"My toes felt just like two balloons..."

My entire big toenails are going to fall off eventually, and they hurt when walking and standing a bit... but the worst is over, because both my toes looked like this by the fourth day on the Rees Dart track, and even bigger on the fifth (last day):






Giant blisters formed under my nails, lifting them up, and stretching the skin around them like big balloons. Fortunately they weren't bloody, and the nails stayed attached. Walking in my boots was manageable (thankfully), but my sandals just couldn't fit my grossly enlarged toes.

What happened?? The first day of the track had several stream fords resulting in sopping wet feet/socks/boots, and I was wearing 2 layers of socks for comfort. Things expanded, there was less room for poor little toes, and the terrain was pretty technical in places. The toenails were already tender at the end of the first day. Second day was dry but I still had 2 layers of socks on (didn't know what I was getting myself into) and the terrain was much more technical with plenty of downhill. End of 3rd day, there was some swelling under the nails, enough to make walking around painful (especially in my sandals which cover the big toe). After 4th day they ballooned (see picture).

It's much better now though. The day after we got off the hike (yesterday), I went to the medical centre at Queenstown to get it looked at. The doctor offered to drain it – purely symptomatic – I said yes please! It was a very technical procedure: she heated up the end of a paper clip over a flame until red hot, then put it through the middle of the nail. Squirt! Ahh, much better. The student nurse then did the other one. Easy enough... now I know how it's done. I could do it again myself if I had to! Things are still kind of sore of course, but I'm not hobbling around anymore, and I should be good for tomorrow's day of hiking up Fox Glacier on NZ's West Coast (guided, of course), and hopefully good for the next tramp.

UPDATE: since writing this post things aren't as great as I thought. some skin broke around the front of the toe, so it's partially open now. boooo. hopefully the toenail stays on during some upcoming hiking, but... I'm having my doubts