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

The Art in me....

So, I did the painting for charity last week and I think it's started something brewing in me....

I sometimes forget myself. I forget the things I used to enjoy doing.... things that I spent time and money on studying in high school and college... I get so wrapped up in everyday life that sometimes, I even forget to pee! But, that's besides the point :)

I have studied art. I USED to enjoy painting and drawing and charcoal... you name it, I did it.

The only problem for me was the art itself. You see I'm one of those people that believe different things about art. For starters, I've never taken art history. Sure, it is important to study art, however I don't like it when people force interpretations of artwork down my throat. I FIRMLY believe that not every painting out there has a reason.... the Mona Lisa? Maybe there was NO reason behind the painting. Maybe it was just what da Vinci FELT like painting that day! Another belief? I think art should be touched. Yes, yes, yes, I understand that the oils in our fingers can damage some art work but art is beautiful... I love touching paintings and feeling the texture, the brush strokes, the canvas....

Due to these and other reasons, all my work was packed away when I became a mother.... The term "Starving Artist" was so named for a reason... I looked at my little Zakari and realized that I wanted a steady job that provided for him, not a job that may or may never evolve into something...

BUT...

this weekend

I went down stairs and looked at my portfolio again.

So tell me what you think?

Maybe I'll start painting again :)

This is a portrait of myself pregnant with Izeah

Charcoal drawing of me pregnant again

My hair has always been a good color point in art :)

This is a replication of a piece by Henri Matisse... sorry, can't claim it as origional :)

Faces are difficult for me so I've practiced them... ALOT.

My very first nude

This is a piece that I had to draw with one pen stroke... if you look close, it's all connected.

I love the human body!

More faces...

Geometric shapes...

Still life, watercolor and acrylic

Line drawing and pointillism

I love hands too...

Self portrait :)

Water For Christmas Biznitches!

John and I have friends that last year started working to raise donations for Water For Christmas after they brought their 3rd child home from Africa...

What is Water For Christmas you ask??? Well... it's an organization that raises money to provide clean drinking water for the people of Africa. Click on the link and the website explains it in-depth... the simple concept of clean drinking water.

Now... I don't know what was wrong with me last year but this year I decided to get off my arse and see what I could do to help! So I emailed Tesi to see what I could do.... at first, I was just knitting some scarves to sell on the ETSY Water For Christmas shop when she asks me if I want to paint an Africa.... a what!?!?! Yep, paint an Africa to be auctioned of for the charity...

OF COURSE I WILL! So Tesi comes by and brings me this.....

hmmmm..... what do I paint on this? She says whatever I want is fine :) Well... I still want it to be something African related....

soooo......... I get to this point (above) and I'm stuck.

I sat on it for a bit... and finally got it :) Here she is! Painted by yours truly and available for auction on November 21st!

I'm rather proud of myself! :) Sorry, I'm done patting my back about the picture... now on to the scarves!

It really is amazing how fast one can knit when they're excited about a project. I don't think I've whipped 2 scarves out ever this fast before... but the two scarves are done! They are each hand knit (duh!) with fringe on the end. The button decals are vintage buttons, repainted with H2O (sub an African symbol there) and sewn onto the scarf :)

Painting the buttons.... you can see all my professional art supplies here, no? ;-)

Scarf 1

Scarf 2

So there's a preview to what you can spend your dollars on if you so feel inclined to! If you would also love to join us, the info is below on the cards :) November 21st, Redstone Room, 7 PM! I'll be there...... will you???

The Hoe Toe Returns!

Ok all... I'm all sorts of grossed out and lost here.... I need advice! If anyone knows a podiatrists and wants to ask them HONESTLY if it's worth it... or just give me opinions, that would be awesome!

Here's the deal. I have a HUGE, like.... HUGE HUGE toe aversion. I don't like them touched, rubbed, sucked on, NOTHING. It takes literally ALL of my will power just to trim my own nails. Seriously, maybe I should ask for some Xanax from my doc!

In the past they have been REPEATEDLY traumatized.

-- When I was a kid, my left 2nd toe was stepped on and the nail went back into the skin.... OUCH!

-- I ran a 7 mile race when I was 16 and BOTH my big toenails popped off due to running pressure.

-- The year Ryan died, I broke and REBROKE both my pinky toes a total of 7 times in ONE YEAR. I kept stubbing them, dropping crap on them, etc.

-- Right after Ryan died, my brother jumped out and scared me when I was walking in the back door. I kicked the back of a stair and got a compression fracture in my left big toe, and the nail fell off.... AGAIN.

-- While it was growing back, a friend stepped on it with heals and thus started an INGROWN TOENAIL on my left big toe.

-- I dug it out myself for 1 and a half years!

-- If you remember this post, you will know I finally let John talk me into having the ingrown toenail cut out... still can't believe I was able to do it.

-- So it grew back, and started to become ingrown AGAIN. I made an appointment for a podiatrist.

HERE IN LIES THE PROBLEM.

Because my toe has been traumatized SO MUCH, it is obviously fungally infected. And due to all the times it's fallen off, been removed, etc... it is only attached half way down. The rest is all just hangin out. (When I trim it, I literally trim it half way down the toe). Then the week of my wedding, I (was intoxicated) and somehow managed to injure it AGAIN. I somehow scraped a chunk of the top skin off and jammed the nail BACK INTO THE TOE. So the podiatrist cut it out and we scheduled a surgery to have the whole thing removed and chemically burned so as to never regrow....

BUT. I'M. SCARED.

SHITLESS.

And here's a pic... sorry if it's gross! You see the pink part @ the bottom of the nail??? That and a little above it is all that's attached under the nail, and you see the sides? That's like an ingrown toenail just WAITING to happen!

So I have made an appointment for another podiatrist for a second opinion. You see, it's not bothering me too badly right now so it's hard for me to voluntarily cause myself pain. Maybe it would be different if it was ingrown right now.... it's a lot easier to embrace that pain, if it's SOLVING another painful issue....

Oh hell, I don't really know...

ADVICE PLEASE???????