Up and around again

I stubbed another toe on my left foot. This time it was the baby toe, and I'm pretty sure it's not broken. I still think that I fractured the middle one when I stubbed it. It took forever for the swelling, pain and color to diminish. This time the pain improved after a few days of limping. Today, day four, I felt like the toenail might be disconnected although I've kept it wrapped in a bandage. So, after the morning's errands and an hour or so of elevating it, I decided to take a closer look.

There is just a bit of redness on the inner edge of the knuckle and it only aches when I apply pressure. The wound, which I super glued closed before applying the first bandage, wept for three days. On the second day I began cleaning it regularly with my custom skin toner mix (witch hazel, hydrogen peroxide, lemon, tea tree, lavender, rose hip, sweet orange and calendula oils). When I applied it this afternoon, I saw that the glue was starting to peel. I also saw that the toenail was barely holding on, so I took out my cotton swabs, gauze and cuticle nippers, put on my glasses and got to work. It was a bloody process, but the gross, crusty infection that threatened to take hold on day two had no chance against oil magic. Once the partially disconnected toenail was sufficiently moistened with the toner blend, I could see the areas where it was still secured to the toe. I carefully snipped around them with the nippers until the nail bed was exposed. Blood. Gauze and pressure. Clean up with toner. More blood. More gauze and pressure.

Eventually I was able to trim off the remaining pieces of separated toenail from the cuticle and stop the bleeding. I let the raw skin breathe for a few minutes before applying coconut oil, new gauze and a bandage. No more limping! Yea!