*WARNING: This post contains some extremely gross pics*
I've made the links clickable, so you don't have to see the pics unless you want to. I've also tried to make the pictures pretty small so they won't be too shocking. I have the large versions saved, and they are very detailed....
I recently had surgery for an ingrown nail, and since that seems like a pretty common problem; I figured I'd share my story, so others know what to expect.
The story starts about 4 months ago when I suddenly started getting ingrown toe nails. I'd never had an ingrown nail before, and I wasn't wearing new shoes or anything like that. Weird. Anyway, one of them just wouldn't go away (I named it Stinky since it didn't smell very nice):
As you can see, the cuticle has sort of dissolved and the area around the nail is infected.
After a couple of months I went to my doctor who referred me to an orthopeadic surgeon. He performed a surgery where he cut a small slice of the nail and then continued the cut down to the nail matrix where he removed a piece. This will cause the nail to grow our more narrow in the future.
Yes, I should have redone my pedi before the surgery, but I was in pain, dammit!The surgery was completely painless (local anastesia injected using a VERY large syringe OUCH), but it hurt like hell in the days after. For the first couple of days I pretty much couldn't move at all, and sleep was completely impossible. Seriously, it hurt a lot. Just saying so. The skin under the bandage was hurting a lot too. I later found out I'd had an allergic reaction to the bandage.
After 5 days I was allowed to take off the bandages. The skin under the bandages was covered in little blisters which hurt and itched.
It took a few days before I got my courage up to remove all of the bandage. There has been quite a bit of blood and I wasn't allowed to wash the toe, which made it very difficult. Unfortunately some of the skin came off with the bandage because of the allergic reaction.
Because there is only one stich (not really possible to sew in the nail); the toes started to bleed quite easily.
This is from the day after I took off the bandage.
After 12 days I went and got the stiches removed. That was pretty painless.
It's now a month since the surgery, and it almost doesn't hurt anymore
As you can see, there is still some redness and bruising, but I think my poor toe will turn out fine.
I'll still have to see if they will get my of the problem in the future. If it does, I might consider getting the other toe fixed (yes, apparently I've already forgotten how much it hurt!)
