My Ingrown Toenail Adventure

Now that I'm growing older, I find myself waiting with great anticipation to see what my latest health adventure will be. At my age, you don't have to wait long. This time, it was a problem with my toenails. (Disgusting, but true)

About a year ago the big toe on my right foot started hurting…a lot! I couldn’t imagine what was making this happen.

I immediately started searching the net for an answer. After digging around for awhile (pardon the pun) I found some really gruesome photos of infected ingrown toenails. There were also photos of people who were getting their toenails removed. It scared the bejeesus out of me! I couldn’t imagine those people ever being able to walk again, not to mention the excruciating pain they had to be enduring.

At this point, I started hyperventilating.

I kept looking back and forth at my toenail and the photos. I finally decided that I could not possibly have an ingrown toenail. My foot looked nothing like those in the photos. In my opinion, I was not going to need someone who clearly was NOT in a sterile operating room cutting on my foot, even though it was hurting more than ever right now.

I researched further and found some sites about people who got rid of their own ingrown toenails without having to go through all of that bloody, cutting type stuff.

This was more like it!

I decided to work my way through all of the different options until I hit the one that would work best for me.

First I took some cotton and tried to wedge it under the toenail. No go. Then I started soaking the toe. No go. I tried cutting back the skin near the sore toenail to see if I could get some relief that way. No go. This was going to be a little more difficult than I thought.

I tried cutting a little “v” at the center of the toenail. That didn’t work either, but eventually, I was able to wedge some dental floss under the nail. That took care of my problem, or so I thought. That darned toenail was persistent. The floss relieved the pain, but it didn’t fix the problem.

I gave up on the home remedy thing and forced myself to see a foot doctor. The news was grim. I actually had two ingrown toenails, one on each foot!

A piece of toenail that had gotten wedged under the one nail was causing the pain. When the doc removed it, the pain disappeared. However, she told me that if I had to come back, cutting, bleeding and pain would take place.

This was a very clear indicator to me that there wasn’t going to be any return visit. Just the thought of a shot in the toe was enough to make me run screaming out the door. Didn’t she understand the meaning of the words “low pain tolerance”? Besides, my toes were now just fine. NOT!

After a few weeks, the darned toe started to hurt again. I gathered up my nerve and fortified myself with 10mg of Valium, and went to see a different foot doctor. I thought she might know a better way to deal with my problem, and I was right!

This one told me cutting would not be required as long as I saw her regularly and kept the toenail clean. She was pretty surprised when I jumped out of the chair and started hugging her. (The Valium may have had something to do with that!).

Thanks to her, today I am the proud owner of two ingrown toenails that have never been cut on and don’t hurt. Everybody was right: second opinions can be very important!

After the hugging incident, she said she’d only let me come back if I promised to keep my distance. I was more than happy to comply with her wishes. (I think I may have unwittingly given her a little scare that day.)

Some day I may have to get more serious about my ingrown toenails, but I’m happy to announce that even after a year, all is well in the toenail department.

However I do wonder about those bunions that are starting to hurt!