Free vasectomy? dude....no one told me about that coupon....damn.....so I am running up north last summer with a friend of mine who is a high end competitive trail runner.....assuming I already had a vasectomy, he starts asking me questions....well, I have not had one...but why he was asking questions is that he was investigating having it done and read several accounts of professional athletes who believed it affected their athletic performance...that the body reacts to the rejected sperm (re-absorbed?) as a foreign substance, causing ones immune system to constantly over react? Anyhow, much more to it than that...and we are talking very small measurements in performance that only competitive runners would notice I believe....but found the conversation interesting to say the least....I will model my toes for your billboard ad for a small fee arranged by my agent, but you will have to find someone else for the vasectomy portion

My friend I am your agent and your foot modeling career begins today! The major networks are interested, Vanity Fair and Playboy are both offering front page for an exclusive and the guy who started the 300 dollar vasectomy add??? He's letting YOU kick him in the crotch with crampons for some prime time Anderson Cooper 360 followed by interview. So lets get those little guys in shape and start raking in the moooolah.

if that is the case, then book me on "I Shouldn't be Alive" because these puppies hurt dude....

Hang in there man, remember the old adage "time heals all yanked toe nails", and "never pay a veterinarian for something a doctor can do at gunpoint."

Dow - just stumbled on this thread as I am sitting here with a head cold versus should be out skiing. I do not think there are many situations where I would question your decisions but wow - this just looks painful!

We all lose a toenail every now and then but does is it really justify this?

Good luck and hoping it all works out to the better.

Bill Kerr wrote:Dow - just stumbled on this thread as I am sitting here with a head cold versus should be out skiing. I do not think there are many situations where I would question your decisions but wow - this just looks painful!

We all lose a toenail every now and then but does is it really justify this?

Good luck and hoping it all works out to the better.

I know buddy, might have been a bit rash. Studied it on line a bit and a few other athletes were doing it, long distance runners, etc. I think when you see me this summer I will be bragging about my new toes, I hope anyway. Obviously a little regret as I fight off infection in one of them and have not been able to run or climb for a week, going to be two, three? I mean that is a huge sacrifice. But my toe nails were in bad shape (ask Liba!). One big one blackened permanently. That is the one infected now. It had some bad crap going on underneath anyway. When you keep traumatizing them as I did, climbing shoes being the worse culprit, but all those marathons, long scrambles, ice climbing and alpine climbs I did in boots did them no favors either, toe fungus sets in and is impossible to get rid of with the exception of drugs with much greater risk and potential consequences than the antibiotics I have to take now. Bottom line was pain I was experiencing was totally manageable but it did affect my climbing at higher grades a bit. And I was curious what it would be like 20-30 years down the road. I will keep posting updates so others can get a clear honest look into it. Hard to find someone who took the full on commitment to do them all. My thought on that was no way I was going to do one and lose 2 weeks and then have to lose 2 weeks again down the road doing another. Either it works or it don't, I am all in. I left one for a control toe out of curiosity. My guy says he has 90% success on the permanent aspect of it....I suspect he gets quite a few elderly cases to experiment on here in St. George. He uses something different than Phenol acid....something he claims has a higher success rate....and that might be the extra burn/drainage. But if it is more successful, I am up for it. Keep ya posted.

Sounds logical - you thought it through and researched it. A permanently black/dead toenail is a real risk of serious infection, drugs, operations and down time.
From that perspective - you may as well do any toes that are at risk becasue of the 2 to 4 weeks recovery time.

Appreciate the honest disclosure as I doubt there is much feedback out there but glad you are doing the experiment and not me.

Keep us posted.

All jokes aside I hope this works out for you. I've considered removing the nail of a big toe but had doubts about friction/sensitivity issues later on. I just remembered something that might help with the final stages of healing, a scarring cream I used after shoulder surgery, don't know what the equivalent is in english (procedure in Bolivia) but your contact probably does - it shouldn't be prescription. Then something you've probably been doing, salt baths & light massaging to promote circulation/healing.

Please continue with pics, something for the books!

Thanks for the positive feedback. 2 week update.

I am not going to bother with more pics yet. Will do a completely healed one at the end though, so you have an idea what it looks like. It is the permanent removal that is the more serous aspect of this. The infection that set in the one large toe, I believe is in part related to the acid draining down into a void-pocket, that a previous injury had left on the left side of the toe bed. Now that I have the general pain out of the way.... I can specially feel the slightest breeze hitting nerves down to the bone on the left side of that toe.

The post op inspection was a positive. What you are looking for here is that the skin starts to grow in and over the hole/recess left by the nail coming out from below. He said if the skin did not grow over that area, good chance permanent removal would be a failure on that toe. He told me 90% success with this new acid he was using and seemed to project I was still on target for that, if not 100%. The key is that both large toes look to be closing over

Today, 2 weeks, is the first day I placed socks on. My idea being that I need to start applying pressure to the sensitive tops of my toes. So will try shoes for a walk later today as well. I feel the earlier I start this process, the earlier I feel get over the sensitivity issue.

Both large toes are going to present an issue I think might be interesting to this process. Both have a substantial ridge line of skin coming down from the top end of the toe. In other words, picture a horseshoe, open end up. So large divots on both sides with a ridge in the middle. Will this ridge become a pressure/friction point in climbing shoes? Will sensitivity wain? Interesting questions. If after a year it did not, I suppose I could see going for amputating these ridges so to have a flat surface. The others do not have this phenomenon. In fact at this point, as would be expected, all focus of pain and sensitivity and healing is only on the 2 large toes. Also, when one big toe hurts, you don't feel the other one so much. Again, a huge advantage of having all done at once. Cheers.

I now have a weird morbid fascination with Dow's bloody toes.

So,
HOW ARE YOUR TOES?

This has been a total success. I can't recommend it enough if you climb full time or are an enduro runner and have constant issues with your toe nails. I suppose if one is vane about looks at all, it might bother them, but look fine to me. My wife would say they look 10 times better really. Been in the alpine in boots and climbing 5.11 face and crack, all pain free. I admit the healing process was a bit longer than I hoped for.... but I did push it by throwing climbing and running shoes on at 2 weeks. Having all done at once was a very smart and economical plan. $600 cash for permanent removal of 9, including post op. Good Luck to anyone considering same. Permanent was 100% successful, so can recommend this doc. He did use an acid most won't. That might have made the difference there, but might have caused an extra week of healing as well. Cheers.

Any current "healed" photos??

Ya.

C'mon, this isn't fun without PHOTOS

Now that I have a sick fascination with this whole thing.

always out to please....