My patient can’t believe it, well in fact she can’t feel it, which is what she is having trouble adjusting to. You see this lovely lady has had a painful ingrown toenail on her big toe for the last 5 years. Her doctor who thought he was doing the right thing continued to put her on multiple courses of antibiotics but to no relief. Antibiotic whilst obviously successful in treating the infection in the surrounding tissue does not remove the small piece of nail that has protruded sharply into the skin around the nail.
This nail had also been treated by another Podiatrist who recognising that the patient had this nail protruding into the skin removed the nail …….. well the nail that they could see! This is truly what is needed in many cases. A simple quick process of removing the offending piece of nail relatively painless and simple for most people. However in this case, as with others that suffer from this condition over many months or even years a nail surgery was required.
The patient had spoken to their Podiatrist about this a few times and had mentioned it again at their last appointment with the Pod however the Pod was sure that with regular treatment it would be manageable. After many more months this lovely lady justifiably lost patience and faith in her Pod. She was looking for a solution to her ingrown toe nail pain and wanted it NOW !
Nail surgeries are not new for podiatrist and are something we do on a regular basis. It is done in our rooms and is a relatively simple procedure. I often describe this as relatively pain free – it is wrong to say any surgical procedure is “pain free” but as procedures go our patients report very little if any pain. I recommend this procedure for patients with involuted or very curved nails, Nails with areas that seem to catch the skin on the side of the nail. Again nails that have a long history of infection or growing in.
The message – really is a solution and that you don’t need to be in long term pain. 5 years is a long time in pain!