Nearly seven weeks after I managed to shut the car door on my right forefinger, breaking the tip of my finger in the process, the fingernail is about to fall off. In the past couple of days it has gotten dramatically looser on my finger; at present only the left edge of the nail is still fastened down at all. When I lift the nail and peer underneath I can see clear, unblemished skin in the nail bed and what appears to be a new nail starting to grow from the cuticle.
After a couple of weeks of relatively normal usage of my finger, having the nail come lose like this has made me more aware of my finger once again. Even with the nail trimmed a closely as possible, it still wants to snag on clothes and threatens to get torn off; so we’ve been keeping it bandaged once again to try and keep the nail in place as long as possible.
Even after seven weeks of seeing the purplish-black color under my nail I am still startled by the flash of color sometimes when I move my hand. The discoloration seems to be fixed to the underside of the nail, so when it comes off my finger tip will once again be flesh colored.
Once the old nail does fall off it will be interesting to see how or even if, the new nail grows. Will it look like the other fingers, or will the nail extend only part way or be misshapen? Only time will tell.