At the start of the year, my big toe started itching. One day, I pulled off the woolen socks I was wearing and… “Oh no!” The toe was red and looked infected. The nail had turned white. Clearly, there was something wrong with my foot.
The pharmacist gave me some cream and a lacquer for the nail, and I went to a pedicurist sometime after to double-check everything. Eventually, the itch and strange colors subsided, but my nail was clearly damaged. It was sort of dented across the middle, with a deep groove running from left to right where, usually, the nail’s surface would be flat and smooth.
That was nine months ago. The groove is still growing out. Once it had moved towards the middle of the nail after some weeks, a second groove appeared behind it. It’s as if you’d flicked a carpet, and now multiple ripples and bumps require flattening. Thankfully, the nail will do it automatically, but it takes forever.
The good part of the story? Every time I look at my nail again and worry when it’ll fix itself, the lesson to take care of my feet sinks in a little deeper. I doubt I’ll neglect my nails again any time soon, and if an issue comes up, chances are I’ll address it swiftly. I’ve even used some more of the cream and lacquer here and there as a preemptive measure.
That’s the reward of a long road to redemption: The more time it takes to recover, the more chances you have to learn from your misfortune. Slow healing makes the lesson last—and that’s an itch we can’t scratch often enough.
