Toes, Toenails, and Fingernails
Though hands and feet are not directly related, I want to touch on some problems of the extremities - finger and toe problems. Many of us experience occasionally a rare fingernail (subcutaneous) abscess, in-grown toenail, or deformed toes. The last malady is also known as “hammer toe”. Now, first about the finger nail abscess. Either due to accident or carelessness we may pull the corner of a fingernail. Thus without our awareness the nail and the surrounding parts (cuticle, the underneath surface (nail matrix), the nail surroundings) are disturbed. As a reaction to the injury, the fingertip and all the nearby areas become swollen and red. It becomes extremely painful calling for urgent attention. If pus (decayed white cells, etc.) forms under the nail then it needs some surgical intervention. In the village we used to see people going around with a tightly wrapped lemon (or lime) around the injured fingernail. This type of poultice works in most cases; it offers the required compression to aid in the healing. Alternatively, many grandmothers used to put a paste of flour mixed with Castor oil. The flour paste is warmed on a skillet and the warm soft paste is tightly applied to the fingertip. Some would also use a paste of turmeric and lime [Ca(OH)2] with good results. The well-known Mehndi leaf paste (Lawsonia inermis, Gorinta) is also very helpful for preserving the health of nails. Such home remedies are also good in preventing nail fungus.
Once I too got into this painful predicament solely due to my own carelessness. While nail biting is mostly harmless, still it can lead to injury to the cuticle (nail corners). So, it happened once. It all started as minor pain, then redness all around, and finally the whole thing blew up into a nasty abscess filled with pus (paronychia). After exhausting all the home remedies I had to rush to the urgent care. The male nurse (compounder in the village) took care of it with a sharp scalpel, local anesthesia, and topical freezing. The earthly body gives difficulties even to personalities like Sri Ganapathi Muni. Thus once Kavya-kantha Ganapathi Muni wanted to write a major work on Indrani in Sanskrit verse; he vowed to complete the entire poetical exercise within two weeks. Sri Ramana encouraged him to do likewise as pledged. And then suddenly in the middle the poet extraordinaire developed abscess on one of his fingers that too on the right hand. Everything thing came to a standstill until an Ayurvedic doctor came up the hill (Arunachalam) and did the surgery right in time.
In the village as kids we often wandered and walked miles without footwear. Like other school going children I too used to get bruises on feet and toes. Mother and sister would wash the wound and apply some turmeric paste. Often I used to get severe itching during monsoon season in the toes due to skin allergies. Due to constant falling and getting hit with rough stones on the road I too got a deformed toe. Luckily due to youthful suppleness, yoga, and vigorous physical activity the toe regained its normal state. Then many of us in the vast Indian small towns and villages had primitive schoolrooms. We studied the handicrafts (ex: weaving, yarn pulling) and music sitting on the tiled, concrete plastered, or even mud covered bare floors. Inevitably we ended up with warts on the little toes and ankles. Such hard knocks on the body remind me the passage of time and the limited resources of a bygone era.
Recently while moving bookshelves I had an accident. We had to shuffle all the furniture, move stuff to different floors (levels), and bring back the shelves against gravity. It was not easy moving stuff across three floors. Some times one wants to be utterly self sufficient and determined to do things without outside help. If you hire outside help then you have to synchronize and submit to external schedules and dictates. Any way, these days getting any handyman here in the US is almost impossible. People are waiting for months to get one appliance installed; money or no money this is the reality in many places. So, while moving the heavy bookshelf (ourselves) I got my (right) big toe banged. Due to pressed wood some bookshelves weigh almost 50 – 70 lbs. At first I did not notice the splintered toenail and the profuse bleeding. But the white socks could not hide the oozing blood much longer. A cut or bruise on skin is no big deal; at the worst it would involve some stiches and a scar. But toenail is a delicate situation – healing slowly it may lead to deformed toenail, in-grown nail, underneath blood clot, or even fungus.
Thus I got into a pickle (as they say here), all due to sheer accident. A quick tight bandage stopped the bleeding but not the pain. Also, I had to keep the big toe dry during showers using a plastic bag. A word of caution about cuts/bruises on toes for elders: Many elders may be on blood thinners and that will make things complicated. Compounding this is the uncontrolled blood glucose (Type II Diabetes). One of our dear relatives got into serious problems when her toe got injured due to walking with flip-flops (barefoot) in the village. Only prolonged dressing (bandage) with powerful antibiotics saved her toe from losing (amputated).
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