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Who knew an ingrown toenail could be so painful?
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Anonymous
| Or at least I think that is the problem. I can hardly stand to have any type of show on my foot and bought the Dr. School's ingrown toe medicine and have been soaking my foot. Is there anything else I should be doing and should I go to the doctor? My big toes is very red, but it does not look infected. |
Anonymous
| Soak a Q-tip in hydrogen peroxide and shove it down in there to attack any infection. If it's that swollen, you might even get a pus explosion from squeezing it. After that, I think you just have to do a little home surgery to cut out the edge of the ingrown nail, or else it will keep getting infected again. Prepare for some pain. |
Anonymous
| If it is as bad as you say, go to a podiatrist. You could get blood poisioning from messing with an infection, |
Anonymous
| I've had a number of operations from these things. Hurt like hell. |
Anonymous
| Gross pictures here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrown_nail |
Anonymous
|
They're the WORST! It's all you can think about.
My dad (a doctor) takes a very slim object, like a pointy nail file, wraps it in a few strands of cotton, and uses it to wedge the cotton between the nail and the flesh. It hurts like a motherfucker, but as soon as you give the skin a little buffer from the nail, it starts feeling better. Then you wait for the nail to grow out, and never, ever cut it down into the corner again. I am firm to the point of rude with the ladies at the nail salon about not cutting my toenails at the corners. |
Anonymous
| Yeah, it's pretty bad. I went to a podiatrist and had it removed. He literally cut a sliver of the nail off, vertically, all the way up into the nail bed. (Yes, he numbed the toe first, bit I couldn't even stand to look.) He said there was a 50/50 chance it would come back - it just depends on how your nail tends to grow and some other factors like how you cut it, the type of shoes you wear, etc. Luckily this was years ago and it's been fine, but I'm always on the lookout for it. |
Anonymous
Do NOT cut the nail! Let it grow out, and then only cut it straight across from now on. It's cutting the corner of the nail that causes ingrowns. You need to keep the corner of the nail grown out past the edge of its bed at all times. |
Anonymous
|
I had this and it was VERY painful. Tried the soaking, stuffing things in between toe/skin, etc. Nothing worked. Finally had it cut off (down to the nail bed) by a podiatrist. Twice. They numbed it (that in and of itself sucked) and the procedure sucked.
Mercifully, it has been probably 8 years with no return. Knock on wood. You have my sympathy. |
Anonymous
| Yours sounds infected already. |
Anonymous
| Just to echo others (and probably not make you feel any better), DH had one and when he went to the podiatrist to confirm, they removed it right then and there. Good thing that he wasn't anticipating it. He said it was a very painful procedure and yes, you could certainly get them again. It happened to my co-worker. |
Anonymous
Sounds like yours is different from mine. For me, it's not the corner that's causing the problem. I do cut those straight across. What's hurting me is the side/edge of the nail, which grows out wide and digs down into the skin, regardless of where the corner is. More pics: http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1400&bih=937&q=ingrown+toenail&gbv=2&oq=ingrown+toenail&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=6432l10622l0l11158l15l15l0l4l4l0l381l1533l2.7.1.1l11l0 |