From The Past: October 11, 2005

Back in June, I posted about my ingrown toenail. After living with it for over a year, it was in terrible shape. It was painful and filled with pus. Each night, I had to clean it off where it had oozed all day under my sock.

I tried to buy new tennis shoes, but none gave me enough “toe room”. I believe one of the things that egged this on was having my toes squeezed by the wrong shoes.

Every other day my toes were being stepped on at my job – literally. I had to do something, so I made up my mind I was seeing a podiatrist. This morning I had my appointment.

As promised, my regular doctor called in some Valium to calm my nerves. Unfortunately, it must have been a child’s dose because it did absolutely NOTHING for me.

When I got to the podiatrist’s office, to my surprise and delight, it was a woman. I prefer to see a female physician.

The procedure happened fast. She leaned me back in the chair so I couldn’t see anything. (I wouldn’t have looked anyway!) Then at the same time she sprayed cold air on my toe from an aerosol can, she also gave me several shots to numb the area. To be honest, I only felt one injection. I laid there for about 15 minutes waiting for my toe to become completely numb.

Once she came back in the room, I have no idea what went on other than the fact that she removed the nail on each side of my big toe. Until tomorrow, it will look this way:

I will have to soak it three times a day for 10 days. After that, I hope I never have to worry about it again.

It is sore as I type this, but really, no more so than it was with the infection anyway.