My poor right big toe. About 2 years ago, I went for a long bike ride and pedaled with my toe flexed up. Nail turned black and took about 9 months to grow out healthy again. About 6 weeks after that, something happened and the same nail turned black. It was taking a lot longer to grow out this time. It was about half way healthy for IMFL. Well, it’s now completely black again. This is very, very annoying and I’m wondering if there is anything that I can do to make it grow up quicker so that I have a healthy and normal toenail again.
Did you try submerging it in flat coke?
How do I make flat coke? Is warm flat coke better than cold flat coke? Where can I get some warm flat coke online?
Grab ahold of it with a pair of pliers and give it a big yank.
Needlenosed pliers or regular pliers?
Eat lots of jello. Seriously.
There is no cure.
When I was about 20 I was lifting weights with the old cheap collars on the hollow bar using sort of 1/4" bolt kind of thingy. 10lbs cast iron weight fell off and hit on an edge right on the nail bed of my left big toe from shoulder height when I was doing curls. I’d lose that sucker at least once a year and many times it would grow out is some sort of weak mutant version that would die off and start over after a month or two. One time after it died off I left it on to provide protection for the new nail and eventually I was able to pull the old nail off all in one piece, my wife wasn’t too enamored with watching me do my imitation of “The Fly” but I thought it was pretty cool. 
Worst part for me is that after an extended period there is not much left of the channel for the nail to grow through so I had a sort of chronic ingrown nail problem as it recut the channel through my toe. My best advice is to leave the old nail on as long as possible to protect the new nail.
The good news for you is that after around 13 or 14 years the nail finally started looking somewhat normal though you can still see there is something wrong with it now, about 20 years later.
I have more of a preventative measure than a solution. I get the black toenails from skiing and I always let the blood out of the toes a day or so after noticing it. To do this, you sterilize a needle (boiling water for me) and then either poke a hole through the top of the nail or slide the needle between the nail and the nailbed. Through this you can push out the blood and puss that is accumulating. This relieves the pressure well and the pain pretty much disappears. The nail will sometimes go back to normal after this, sometimes turn white and fall off. I’m at about a 70% success rate saving nails. The toe never grows back black, I just sometimes turn it black skiing the next winter.
After the first dead toenail, I left the old nail on for awhile until I could trim it off. Oh, I have pics of that, too:
http://marajade.dyndns.org/pics/index.php?pageType=folder&currDir=./Randomness/Toenail
It grew out and looked fine. The second dead toenail was growing up, but a lot more slowly. It looked fine as well. I understand about leaving the old nail on there to help the new nail grow in, but the old nail isn’t attached to the nail bed anymore so it sticks up a bit and it hurts when I snag it on something. I’ll try to keep it on as long as possible.
I know it becomes black from something happens to the nail bed and blood pools under the nail. I relieved the pressure on it Sunday night but sliding a needle under the nail. Man, that felt good to do, too. Lots of blood came out immediately. I’ve partially killed nails before and then I have a black spot on the nail until it grows out. This time, the entire nail is black.
You do have a point and in the future, as soon as I notice the nail turning black, I should drain the blood from it.
They’re right about the jello. Is there still blood under the nail? If so you should drill into it (with a hot needle) and drain it (eeeewww gross).
Yep. This works. But watch out for the “Old Faithful” geyser effect. Very cool to watch and the pain is brief.
What is it about Jello that works? I believe the blood is gone, but I’m going to try to drain it again just to make sure that it’s all gone. I’m feeling a little bit of pressure in the nail, but I think it’s because the right side of the nail is no longer attached to the nailbed and is actually sticking up a bit and pushing on the skin.
Collagen (you don’t want to know where that comes from).
Collagen is basically ground up pig bones and is what makes up gelatin.
Ok, I’ll probably be eating Jello every day for the next 6 months then.
Geez - how many replies to this thread? OK, might as well know the correct term for this: subungual hematoma. Just drain the sucker and move on. If you loose the nail - big deal, it will grow back. Your nails grow even after you die for a while as well. Toeanails grow about 1-2mm per month (fingernails grow about twice as fast) from the matrix (specialized cells that form the nail plate). Any damage to the matrix or nail bed will result in a permanent change in the nail plate. Also, frequent, continued trauma to a nail (I’ve got a black one now as well) will predispose you to the lovely onychomycosis (fungal nails) that you have certainly seen T.V. commercials for (yes, the little yellow “Digger” the dermatophyte).
Oh, and about the Jello thing - complete old wive’s tell about jelatin (and biotin for that matter). However, if you are chronically dehydrated, then the Jello (98% water) will be helpful Ditto extra “calcium” as the nail plate has very little calcium content in it.
I like to see black toenails - tells me you have been running enough :0
"If so you should drill into it "
In one of the many times I had my nail turn black with a pool of blood under it I decided that even better than a needle I would use a very small modeling drill bit that was attached to a very small screw driver-like handle.
However, I got a little impatient and put just a little too much pressure on the handle as I turned just a little too fast and well, the drill bit broke through the nail and bottomed out while still turning in the nice soft tender flesh one finds under a smashed toenail. That was some fucked up shit right there.
Maybe I should have said “if so, you have someone you trust with a steady hand drill into it”.
I had 3 fingers smashed in a door in college and all of them turned black. My boss at the time insisted they needed drained and drilled them for me. It was horrible, one went off like a geyser and shot blood all over Jeff. He was a good boss.
Thanks for the info. I’m actually really worried about the nail bed since this is the 3rd time in 2 years that I’ve done something like this to that exact same toe.
Oh, I haven’t been running enough. I ran 38 miles on the ground in the last 3 months before IMFL. Lots of aquajogging.
you mean they are not supposed to be black ?
congratulations, Eric on your IRONMAN finish !