Toenail-less in El Dorado

Here's the email that Mitch sent to some friends and family about my toe-nail incident Tuesday morning. He thought it would make a good blog post.

Here’s the whole story:

About 7:30 AM we heard a loud truck, presumably the trash truck, rumbling down Neel Street . This was earlier than usual, so I had not yet taken the trash to the curb. Jo Ellen hollered for me to get the trash, but I had just gotten out of the shower so I couldn't get to it in time. Jo Ellen clad in flip flops and a robe went running down the side yard pulling the trash can when she hung the big toe of her left foot on one of the stepping stones. She still got to the curb with the can, and managed to pick up the newspaper before hobbling back up the sidewalk. Her toe was a cringe inducing site, with the big toe nail pulled straight up with blood, dirt, grass, etc. My mom came over to stay with Ainsley; we dropped Will off at school, and then headed to the SAMA clinic since we figured a toenail injury would be low on the priority list at the ER.

We had to wait for over an hour, but eventually got to see Dr. Bevill. He gave her a shot on both sides of her big toe to deaden it. Jo Ellen did really well with that; I guess compared to childbirth it was bearable. He clipped off the nail that was sticking up at a 90O angle, and then got out something that looked like a catfish skinner to trim some more of the nail away. He decided that the 1/3 of her nail that was left appeared to still be attached to the toe, so he opted not to remove the remaining part since that would cause even more trauma. He said that we’ll know in a week if the nail will recover or start to slough off on its own. Sent her home with a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to keep it covered with Neosporin and a band aid, and wait for the soreness to get better. The new nail will just take time to grow in.

And to add insult to injury, the loud truck that started all this wasn’t even the trash truck after all. It came at the usual time.

After we got finished at SAMA, and picked up provisions at the pharmacy I did treat her to lunch with a Dr. Pepper at Sonic.

No matter how your day is going, at least you didn’t get your toenail ripped off.

Sincerely,

Mitch Colvin