Ingrown Toenails

[rozymisty]

Sadly i am one of the very few people who are prone to chronic ingrown toenails that phenol wont work to fix for good.

I got my first ingrown toenail back in 1999. I was hoping that would be my last. Well it was the last one for the right big toe. That surgery was a shocker, not the actual surgery but the recovery. My mum decided to go into the supermarket after teh GP removed the nail and she said she'd be 10mins max, as mums say. 30mins later I was still waiting with my sister, and I was sooo close to screaming blue murder. I was in heaps and heaps and heaps of pain, the worst Ive been in, and it was just throbbing and I was starting to feel sick. Then i got home and had a shower before heading to bed and had the door slightly open to get some help getting in and out. I had finished my shower and then suddenly felt really sick and called out that i felt like i was going to faint. And faint I did...not good.

I dont know how many surgeries ive had on my left toe, but its always been on the inner side. I do pronate inwards so that does affect the reoccurance appparently.

One time when I went to the podiatry clinic at my uni, they had to put 2 lots of local in and it hurt like hell, and couldnt bend the toe down, like you would if you were standing on a diving block. And after that surgery, that measn the nerves in that foot along thebig toe are impaired. I can feel, but its like when your feet are freezing cold and are numb but got some feeling. Its strange feeling. And no i dont hav diabetes

Last year it flared up again, and so coz the clinic wasnt open, i had to go to a proper podiatrist and she took off the top part of the ingrown part coz she didnt do the local and her practice didnt do proper wedge resections. I nearly kicked her in the toe several times coz it hurt soooo much.

So I went to the GP at uni and she took down the reamining part. though the way she cut it was weird. Instead of cutting the toe in a straight line down, she cut the bottom part off a bit closer to the skin and so its like a right angle cut in it.
It naturally flared up again in August so i went back and the outer side was starting to get that crusty thing you get, so i told her while she had my toe numb she may as well take that small part out. Well she did, but she cut a weird curve in it, and it looks weird. Im thinking about complaining to the health complains commission.

In February this year it flared up again at work and so i went to a new GP since im not a student anmore and he got me on antibiotics and refered me to a general surgeon who could remove the acutal nail bed. The weird curve of the nail is causing more problems now and im so glad that i ahve the surgery on for tomorrow.

Im not having the whole nail bed removed, just the sides taken off. Coz the surgeon said that since im young, it wouldnt be good to remove the whole nail. I am going to hospital to get it done, under a general anaesthetic, and im not sure why it needs a general but he said that coz he goes right down to the bone apparently to get rid of the nail bed, its bette to be asleep.

Only prob with being asleep is that 4 wks ago i had major eye surgery and i still hve a gas bubble in my eye and the eye surgeon said its ok to have the surgery now but i have to be careful of what the anaesthetist uses to knock me out.

My main concern about this surgery is whether or not it acutally knocks the problem out for good. Im sick of always having wedge resections, which naturally make your toenail look demented and when you've had repeated surgeryies and that phenol stuf doesnt work, you just want it to stop for good.


Im also worried about pain..mainly the throbbing lol. I hope this time i dont faint ..the other times i havent thank god.

So yeah anyone had the permanent solution and it worked for good?

[footdoctor]

actual physical removal of the nail matrix associated with the ingrown nail is my primary treatment...i do not use phenol as a general rule of thumb simply because i have never had a great success ration...regardless the pain should not be that severe...there are no stitches...if the nail is getting narrower each time and if the new border is then beginning to curve inward, a subungual exostosis may be the underlying problem...a lateral(side view) x-ray will identify any spur on the top of the end toe bone beneath the great toenail that would need to be resolved...
Dr L