What's Grosser than Gross?

Today was my last day of chemo: HOORAY!!!  More on that for another post, because the day was overshadowed significantly by another problem.

As I've mentioned before, I am going to lose my fingernails because of the Taxol's effects on my nail beds. A few weeks ago, the middle finger on my left hand was really bad, and I complained a lot because it was draining and, therefore, GROSS.

Here is a photo of my left hand, and you can get a sense of how the nails are separating from the nail beds:

On Tuesday morning, the middle finger on my right hand started to get that same greenish tint the left one had had weeks ago.  Only this time: no draining.  

By Wednesday, it was really becoming a problem.  Despite soaking it in warm salt water, there was no relief.  

THIS is Grosser than Gross!!!!

Late Wednesday afternoon, I emailed Dr. Chui, because I was ready to drill a hole in the top and relieve the pressure.  SHOCKINGLY, he was not a fan of my doing that....instead he prescribed some antibiotics.

Overnight, I slept with my arm elevated and while I did sleep (thank you, old percocet prescription from the biopsy!) I dreamt about the pain in my finger throughout the night.

This morning, I woke up and it was worse than yesterday.  Everything I did--coughing, moving, etc--hurt so badly I didn't know what to do.  I emailed Dr. Chui and told him that there had been little to no relief from the antibiotics and the pain was much worse.  Then I called my Mommy and cried.  I'm not too proud to admit that!

And these two pictures are Grosser than Grosser than Gross!

These photos actually do not do it justice--the swelling of the finger pad was so bad I thought that my skin honestly might split open!

Dr. Chui referred me to dermatology.  At first, they said they only had an opening at 4:00, but something magical happened between the oncology schedulers and the dermatology schedulers because I got a call at 10:30 asking me if I could get there within an hour?  Answer: YES, so off we went to dermatology.

I got shot up with lidocaine:

GROSSEST!  (My sister pointed out that this looks like a Halloween Novelty Finger)

And then they pried the the nail off.  Apparently, a noteworthy amount of goo oozed out if the 4 doctors' reactions were any indication.  I did not watch so I can't tell you for sure....

Now, the local anesthesia has started to wear off and the oxycontin I was prescribed is working, but my finger hurts.  It's not the same awful pain from this morning, but it's not good.  I can't tell you what it looks like, because it's covered up:

Tomorrow, in addition to going in for my last Neulasta shot, I will go back in to dermatology and have the dressings removed and they will check out my finger to make sure the infection didn't spread to the bone or surrounding tissue, and I'll get the results of the cultures so we can figure out the best antibiotic for me to take (in the meantime, I'm on two--one of which has a potential side effect of explosive diarrhea, so I'm also downing probiotic capsules and Nancy's yogurt like a crazy person).

It's just all so glamorous, isn't it?