Skip to main content

Toe woes

Have I mentioned I have a toe-a-noma? OK I'll admit that would be an exaggeration. What I have is a funky toenail. It all started a couple of years ago when I bruised it running. After that, I somehow managed to stub it pretty badly once or twice. Then Doc, the wonder dog, stepped on it before it had the chance to heal. The end result was a toenail that rebelled. A year or so ago it began to grow funny. It separated from my toe, developing a very high, vertical ridge in the middle. It was as though two continents, in the form of the two sides of my toenail, collided and formed the Himalayas upon my largest left digit. It became thick and looked a little gnarly. All that trauma apparently made it susceptible to (yikes!) a fungus! Can you imagine? Fungus growing here, in the rain forest? On MY toe? Anywho, I finally broke down and went to see a foot doctor. He confirmed a mild fungal infection and said I had two options. One was to take an oral medication called Lamisil (That's the Registered Trademark name. Gotta say that. Old journalist's habits die hard). He said the drug is very effective, but can lead to liver damage. Hmmmmm..... let's see. I can live with a funky toenail hosting a non-life-threatening fungus or I can take a pill that will kill the fungus but may permanently damage my liver. Now, the last time I checked, the liver was considered a must-have organ. So let's see.... ugly toenail or damaged liver? Ugly toenail or damaged liver? Does anybody actually take this drug?
He gave me a another option. There's a topical prescription treatment that's been proven quite effective and has no damaging side effects. That sounded like good news to me. The bad news is that it's new, there's no generic version and insurance doesn't cover it. (Insurance will, however, cover the stuff that messes with your liver. Go figure.) And there's worse news: it costs $200 for a tiny bottle of the stuff. So there I was again, pondering..... Two hundred dollars or an ugly toenail? Two hundred dollars or an ugly toenail? I'm not so vein as to damage my internal organs for the sake of pretty feet. I am, however, vein enough to fork over $200 bucks to do so. Actually, I've found the drug at half price in Canada. Not that I would ever order it from there. That would be illegal.
Today, I began cleaning the second half of my living-room/kitchen ceiling in preparation for painting it. I say living room/kitchen because it's really all one big room. Make that one small room. It's really hot up there, at the top of an eight foot ladder. There were spider webs. Spiders, too. Plenty of mold and mildew stains made the scrubbing arduous. (How's that for a GRE word?) Actually, I don't know what it was, because I don't really know the difference between mold and mildew. So it might have been mold. It might have been mildew. Let's just say it was mold and mildew so we're covered, 'kay? Now, it looks so clean and white it doesn't seem to need painting. I'll paint it anyway.
Yes, my life has become dominated by fungus in many forms. There's algae growing on the house and the driveway. I guess algae isn't technically fungus. Or is it? The battle of the mold and mildew is constant. The toenail has succumbed. Poor Crawford (that's her above) even had a case of ring worm a couple of months ago that required fungicidal ointment. We bought some locally grown mushrooms at Costco (again, registered trademark) yesterday. What will be next? When will it all end? Ah the madness!
What did the girl mushroom say to the boy mushroom? Gee you're a fun-gi!
A hui hou. Aloha!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mom

This is my beautiful mom. She died last Sunday. For those who knew her, my heart breaks with you. For those who did not, here's an introduction to the best confidante, role model and mother a girl could hope for in life. This is the obituary I'd planned to submit to the local paper, but have opted instead to publish here. Obituary: Beverly Todd Bev -- my mom -- was a longtime caregiver, advocate, and dear friend to countless elderly in South Salem. Hers was a kind and generous spirit. She devoted much of her life to the welfare of others, giving wholly of herself and doing so always with great affection and humor. She was born Beverly Marie Steinberger in Silverton, July 23, 1938, the first child and only daughter of Art and Marie Steinberger. Her brothers called her Bevvy Buns, a nickname she grew fond of and wore proudly within the family circle as an adult. Bev attended St. Paul’s Elementary School in Silverton, Silverton High School and Marylhurst Co...
2 comments
Read more

Back at it

It's been some time since I've written. My mom died in February, and I haven't had the gumption to write much, other than a couple of feature stories for the paper and the occasional pithy email to a friend. Tonight, sitting in my favorite burger joint with a pile of fries in front of me, I dunk them into a deep pool of ketchup mixed with a hot sauce. That's how Mom liked 'em. My burger? The Spicy Hawaiian, a nod to my 808 connections. It's a brilliant combination of peppers and pineapple, a favorite on the Power Stop menu. I'm sure she'd have loved it, too. There's a bubbly beer with a lime in it. That's not a homage to anything. I just like beer. These past months, I've done little but work, search and apply for jobs. Two rejection letters have landed in my email this week. Search-and-apply has become a futile obsession. It's time for a break, at least until I hear back from all those applications still floating around out there. I am...
Post a Comment
Read more

Goodbye Dan Fogelberg

Saturday started out as just another day to clean the house. Within a short time, however, I found myself on a mission; a mission of arachnid eradication. The spiders, for all their great bug-eating prowess, have a tendency to get a bit out of control in a place where there's no real winter. They're not only everywhere outside, but inside, too. I found webs with giant eight-leggers in corners, on the ceiling, hiding under window shades....everywhere! They were in places I vacuumed just two days before. Since the invasion of the beetles, the spiders have grown enormously fat and happy. So I sucked 'em all up. EEEEEEEEWWWWWW! I was none too keen on removing the vacuum bag. In addition to spider sucking, there was fun with fungi. What did the girl mushroom say to the boy mushroom? Gee your a fun-gi! Unfortunately, the prevailing fungus amongus was not shitakes or portabellos, but mold and mildew. Again.... eeeeeeeeewwwwww! I cleaned the top of the fridge, which was home to a n...
4 comments
Read more