MY TOE: NOT FOR THE SQUEMISH

A few weeks ago, I realized that I had an in-grown toenail. It’s happened to me once before, but it was a fairly easy procedure. Having had some bad experiences with doctor’s, I was hesitant to get help with this issue.

Finally, I decided I would go to the Nyaho Clinic, a private hospital, where I had gotten treatment back in September. To my disappointment, the doctor did not know what she was talking about. She could not tell what was wrong with my toe, even though I told her that I had an in-grown toenail. She also told me that they would put my pinky toe, which seemed to have a slight fracture into a cast. That concerned me as I fractured a toe before and was told that they don’t put toes into casts.

I decided to leave. I was supposed to go back to see a specialist, but that was not comforting.

Then, thank God, I went to see Tamara at her uncle’s house. Dr. Loko, who I had met on Christmas, was taking Tamara and Tania out to dinner. Whne he came, he agreed to look at my toe. Immediately, he knew the problem and the solution, and asked me to soak it daily in salt water to keep the infection down.

Two weeks later, Friday, January 26^th, I met him at his house and went with him to the hospital. I had thought that he might make a small incision and address the problem. Not so.

He brought me into the operating room, after I had been instructed to change into a hospital gown. Laying on the operating table, he took a long needle and injected my toe with a liquid that made the toe numb. Previously, even the slightest nudge was painful. The night before, I was dreaming that I was playing soccer; going for a ball, and I swung my leg in my sleep and slammed my toe against a wooden chair – the pain pulsed through my body.

After having the needle, I could not even feel the toe.

Dr. Loko then began to make incisions. He cut some of the skin, he cut the toe nail. He then made another incision, and began to slice some part deeper down, which seemed to be a bone, but I think was the root of the nail. I had been lying down at first, but lifted my head to see what he was doing.

As I watched the operation, with the incisions and gushing blood, I thought of a few movies. I thought of Syrianna where there is a seen of a man having his fingernails removed through torture. I then thought of The Passion of The Christ. I also thought of Braveheart and the words of William Wallace he refused to swallow a potion that would numb his pain, saying, “I want to have my wits”. I tried to imagine how such an operation would be possible had my toe not been numb.

When it was all done, and the medication began to wear off, the pain began to hit me. Due to the nature of the incisions, I needed to be heavily bandaged. After relaxing at the hospital for awhile, and then being dropped part of the way home by Dr. Loko, I made it the rest of the way with one foot in a shoe and one in a flip flop. As I slowly limped along, many people came to me to tell me “sorry” and “brother, are you okay?”. Eventually, I made it home.

That night, I took my painkillers, but opted to risk waking up in pain over having to insert a pill into my rectum. It’s just not something that I thought was worth doing.

Thankfully, with God’s grace and so many people praying for me, I have no pain today. I am staying at home for the weekend to rest, and I will get re-bandaged on Monday.