Greetings. It’s been a while. The original purpose of this blog was to, and I quote myself:

“(…) regularly put up photos of my toe to observe the growth of the nail and at the end of it make the most horrifying animation.”

At first regularly was every second day or something alike, but that turned into only a few times a week which then turned into only almost never. Now, 28 days later (no pun intended), I post once more.

The reason who I stopped posting regularly was not that I didn’t have the time. It was simply because I wanted to wait until the toe itself had healed and the nail had started to show any signs of growth. What I didn’t know was that it had already begun growing. I just didn’t realize it since I misunderstood how nails are actually grown. I had this misplaced thought that the nail would more or less be formed and then slowly moving up to it’s desired position, but as it turns out it slowly builds up from the bottom and hardens. So all of the stuff I thought was skin trying to cover the wound was actually skin and nail material being formed.

So yeah, the nail has begun growing. It’s not completely hardened yet, and I could – if I absolutely wanted to – remove the current nail material to reset the growth so I can properly observe the nail growth in photos, but I won’t do that for various reasons.

One being that I’m not a fucking moron.

But without further ado, here’s today’s photo in all its glory.

The brighter curvy material at the start of the nail bed is the current placement of the nail.

So, for the first time since the operation I tried to wear proper footwear again, I was pretty confident that I would be able to just ignore the pain, but soreness arose once more and it hurt pretty fucking bad. Seems like I can’t rush it, I might even have to wait until it’s fully healed before I can wear footwear. Shit.

If you compare the photo below with the photo from the September 5th update it seems as if the area of the nail has gotten smaller. A whole lot smaller. Perhaps the inflammation is just disappearing or the skin is eating the nail area.

Almost a week after the operation and it’s starting to look like something. It’s starting to heal and hopefully I can wear some proper footwear by next weekend so I can actually go to work.

I thought the tiny thing by the base of the ‘nail-line’ was the beginning of a nail, but that was just… whatever it is. It’s not a nail. Shit.

And oh, I had to shave the hair on my big toe to prevent it from getting stuck in the bandage and sticking plaster. So now I’ve got stubble on my toe. Itchy.

When I had the toe operated, I was told that I probably would be soar for a week or more, but as of now, I’m not really feeling any soreness at all. The feeling of pressure upon the toe is still pretty odd and I found out that when showering I have to avoid water splashing down on it, because damnit that actually hurts.

As for footwear, I’m rocking the most alternative of shoestyles I’ve ever seen. One flip flop and one regular shoe.

I pray that the next 1-2 weeks will be all dry or else I’m screwed.

The purpose of this blog is simply to inform, observe and educate.

• How is the the growth process of a human toenail?
• How long does it take for it grow out?
• Does the environment effect the growing of the toenail?

Or perhaps I’m just doing it for the shits and giggles. You’ll be the judge.

And oh, I hope to win the ‘Most Graphically Disturbing’ award at next year’s Blog Awards.

… assuming they have one of those.

The bandage was removed earlier today and I was geniuely surprised about how nasty it looked. I was expecting to get some ligther bandage on, but the doctor just smacked a sticking plaster on and sent me on my way. So I am to replace the sticking plaster twice every day, so it looks like I’ll be spending quite a few bucks on buying that shit.

The aftermath of the operation weren’t really what I expected. I expected to be able to wear regular footwear within a few days and pretty much be fine by then. It turns out I can’t wear regular footwear within the first 1-2 weeks, which means I can’t really go to work = no cash. I’m stuck with one flip flop on one foot. Shit. And I had signed up for water skiing at the school’s annularly activity day which is held this Friday, but that sure has hell won’t happen. And the Danish weather is the most unreliable of all, so I won’t know if we end up getting rain in the middle of the day while I’m at school wearing fucking flip flops.

Conclusion: Fuck yeah, good times.

So, this is how my toe looks after bathing it in soap. (I know, it makes me shrug too)

This was the day of the surgery. It was a success (I guess). The only thing that really hurt was the injection of the anesthetic – which was injected 4 times due to the inflammation. I felt that. I really felt that.

Here’s the first of many photos.

My name is Marc and pretty much everything else about is not important at all. The only thing of great importance is this:

I had my big toe operated. The nail was removed. And now I’m wondering how long it’ll take for it to grow back.

If you don’t give a shit about the backstory, just scroll down to the “…and now” section.

Backstory:

For my entire life I’ve been struggling with feet problem, more precisely ingrown toenails. They seem to come around once in a while, but usually goes away after only short periods of annoyance – no help from doctors were required.

But at the beginning of 2010 it came back to piss me off, and as always, I just waited for it go away. The nail was ingrown in the right side of the big toe. Months passed and it just got worse and a bit swollen. I was told that I had to use some sort of device that had to be placed under the nail to slowly pull it out. If I were to get the treatment right away I wouldn’t be able to attend the skiing trip organized by the school, so I just put the treatment on hold.

… That was around February.

In the summer it started to cause me shitloads of pain. Now both sides of the nail was ingrown and the toe was horrible inflamed. The slightest touch could make me squeal. So I decided to get it properly checked and just as I feared, they needed to slice it up and remove the nail. But I had shown up oat the wrong time, since the entire clinic was taking a 4-5 week vacation. So I had to schedule my operation for the end of August, the 31th to be exact

…and now:

It’s now the 1st of September and I had surgery yesterday. I was cut up in both sides, the nail was removed and all of the inflamed skin was removed.

The idea of the blog is to regularly put up photos of my toe to observe the growth of the nail and at the end of it make the most horrifying animation. The doctors said that a nail can be fully outgrown in about 6-12 months, and since I’m 18 it’s probably closer to 6.

So be prepared to barf a little everytime you check this blog.

Enjoy your stay.

And for fuck’s sake, don’t browse while eating.

Cheers.