free at last

Here—stare lovingly at the toenail of my right-middle toe:

This blackened horror has been hanging off my foot since that walk I took to Incheon and back this past spring. At first, the bruising underneath the toenail—actually two toenails—didn't look at that bad, but it got darker over time, which made me think the nails were both going to come off eventually. I never showed my toes to my doctor because I was sure he was going to lecture me about diabetes again and claim that my subungual hematomata (doctor-speak for under-the-nail bruises) were actually incipient gangrene brought on by poor circulation in my feet. The departure of my toenail, and the timing of the original bruising, shows that this has nothing to do with diabetes. So there, Doc.

And now, like the man waiting for the other shoe to drop, I have to wait for the second toenail to fall off. I don't want to rip the nail out for fear that I'll cause unnecessary bleeding that might lead to infection. I have faith, though, that Nail #2's day will come.