Annoyed With My Big Toe

Back in January I slipped on some ice, and in the process of trying to keep from falling jammed my right big toe into the ice. This resulted in my doing a "pain dance" around the truck for a good 10 minutes, and after the bad bruising went down I lost my right big toenail. It was only a few weeks prior to this incident that I began painting my toenails on a regular basis (yeah I know, should have started earlier, etc lol)...but now I'm all lopsided. The nail is growing back but seems to be taking it's sweet time about it. Doc says it looked ok at my physical...so just a matter of time before my paint looks balanced again.
Sorry for the rant. :-D We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

Rant away! I can imagine it's annoying. There are vitamin supplements to encourage nail and hair growth, won't make everything lighting fast, but could even things out just a wee bit sooner

Continental drift. I once heard that finger/toe nails grown at the same rate as the continents of Europe and America are moving apart.

Hey think of it as an unstoppable force!

I once dropped a concrete slab on a fingernail. It took about a year before it was completely right, but you can't see the damage at all now. Hang in there, but if it hurts a lot or goes a nasty colour seek medical advice.

Cosmetic changes do take time, but when fixed you soon forget about it. :-)

Cheryllynn, had a awful fungus in my toe which I had laser therapy. It has been more than a year and it still has not fully grown out.

Toenails grow slow so you will just have to wait.

Sorry to hear about the injury. Count your blessings. I really shy away from going barefoot as my toes and toenails are so deformed they might make people run off screaming. You might consider your toenail growth this way - it is about as fast as our continent is moving south by southwest. So, in one respect your toenail regrowth follows geological time and in the other respect changes on geological time scales are amazingly fast. Just something to think about when you look at your toenail and its slow progress. But take solace in the fact that the shape of your toenail is under genetic control and will one day be the prettiest of them all. OK, this is weird, but it is useful to keep things in perspective and, I think, fun to think of it in different ways.

Toenails take forever to grow out. But this too shall pass. I pretty much live in my ski boots during the winter and at the used to loose my toenail on both of my big toes at the beginning of each season. I remember it taking nearly six months to grow out. When I changed boot fitters the problem went away. Hope you feel better.

Hi Cheryl :hugs:, It is time to get stick on toenail for when you are wearing open toe shoes.

>>>>>>>Orchid ..o:daydreaming:o..

Cheryl, I sympathize about the toenail. I love painting my toenails. I think it is because I can't do it very often, I have to shower at the gym at work and I am not out even a little bit at work. On the understanding side I took the top of my ring finger on my left hand completely off in a motorcycle crash. I tucked the front on the brakes and got my hand caught under the clip-on on the left side. My gloves did great until the one finger rotated and quick as that the top of that finger was gone. The doc didn't think the nail would grow back but it did, crooked. I keep it trimmed and a false nail covers it mostly so in that regard I am good.

Once your new toenail has grown out about half way, a nail technician should be able to sculpt you an acrylic nail that will look just like the natural one, especially if you wear polish on it. But there needs to be enough natural nail underneath for it to hold tightly, and from your description, I'm not sure if you're quite that far along yet.

I love the comparison of nail growth to continental drift. I'll be sure to share that one with my nail tech at my next visit!

- Diane

It can take 4-6 months for a big toe nail to fully grow back. It will probably even out over time. Might want to do some research on various vitamins to help nail growth.

If it doesn't come back in 6 months, make sure you see your doctor.

Thanks everyone for commiserating with me....I love the continental drift comparison. I don't need to put a fake nail over the real one as really the only ones who see them are myself and my wife. Probably won't be painting them too much over the summer as I tend to wear slides or flips all the time and I don't feel like explaining nicely painted toenails. :-D It's grown out about halfway so far, guessing by fall it will be back to normal and wearing pretty colors. :-)