snip snip

(note: no gory photos. sorry?)

my left toe/toenail has been sore on and off lately, so i decided to suck it up and go to the podiatrist. better to go now while i'm rebuilding my cardio and not chugging away towards a goal race. i assumed it was another ingrown toenail. i went back in march 2007 for my right toenail, and back then the doctor said i would probably have to come back for the left one. i kinda put it off.

so there i was, reclined in the big blue chair, waiting for the numbing shot. he first sprayed something super cold (kind of like those air cans used for cleaning keyboards) before jamming the needle in. the cold spray helped but it didn't fully block the sting.

while we waited for the anesthetic to kick in, he kindly clipped off my two black nails (2nd toes). then he used a dremel tool and essentially sanded the new mini-nail growing underneath. oh to be a podiatrist! glamorous.

15 minutes later he came back to check on me and the numbness. unfortunately the first shot hadn't fully numbed my toe as intended. turns out i have a unique nerve on the bottom side of my toe, which the doc said wasn't in many textbooks. go figure. a second shot and a couple minutes later, it was good to go.

from here i can only assume what went on because i was too nervous to watch. i was holding my phone in front of my face to text block the view (even though most of the time my eyes were shut) and he asked me if i was video taping the procedure. i guess i have blogger written on my forehead. sorry to let you down, but i did not take a video. basically what happens is the doctor trims the nail down the side of the toe and then burns the root with acid to hopefully prevent it from growing back (and possibly becoming ingrown again).

for the next couple weeks i have to tend to the bandaging and wear a sexy black shoe-boot. i can resume running when i'm able to get my foot in a shoe. i found this a little odd because last time he said it would take two weeks, but whatever. either way, i knew that i'd be modifying an old pair of shoes (like last time) to keep my toenail from hitting the toebox before it fully heals. unfortunately it seems i've thrown away that pair so i had to cut up another pair. hopefully this time i won't run into get run over by a car.