she went to health services and I guess they didn't have a needle or anything to relieve pressure with so they just gave her a lot of ibuprofen and charged her the $15 copay. So she went to see their recommended podiatrist, and he recommended a $150 toenail removal procedure!!! What do you think of that? Her toe looks bad and it hurts, but not THAT badly. I think he's just out to screw poor students out of more money. Opinions?

 

[BlackPuma]

this thread has made me realize on why I dont want to become a podiatrist....YUK

dealing with pple's feet all the time...what happens if its smelly too? lol

hope you get better vivian (don't ask me how I know your name, cuz I'm psychic)

by the way, are you the evil twin, or the good twin

 

[MikeSimouns]

As of me I wanna be Podiatrist the different kinds of foot problem amaze me.

 

[Thumpthump]

if after 13 years it still hurts, you should probably go to urgent care...

 

[operaman]

if after 13 years it still hurts, you should probably go to urgent care...

No way man, 13 years of toe pain calls for a 2am ED visit.

 

[masaraksh]

You need a broad spectrum tyrosine kinase inhibitor