Sunday, July 08, 2007

Fingernail finally came off...Photo of smashed fingernail being pulled off the finger - gruesome photo of smashed finger


The smashed finger saga of the Soul Amp keyboardist continues. Finally my fingernail has come off. At the base of it, the new nail that was growing and started to push the dead nail up. Here's the pic of it hours before the nail came off (taken on 7/3/2007 at 2:18 pm):

smashed finger just hours before nail comes off - soul-amp.com


I got it caught just a bit on my shirt a few hours later (7/3/2007 at 11:39 pm) and that loosened it up enough for it to start peeling away from the finger:

smashed finger nail coming off - soul-amp.com


smashed finger nail coming off - soul-amp.com

Finally, I just yankeed it off:

smashed finger nail coming off - soul-amp.com

And here's the end result (the little bit of blood at the top right is where it was still attached some):

smashed finger just after pulling nail off - soul-amp.com I'll post pics as the nail begins to grow back. I definitely need to write a song about this (this hasn't really affected my playing).... until I do please check out a bunch of our free mp3s to download here:

Free Soul Amp Music

.........
1 year and 4 months later:

Here's all the posts documenting the smashed finger saga (in reverse order):

Anyone with a story of a smashed finger, I'll be happy to post it. Just drop an email or feel free to comment on this post or any of the others.

Here's one from a reader named Gordon:
http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/11/photos-of-finger-that-was-sliced-by.html

And in the meantime, feel free to distract yourself with some delightful music from my band, Soul Amp:

http://www.soul-amp.com/Top_Ten_Songs.html

10 comments:

Jorja Jiorujie said...

thank you for posting your progress!

it is a big relief for me as i just lost my dead nail, couple of hours ago and it looked exactly like yours!

only i smashed my thumb. T_T

but thank you again!

M1 said...

np

Sorry to hear about your thumb....

I've been meaning to post some pics of the my finger as it is now (1 year later). You can't even tell it was ever smashed. So hang in there...it'll grow back! =)

Docemama said...

On Nov. 29, 2008, I smashed my thumb in a car door and yanked it out without opening the door first. I didn't have time to think about it; my body just responded instinctively. If I had seen what had happened to cause my hand so much pain, maybe I would have had the sense to open the door first and save myself much of the agony that would plague me for the next month and a half. Unfortunately for me, I was in a hurry and was looking toward my destination.

The trauma to my thumb (and at first, whole hand) was pure hell! My thumb didn't bleed and I didn't know you could take a hot needle to it, so the pressure built up over a few days. By the time I went to the doctor, the internal bleeding had dried under the nail so they couldn't release the blood with the needle. It just hurt all around, even the slightest touch was agony. The painkillers I was prescribed, hardly did anything for me. I was in so much pain that I usually had my hand up in the air to release some of the pressure but that didn't do much. Soon, I couldn't even move my thumb, so it look like I was making a permanent thumbs up sign. (At work, my colleagues joked about how positive my attitude was and how much spirit I had, what with my thumb always being up.)

It wasn't long before my thumb started to change to a sickly shade of purplish black, shrivel up and the nail began to curl in a weird way. My friends and family, myself included, seriously thought I was going to lose my thumb! I was then directed to another doctor who removed the nail for me. The anguish that came after that was the worse yet!!! But the hurt began to recede within that week.

Now, in April of 2009, I basically have a whole new nail and what feels like a completely different thumb. I have small bump at the end of my nail but I think that will be gone soon as it grows some more. It also have a purplish gray tint to my nail, which I guess was from all that built up blood near the joint that was making it impossible for me to move my thumb. My hand works perfectly now and I'm so glad that I still have every bit of it today!

M1 said...

Thanks for the story. I hope people who go through this don't lose hope. Smashed fingers often recover completely as often do broken arms, but that's another story =)

I'm so glad your thumb is doing better!

Mrs. H said...

Thank you for posting pictures of your injury and recovery. I smashed my pinky finger in a car door 2 months ago.

The door was completely closed, but oddly, I only knew it was in there because I was stuck there. It didn't hurt at all. So, I opened the car door and looked over my finger; wiggled it to see if it was broken, and then went to get an Italian Water Ice (at the shop we had gone to) to poke my finger in. Of course, then I passed out, and remember very little of the rest of that day. Boy did it hurt after I woke up!

And now my fingernail has finally "let go" (caught it my belt loop!), and it is hanging on by a just tiny bit in the back. I am far too squeamish to pull it off, though I'm pretty certain it wouldn't hurt at this point. But I did peek under there, and was worried about what I saw. But having seen your photos, I believe it is coming alone fine. Thank you again for putting my mind at ease. :)

Emily

Cloie Mclaughlin said...

Dude, i just smashed my fingernail in a dunk tank at silverwood :( i never thought u could hurt urself sept 4 ur head, but i was mstaken, the nail was so bad tho, i had to go to an urgent care center and they removed it easy peazy. hurtz so bad tho dont it?

Anonymous said...

Hi,
about 2 years ago i smashed my index finger no nail has grown back as of yet, now it's become a nervous tick i pick at it and i try to keep a bandaid on it but what can i do to help my nail grow back ?

Thanks
Nail Picker

M1 said...

Hi.

I don't know what you should do. I'd definitely go to the doc to see what they say.

That doesn't seem at all cool that it hasn't grown back.

Also, there's a lot of stuff out there on the net about biting and picking nails and skin (and snoses...yep we all do that once in a while :-) ) and all that and how to stop.

But if I were you I'd seek some medical help on that nail not growing back. I'm just a guy who smashed his finger so I really don't know that much about it beyond what I experienced.

I so very much wish you the best on it growing back ok...

Anonymous said...

From anonymous on 12/03/2011:

I'm so glad you posted this (3-4 years ago)! My daughter smashed her finger a couple weeks ago and I was wondering how long it will take for it to fall off and let a new one grow ! Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Yet another smashed nail story here. Mine was smashed between a metal door and brick wall. That night was the worst pain I've ever experienced. I took a sterilized drill bit to mine to relief the pressure, and it immediately felt better. The nail looks horrible. It's been about two months and the nail is starting to come off the bed. Guess it'll fall off, but I'm glad to find these pictures of the progress. Thanks for posting them and keeping them online.