My Hoe Toe is Forever GONE!

****WARNING****

IF YOU HAVE A WEEK STOMACH THEN I DON'T ADVISE LOOKING AT THE PICTURES!

OK, now we can proceed :)

Well, I did it!

I don't know if I'll be this happy about it after I change my dressing in a half hour but for now I can't see the toe and the throbbing is minimum cause I took 2 Ibuprofen pre-procedure :)

Over all, it went really well....

John took 1/2 a day at work to be my support person and to be Mr. Camera Man :)

(By support person, I mean listen to me babble non stop before and during the procedure cause when I'm nervous I tend to talk WAY more then I do already.... and I talk alot anywhos!)

The pictures are a little fuzzy (camera was his phone) but I think you'll get the story with the pictures :)

I wanted to do this post because in my infinite Internet searching before the procedure, I only found a VERY FEW sites that talked about how the procedure is done and only 2 sites that show pictures....

So, if anyone happens to stumble across my blog by searching for PERMANENT TOENAIL REMOVAL... trust me, if I can do it... YOU CAN TOO! I have a phobia of toes... I even called my family doc and he gave me a few Xanax for the procedure but I'm VERY proud to say that I did it WITHOUT Xanax! Woot!

Ok... enjoy!

Start of the procedure... getting my shots of Lidocaine. She was nice and used a little cryo spray on my skin so the shots don't hurt as much :)

MORE shots....

And again... more with the Lidocaine (but I am VERY happy about this...)

I said, "DOC! My toe is turning PURPLE!" and she says, "DANA! It's probably because I just applied an anesthesia tourniquet inside your toe!" She so funny....

And I thought I was done with the shots???? Nope. Upon the "poke test", turns out I need some more on the left side of my toe... apparently I take more Lidocaine then an average person... (actually, I must have an amazing body because I was advised that the Lidocaine wouldn't wear off for 4-5 hours... WRONG. Mine wore off in LESS THEN TWO!!!! WTF!?!? I'm going to have to remember that for any future procedures.... argh...)

Getting ready for the removal....

AND IT'S OFF!

Here's a nice close up for all you gross people that like stuff like this ;-)

HERE COMES THE BURN! Phenol chemical burn so the toenail will never grow back.... Burns the matrix of the toenail away...

Yes, she had to do the burn FOUR TIMES.... and in between the burn, she has to SCRAPE the nail bed to remove all the fungal build up, scar tissue, and soft nail remnants... oh, and yes, your nail bed looks BLACK when the Phenol is applied... (I admit, that part grossed me out... ALOT.)

ALL DONE!

I can honestly say that the worse is probably ahead of me... It's supposed to take about 6-8 weeks to heal so I might update with some more pics during the healing process... :)

K, off to try that soaking thing... I'm going to be very on top of it this time cause when I had half the nail removed a year ago, I waited too long in between soaks and the gauze kept STICKING to my nail bed... eeewwwwwyyyy.... not this time! I'll soak this bitch every 2 hours if I have to just to prevent that sticking crap!

Hugs and Love!

Dana