Flip Flops

One of the biggest mistakes I have made was jump roping with flip flops on. All my life I was told not to jump rope with flip flops on. One day I wanted to jump rope, but I did not feel like tying my shoe laces. So I just slipped on my flip flops and went outside. Little did I know I was going to accidentally land one foot on top of the other, and make it so my big toenail was injured. At first I had a subungual hematoma which is caused by a traumatic injury like jumping on your toe. About a month or two after I jumped on my toe, I was in Wisconsin visiting with my dad and step mom, when they ripped off the rest of my toenail.

When I first jumped on my toenail it just had a lot of blood under it. The only way to clean it and get rid of the blood was to stab through my toenail and get to the blood underneath. My mom and step dad would have me take a tub and then at the end they would take a clean needle to my toe. When they would try to poke my toenail with it I would be freaking out because it grossed me out, but we had to clean it. Once they actually got through the toenail they would put pressure on my nail so all the blood would come out, sometimes that had to poke it a few times to get it all. I remember my mom saying ‘Stop moving or I am going to miss and hit your foot’. I was very lucky and she never accidentally poked my foot.

At one point my toenail had a crack through the middle, and part of my toenail snagged on the carpet so it ripped half of it off. I was even more grossed out because half my nail was gone, and the pain was so excruciating. I had to put a band-aid on it so dirt wouldn’t get in it. The other half of my nail still had blood under it. I remember my mom putting hydrogen peroxide on so it wouldn’t get infected.

I probably only lasted a week with a half broken nail. My step mom had a great idea to rip the rest of it off. She told me ‘I’m not going to touch the nail, I just want to look at it”. Then all of the sudden I was left with no nail and so much pain. At the time I was mad at her for doing it because of how bad it hurt. Now it was probably a good thing she did because wearing a band-aid on your toe is not that comfortable. With only half a toenail it still got caught on everything, and I was always complaining about it.

Now I know to not jump rope in flip flops. It is a horrible experience. Especially if you land on your toe, it was not worth it. If I could take it back I would. I did not enjoy any part of the experience. Especially all the tubs with needles going into my toe. The worst part was probably when parts of my toe kept ripping off. Carpets and broken nails don’t pair well together. I will never jump rope in anything but sneakers.

“flip flops” by Steve A Johnson is licensed under CC BY 2.0