Saturday, April 23, 2022

sometimes once is enough


Friday I went to see about my ingrown toenail. He said first off I have toenail fungus apparently on all my nails (Really? I don't see anything. He pointed out the color, yellowish, and that they didn't look healthy. They look pink and normal to me but what do I know) and that is the cause of the deeply curved under big toenail on my left foot. He could put me on toenail fungus medication for 6 weeks and see if that helped but would not undo the damage already there, he could cut off half the nail and see if it would grow back normal but he didn't think that it would or he could take off the whole nail and let it grow back in. In any case he would put me on the anti-fungal medication. If he removed the toenail I wouldn't feel it (that's what everyone has said) as he would deaden the toe. So that's what he did. This I could not watch.You might remember if you've been reading a while that I gouged my left thigh and needed over 20 stitches inside and out and I watched the whole thing, even took pictures and did a post but this I could not watch. Don't look at your toe, he says, look at me. How about if I just close my eyes I responded. I could feel the pressure and at one point some pain so he had to shoot more deadener. Then he put some stuff on the raw skin to stop the bleeding, some antibiotic ointment, and wrapped it up like a mummy.

He tried to keep me distracted while he worked asking me where I was from, if I had kids, what I did before I retired. He was friendly with a good manner, in his forties maybe, good looking from what I could see (we were all wearing masks), black haired Indian (India) descent, he had the most gorgeous long black eyelashes but obviously born here because there wasn't a trace of accent in his speech. I go back in 6 weeks.

So yeah, it didn't hurt much during the procedure but since the deadener wore off it hurts like holy fucking hell. When it doesn't feel like I'm being stabbed in the toe, it just burns. Sometimes it will settle down and be relatively painless. It's bruised and swollen and hot. He gave me tramadol for pain which I waited til bedtime to take, got up at 3 AM to take another and took another just now. I was hoping it would be less painful this morning but it's not.

I sure hope the anti-fungus med works (also on an antibiotic) and the toenail grows back in normal because I am NEVER. FUCKING. DOING. THIS. AGAIN!



37 comments:

  1. LOL, sorry mum iz laughing cuz she wood habz reacted the same way yoo did. we hope dat yor toe feel better soon. mum just trimmed her own ingrown toenail on her big toe herself last week.
    signed Gidget cat and her mum

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    1. This toe was a mess. I've been dealing with it for years but it finally curled under itself.

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  2. Ellen- you have beautiful feet.
    And I sure do hope this all resolves in healthy happy toes. That sounds like an extremely painful situation.

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  3. WOW, that sounds radical!! Dennis has had toe nail fungus for years and has been treating it with all sorts of stuff that has not worked until now- a fifty dollar medication that goes on the remaining nail and makes it "look" better. So i am guessing the removal was the right thing to do, radical but right. OUCH!

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  4. There are a lot of nerves in feet, no wonder it hurts. Here's hoping for distraction from it until it calms down.

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  5. That sounds awful, I am so sorry this had to be done. Here's hoping the anti-fungal gets at the root cause and this never happens again.

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    1. I'm talking sternly to all the other toenails.

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  6. Oh I am so sorry that you are going through so much pain there. I hope that the pain meds work and that the healing will help as well. Please take care there.

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    1. Let me just say that if you ever need pain meds and they give you tramadol, be ready for the worst.

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  7. Ugh. Sorry about the pain. That sounds terrible. Here's hoping that once this heals, you're done with this problem for good!

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  8. I'm cringing just reading this. Sounds so painful. I hope your toe heals (no pun intended) soon!

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    1. I put it off for a long time because the whole idea made me shudder. Now I know why.

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  9. I had to cringe because the feet are the most tender of all parts of the body. I had a podiatrist look at my right foot because my second and third to the big toe was always in a V shape and they never touched each other unless I wore shoes (which is very rare). I couldn't stand for him to touch my foot. It wasn't painful but after he explained what he would have to do I said sorry but no dice and left. It was a "nope" sort of day. One thing, I had to laugh at was when you said you would NEVER FUCKING DO THIS AGAIN! That was so perfect.

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    1. Procedures never hurt the doctor. I'd have declined too.

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  10. You did a brave thing there!!

    We've all had a fungus on our toes when we came back to Europe after living and travelling in Africa and Asia and had to do all sorts of anti fungal treatments. It hasn't really worked for the man who has been repeating it every couple of years since - this was 30 years ago - incl. one bout of surgery like yours but he continues to be alive and well albeit with the odd dark-ish misshapen looking nail.

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    1. After reading up on anti-fungal treatment I'm of the opinion that they mostly don't work.

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  11. Oof - I'm feeling all cringy & squeamish & I wasn't even there. Ouch!! I hope the pain calms down SOON!

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  12. I have a friend who had all her toenails removed over fungus! Even so, I am not as vigilant as I should be.

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    1. I can't imagine having all my toenails off. One was bad enough.

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  13. My heavens -- what an awful procedure. Now I'm looking at my toenails, wondering about their color. I think they're fine -- at least none of them hurts. I hope the pain is beginning to ease. I couldn't have looked, either.

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    1. It was pretty horrible. My toenails don't look bad to me colorwise. If this one hadn't curled up under itself I'd have been happily carrying on.

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  14. I broke my left toe in 1997 (kicked at an ice dam blocking a sliding door). The nail turned black and fell off. Grew back in weird. I've had an ingrown toenail ever since and I occasionally dig out the edge of the nail and clip it back. I know to clip it back preemptively now and can't complain

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    1. I treated this myself for years but it finally got so bad, curling under itself, that there wasn't much I could do.

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  15. Sorry you had to go through this, Ellen. Hope the pain goes away soon and the medicine helps your toes.

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  16. Been there, did that--back in the 9th grade. Bad thing is that the dr. just cut a U shape to remove the nail and when it grew back out, those 'sides' became daggers and as they grew out, the daggers grew downwards and cut into the flesh. I had an awful time -- went to a different podiatrist and he removed the 'remains' and fixed my toe (left big toe). Will forever more be vigilant. And, I have one toe (smaller one) that has fungus but I just trim it all the way back and go on with life. I can so identify with your pain... take care!

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    1. That sounds horrible. I generally keep my toenails very short. This one curled under itself. Hard to deal with.

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  17. You may want to ask your Dr about laser treatment for remaining fungus issue instead of medication. Is relatively painless, highly effective, and a lot faster results than with mediation.

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to look into it.

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  18. If he doesn't have the equipment, find a dermatologist who does.

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  19. Oh no! Sending good thoughts for a quick diminishing of the pain and a perfect new toenail.

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    1. I'll be happy with less than perfect so long as it doesn't curl under itself again.

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    2. Well, I was writing a comment and it suddenly disappeared! Poof, it was gone. I was telling you about a barbaric doctor who liked to perform his toenail "surgery" in the ER. Unlike today, doctors were always escorted by a nurse. For whatever reason he would choose me. His technique included wrapping a rubber band around the offending digit, then injecting the xylocaine so fast it would literally squirt back out of the tissue. Not waiting for the toe to become numb, he proceeded to jamb the toenail spreader under the toenail before grabbing it with hemostats and ripping it off with great force. To this day, the sight of an ingrown toenail makes me nauseous. Cruelest thing I have ever witnessed! The one thing I took away from this experience of nearly 50 years ago was the piece of advice offered by this hateful man. Every time you cut your nails, create a "V" in the middle of the cut nail. This will make the toenail try to fill it in and prevent it from growing in a curve. I do this religiously!

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.