Archive for April 28th, 2011

No, this isn’t another post about Iron, it’s what my pinky toe looked like the last couple days. Raw meat.

I did a really stupid thing a few days ago: cut off a callous at the bottom of my little toe. I’ve done it before without any problems but this time I cut too much. Until that moment, I never realized how important the pinky toe is for walking and running. There’s a reason that it’s the only toe I have with a callous.

Anyway, when I ran on it the next morning, I knew it was going to hurt because it was painful just walking around my apartment (stupid, stupid, stupid) so I bandaged it up as best I could and left the house for 14 miles.

It was ok for a while but eventually began hurting terribly, so I stopped during the run to take the sock off and peruse the damage. Turns out the reason I was in so much pain was because the bandage had shifted and gotten all smashed up, creating a huge blister covering the inside of the pinky toe. Nice.

More stupidity ensued when I got home and popped and trimmed the blister. You’re not supposed to trim blister skin away but because it was between two toes I thought it was going to refill again (sorry, just be glad I’m not including photos, ok?).

At one point, it looked so raw and disgusting, I was worried about gangrene and even worse…having to take a rest day. Obstinance prevailed, however, and my Neosporin with the 2005 expiration date coupled with multiple dousings of alcohol saw me through. I’m now on the upswing (it’s nice and crusty now) and will be running this afternoon.

Moral of this story…leave callouses alone if you don’t want to give yourself the dumbest injury in the whole wide world.