How long will my fingernail be discolored?
I whacked my finger with a hatchet-hammer thing a little over three weeks ago. stupid drywall It was painful and everything for quite some time, but now its just discolored. Reddish under the nail itself and DARK purple by the cuticle. How long will it be that way?
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It’ll be that way until the nail grows out. I tripped going up the stairs a couple of summers ago, it took about 5 months before it was fully gone. Those look pretty nasty up under the nail. It mostly depends on where on your toe. The closer to the end of your toe, the sooner it’ll be gone.
my friend did that once and it lasted over 3–4 months.
As a general rule, human fingernails grow between half an inch (one centimeter) and four inches (10 centimeters) per year. If you extrapolate from that, it could be discolored for anywhere from 3 months to 12 months, depending on other factors.
On a different topic, but sort of related, a human fingernail and the sun both grow at the same pace per year. About one inch on average.
On a finger, it usually goes away quicker than on a toe nail. I’d guess about two months depending on which nail it is @avvooooooo…
Eat enough protein, take a daily vitamin and get good blood flow to your digits and that sucker will be back to normal in no time.
@SpatzieLover I read blow torch instead of blood flow; that made me wonder what sort of medical advice you were giving.
Its my left index finger. Which really sucks. I was having an interesting time typing there for a while,
@SpatzieLover I was about ready to cut the dang thing off when I kept hitting it on everything. A blow torch would have been handy then!
@avvooooooo My best tip is to cut the nail as short as you can stand to. That way the finger tip should be a bit less sensitive. Vitamin A or K cream may help it subside quicker if you apply daily.
It could take a while. I once had my fingernail ripped clean off in a hockey game. It took forever to grow back, and it still grows about 5 times slower than my other nails.
@SpatzieLover Did you really just tell me to eat more meat? SWEET!
I’m a little confused. I thought it sounded like a blood blister to me. A little bubble of blood under the nail. Once the burst vessels heal, the skin will have to reabsorb or otherwise deal with the dead blood.
Is it a little circle of discoloration under your nail? That really sounds more like a blood blister.
@Iclamae After whacking it with a hammer? I don’t think so… The purple bit is roughly oval, but it was underneath the cuticle when I hit it. Really don’t think so.
Oh, ok. I’ve done that exact thing before and that was the result I got, sounded similar. Hope it goes away soon.
if you whacked it good and it sounds like you did, you will have to just hang around while the nail grows out. takes a loooong time and bits of it get in your way, catch on everything until you finally rip, cut, get a friend to rip it, and on on on. i’m a nurse one of the drs to my unit said to heat a paperclip and put it againsy the newly bruised nail. he says the heat will let it go thru your nail “like butter”, blood and a little tissue will come out and Bob’s yer uncle
why is the line there? i thought i was being edited
Depending on how bad it is, you could even have the nail come off altogether, or partially detach as it grows out. My personal experience is that the coagulated blood under the nail(provided the whole dang thing doesn’t come off) grows out with the nail rather than being absorbed. And as @jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities said, you may find that nail ends up growing more slowly than the rest.
5 to 8 months, depending on how long it takes for your fingernails to grow.
Take a mulitvitamin to encourage nail growth.
@faye – you must have used a single dash at the beginning and the end of the lined out bit. Go take a look at the entire list of of tricks you can play.
The answers here do not relate to my particular problem. Yes, I bashed my thumb nail with a hammer. It was tender at first but healed fine. The nail itself seems strong. The hemorrhaging behind the nail resulted in what is now a black color and is roughly circular with a ¼-inch circumference. The nail continues to grow, but the discolored area behind the nail remains in the same position and takes up about half my cuticle area. The nail itself is NOT the problem. How long does the black color BEHIND the nail last?
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