these little piggies bled out

I think one problem with my discolored toenails was that they were too long. I decided to cut them on Saturday, and while I should have expected what was going to happen, I was startled when my two blood-colored toenails actually spurted out blood when I applied the clippers to them. Yum.

So, yes: the discoloration underneath the toenails had to do with the gathering of blood in those areas. A slight overreach with the clippers, and boom: spurting blood. Not much blood, to be sure: only maybe a quarter of a teaspoon for each toe. And it was totally painless, unlike when you accidentally chew into a cuticle with your clippers. It was then a matter of squeezing out the remainder of the collected blood, and then covering the tiny cuts with bandages (pictured above).

I'll remove the bandages soon to see whether any more blood has collected under the toenails. I'd noticed that the toenails lost their discoloration once the blood had been drained from them. This almost makes me think that the way to save my toenails is to lance the skin underneath them to allow collected blood to drain. I'm thinking that allowing the blood to remain, coagulate, and dry up is what causes the toenails to fall off. I may have stumbled upon a way to treat my bruised toes from now on.