Nail surgery
So, the theme seems to have shifted to DIY surgery and medicine. I've got one good experience of this (not including the glycerol), and it involves my little finger.

I'd managed to run the little finger up against the door catch, and due to the angle it had come in at... basically ripped the nail up. But, it hadn't come out or off. It was just... lifted. As you could imagine it didn't look pretty. The doctor looked at it, told me to keep it clean and dry, and the nail would fall off in a few days. I was able to push the nail back down, and it looked pretty normal for an hour or two, when it would spring back up again at a 30 degree angle.

After three days... even with cleaning, dressing it, it was beginning to get a little nasty. The initial stages of an infection. Not a pleasant thought, as I'd had infected ingrown toenails before and had no desire to repeat it with a fingernail. So, I cleaned it up with diluted dettol as best I could, and I sat down in the lounge with a big bowl of warm heavily salted water, and soaked my hand in it, to soften everything up. An hour or so later, my family were sitting down and watching TV with me. I judged the nail to be about ready... and to this day I've never forgotten the face my mother made when she saw me take my hand out of the water, grab the nail with a pair of pliers and rip it out.

What's amazing is that it didn't hurt at all. Obviously, I felt the incredible pull and pressure, but it didn't hurt. It looked rather odd after the nail had been pulled out of its 'socket', but now that it wasn't in the way I could get to the flesh proper. Gave it another dettol scrub, and this time didn't bother to dress it, preferring to let it dry out as much as possible.

Completely cleared up in three days, though it took weeks for the nail to grow back. Fascinating, watching it progress across the base, until the day it was actually long enough to cut.
(calamarain just invented dehydrated water, Mon 7 Apr 2008, 23:00, 4 replies)

Noooooooooooo
that makes me go all squishy... well tense up in the manner that blokes are supposed when told about breaking of the testicles...

is it a weird nail now??? Its got to be slightly malformed?? Non?
(feedingtimeatthezoo day 1 of his bikini diet started, Tue 8 Apr 2008, 2:26, closed)

reminds me of my oft-removed toenails
I used to do a lot of training in Brecon, stomping around in all weathers. Being a sharing kind of person, I used to show my girlfriend how cool it looked to pull whole toenails off (long-dead, from blistering, they just took a while to get to the point where they'd slough off with a litte help, and no pain). They always grew back in a month or so.

In hindsight, I can completely understand her reaction (typically violent horror). Perhaps I shouldn't have done this in bed...
(pounana Slept well, and dreamed of large women, on, Tue 8 Apr 2008, 7:16, closed)

OMGOMGOMG
I think I am gonna hurl.
(Michael J Fox is having a shaky start., Tue 8 Apr 2008, 9:19, closed)

Shudder
Yeah, that story does tend to make most people wince. Yanking a nail out of its base isn't a pleasant thing to watch. It's surprisingly how far down the base extends though, a good 6-7mm below the cuticle.
(calamarain just invented dehydrated water, Tue 8 Apr 2008, 20:11, closed)