Those are not my feet. Mine are way less hairy. And way more prone to ingrown toenails.

I had a nice 5 months without any problems. My ingrown toenail was growing out.

Then clumsy me smashed my big toe against a wall, cracking the nail diagonally into the side of my cuticle. Ouch.

That’s when my nail dove back under the skin of my cuticle. At first it wasn’t painful.

But after a couple weeks of growth, I whacked my toe against a box and the cuticle throbbed. Pain lanced down the side of my toe.

Uh-oh. I know this kind of pain. The cuticle was a tad red. Inflammation.

Eek.

Called the podiatrist last week and got in Monday at 8:30 AM. Now you know I’m not a morning person so I had to be worried to take a crack-of-dawn appointment.

Doctor agreed that it was inflamed but luckily not infected. No need for antibiotics because I caught it in time. This time. Third time must be the charm.

He sprays it with numbing spray and then cuts the nail. He pries the piece of nail imbedded in my cuticle out. Then he says, “Wow. You are lucky. This time around, your body built a callus around the nail to prevent it from piercing into your skin. Saved you from an infection.”

Thank you toe cuticle for figuring out how to manage the nail shard!

He had to cut it out. It didn’t hurt too bad. Like a 5 on the pain scale of 10. I didn’t swear or even groan.

He put on some antibacterial cream and a band-aid. I have to watch it a few days. Hoping this time the nail grows normal. Otherwise, I’ll have to go back and cauterize the nail so it doesn’t grow into the cuticle anymore.

All this from a bad pedicure in September 2011. Let it be a cautionary tale to all. Cut your own toenails.

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