Bound to Happen

I woke up early Sunday morning uncomfortably cold. I rolled over and read the time on my mobile, 8am. I couldn’t think of any good reasons not to get out of bed. A quick brush of my teeth and a half litre of water and I was off and running to play futbol (soccer).

Not too far from where I live some guys get together and play pick-up futbol every Sunday morning. I haven’t gone for a few weeks since I was out of town as all you regular readers should know. I shouldn’t have jogged there because, as usual, the guys were more concerned with arguing who was going to play first than actually playing. “Primeiro! Primeiro!” (first) they shouted back and forth at each other.
The game finally began with 5 men per side playing for 10 minutes, winner stays on. We play with smaller futbol than outdoor (grass) plays with and it is also heavier to keep it from sailing over the goal every time someone boots it.

After my second game I wasn’t quite ready to sit down so I leaped for a horizontal bar behind one of the goal’s and started doing some chin-ups. I’m still not quite sure how, but, I kicked out with my left foot at one point to gather my balance as I hung from the bar and when I landed I felt a sharp pain in my left foot.
I felt for my toe inside my shoes, similar to how you do when you are trying on shoes, and to my surprise I could feel a very sharp object protruding through my black puma shoe.

I took off my shoe and then my sock and voila! My toenail was stubbed. About half of it was bent straight into the air, blood streaming where the nail used to be. Yummy.
I limped away from the court and got several suggestions on how to care for my toe. In typical fashion the guys started to argue about what the best course of action was.

For some reason, before I thought about caring for my toe my stomach got the best of me and I decided to hobble over to the store to get some food and some lemon to help with cleaning my wound.

I jumped in a taxi and came home, and once again, before caring for my toe the first thing I thought about was taking a few pictures so that I can share them with you on my blog. So please enjoy. And dad, look away now before your stomach starts to turn.
I then proceeded to perform surgery on my toe. First, clean the wound with cold water, rubbing alcohol and a little limao (lemon) to keep things smelling fresh. Second, “nurse! Pass the anesthetic.” Third, bite your tongue to avoid screaming out loud “Owwwww!” Third, take the nail clipper and proceed to bend my toe nail back down to its rightful position.

I’ll let you know if I wake up in the middle of the night with my nail hanging on for dear life.