In the beginning of this blog I decided I wanted to open the eyes of many to the life that I lead. I have noticed that most of my posts are slightly depressing or at least some would perceive them as that. But my life is very full of happy moments.With some moments of sadness and frustration. But don't we all? That being said moving on to the topic of the night.
I wanted to take some time to talk a little bit about how very important walking is to the human body. It is amazing to see how much my body has been effected since being paralyzed. There are loads of little stuff that is majorly effected by not being upright. A few months after the accident my mom and I noticed that I kept getting ingrown toenails (sick, I know!) It seemed like no matter what we did the issue wouldn't go away. After battling them for over a year I went to a pediatrist to see what his opinion was. What he told me made me realize just how much maintenance my body would be from now on. According to him because I am not up walking everyday putting pressure on my feet that it causes the actual toe nail to curl under and constantly cause ingrown toenails. I thought to myself so you mean to tell me that standing up even effects the shape of our toenails?! It is crazy to think just how dependent each tiny little part is to the bigger picture.
I had to have surgery on my toes to cut the sides and restitch them to the skin. They took forever to heal because of the lack of circulation in my legs (no muscle contractions to move the blood around, causes yet another health problem). The surgery was almost 5 years ago and my left toenail has never been the same but I just figured that was just the way it was. About 2 months ago I noticed a little black spot under my toenail and thought it was just nail polish I didn't get all the way off. After putting it off and the spot getting bigger I made a doc appointment. Welp, I am probably going to lose the nail for good and the black spot was a fungus. Awesome. Apparently after the surgery my nail never reattached to skin and somehow the fungus made it's way under the nail and made itself a home. Most of the nail had to be cut away to expose the fungus. Twice a day I have to apply oil based something to kill it, the doc said this may take months (another awesome fact). I know it is just a nail and who really cares in the big picture but it is just one of those moments where I want to scream. I hate having to constantly pay attention to any little tiny change in a body part that I can't feel because that little cut or bruise can lead to a much bigger problem. I also realize anyone can get a fugues in their toenail but I am sure if I could feel my toe I would have noticed that the nail had lifted away but I didn't and now here we are.
Moral of the story? My all time favorite DON'T TAKE THE LITTLE THINGS FOR GRANTED, especially your health. Because our health is all we have and who knows when our bodies will need that extra TLC.
Side note, I plan to begin posting weekly if not more and I can promise most of the will be complaining about the stupid grad school application process. Have a Happy Week!
It is amazing on how having weight on your feet affect your toe nails. I think I have had an ingrown nail on every toe and I've lost one too.
ReplyDeleteYes it is a pain in the ass to watch for all these little things, but if we don't, they could end up killing us. For those not paralyzed, that is a very serious statement. We really have to pay attention to our bodies and what they are saying to us.
I have not this exact problem but a similar one so I can relate to you, it's so frustrating. One of my nails grows weird, like, upwards and not like a normal nail, the others get kind of ingrown but I can almost always catch them before they get too bad (except one time) and they grow really slowly. On top of that my toes push out at the large toe joint and make the other toes cross, plus it hurts.. and wearing shoes is a pain if they aren't like, sandals, tennis shoes, or something really soft and comfortable. Good luck! I wish I could see a podiatrist though, but it's not covered.
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