Ingrown toenails. Ouch!

[Lil Missy]

Now that I have medical coverage I am going to get them removed. It's like doing surgery and a bloody mess every time I have to trim them, and they get very sore if I don't.

My understanding is that they remove the entire toenail. Ouch! I have 3 on each foot, and that's gonna hurt!

For those who've been through this, do they do both feet at once? Frankly, I would prefer to get it all over with at one shot. Will I have to wear some "fancy shoes" while my toes heal?

I'm not asking for medical advice, just experiences.

[Ptah]

1. I have no experience to relate.

I do wish you a speedy recovery.

[Lil Missy]

2. Thanks for the big bear hug!

I'm not really worried about it.

And I'm certain it will not be the worst thing I've ever had to endure.

:hi:

[DarkTirade]

3. They don't remove the toenail, just the edges.

And if they're that bad, you'll have to go in twice. Once to just trim it, then wait a little while for the swelling and infection to go down before they go in do the permanent procedure.

[Lil Missy]

4. That's confusing???

I can remove the edges myself?? And that's what results in such an ordeal and a bloody mess. I want the permanent job the FIRST time!

Maybe I just don't know what it all entails yet. And will be better informed after I visit with the Dr.

Thanks!

:hi:

[DarkTirade]

5. You can't go all the way down to the root yourself

and you can't remove the sides enough to prepare it for the regular surgery yourself. :)

Believe me, I've been there. Both big toes.

[Lil Missy]

6. Okay, thanks.

It just seemed to me that I can get the edges myself, and they always grow back eventually.

At any rate, I'll take your word for it, and I look forward to getting rid of this periodic nuisance.

[DarkTirade]

7. They get rid of the root where those edges grow.

There are two ways to do it, one is to burn it with acid, the other is to actually open up a little bit and cut it out. The first kind can usually be done just at the podiatrist's office, the other needs someone to knock you out since they're actually doing surgery, albiet relatively non-invasive. I discovered when I went that I'm resistant to anesthetics, so the podiatrist couldn't numb me enough to do the first kind, and I had to find a podiatrist that worked with an anasthesiologist who could knock me the heck out, and he did the other kind.

I didn't care how it was done, as long as it was done. :)

[JVS]

8. My experience: I have had ingrown tonails, as my brother, and my father before me, and his father.

I don't want you to think I'm making this up to have fun at your expense, because what I'm about to lay down on you is totally true.

It all started when I was a small child and my father had the problem. He went in for surgery (which I'll describe to you later :D ) Dad was a man who enjoyed being barefoot, or maybe wearing flipflops if he had to. Shoes as such were strictly a work and golf kind of item. When Dad came backfrom the podiatrist one toenail was gone, the other was just left a sliver of nail. It looked kind of like a piece of onion. It turned out that his father had had toenail trouble too, but prefvented it from getting out of control by cutting V-shaped notches in his nails.

My brother had what might be one of the grosser ones. He was playing JV football when the problem began to manifest itself. The toenail would cut the toe from the inside and his socks would be bloody and crusty when mom got around to laundering them. Once I saw him rub his toe and a bunch of pus came out. Not long after that mom had him get his toes operated on. The operation was not as severe as my father's and now my brother has pretty reasonable looking toes.

My case was a bit more like my father's. A bit after my brother got his, I noticed some pain on the edges of my toes. Not wanting to let them get infected like my brother's had been, mom made me get them taken care of right away. I will now describe the operation. They put novocaine in, told me to read a magazine, and chopped away. Of course I had to look down, at which point I was less than pleased. The worst part was when they disinfected the wound left from ripping out some of the toenail root by putting some silver compound on a stick and jamming it into the would. That's when I stopped reading the reader's digest and started biting on it. They say 98% of people never need the operation again. I was a 2%. Now the nails look like dad's did.

When there is only a partial nail left, things like this happen more easily:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x6799883#6799984