OK, I know this is a no-no by being off topic but where in the hell is the support group for in-grown toe nails? LOL  j/k I am experiencing my 1st one ever and since my wife had one last year, she went into GREAT detail about what the foot doctor is going to do to me. Right now my big toe is swelled up really bad and hurts like a SOB. As a matter of fact, it is on my good leg so now my limp is more like a crawl, lol. She told me he is gonna stick a needle right into it and dig it out. I asked her if he was gonna strap me down first cause I may just have to kick him with my other foot lol, Bruce D.

Bruce Good luck at the dr! When my youngest was two 1/2 she dropped a bowl on her toe one day, and the next day she tipped over her heavy wooden  rocking chair and it landed in the exact same spot! She swears, at 10 yrs old she still remembers it and how much pain she was in.  I slept by her that night and all she did was toss and turn so in the early morning we were off to the emergency room. When we arrived there at daybreak, her toe had swollen up to twice the size and no, she wasn't screaming,very high pain tolerance. The ER doc said it was a subdermal hematoma, one that would make adults want to cut off their foot and quite amazing she was tolerating it so well. The doc used a instrument with a heated wire to stab through the big toes nail and she still giggles as there was so much pressure the blood hit the ceiling!  (this is one of her very favorite stories from when when was young .......10 is old she says...lol. As for ingrown big toenails.....for whatever reason I get them all the time, I think it has allot to do with my screwed up gait.....when I can walk that is. I actually researched how to prevent them and what I found was that when trimming the big toe nail, cut completely straight across the top, DO NOT try and make the nail conform to the curved outline of the big toe.......i hope that makes sense......hard to describe. It does work for me, which is a great thing. But I do have one question........I can't feel my feet very well, nor my toes, so why when  I do get an ingrown nail, can I feel it? : ) Wishing you the best of luck!

She's messing with you (though I would consider going to a different doc in case she is not!).  Many years ago 25 or so) I had an ingrown toe nail - they anesthetized the toe area, gut it out, sent me on my way - a friend more recently, less than 10 years ago had a 'boot' to wear to protect her foot after similar surgery for an ingrown toe nail.  They didn't over anything like that and I borrowed a friends crutches for a few days to keep my weight off the foot (I *had* to go to work!)

Toe fix:   you will need bucket, epsom salts, bandaids, anbesol gel, hydrogen peroxide, triple antibiotic and some painkillers, ideally. This is gross, and not fun. You may need someone to assist you. Don't ever do ANYthing like this if you have diabetes or other issues along those lines... Soak in epsom salts, a cup to a gallon of water, hot as you can stand it. Pat dry, let it air dry some more. Dab a little anbesol on the painful area. (I have the baby grape flavored kind, works fine) Take a strong bandaid, and apply one end as close to the ingrowing area as you can. You will be putting the bandaid BEHIND your toe, not on top. (You can even use heavy tape, I think I used masking tape once.) It helps if you can take a Darvocet or something, first, because it'll hurt to touch the toe. Stick the bandaid on as close as you can to the swollen edge, and hold it there if possible, you'll need leverage. Pull the bandaid behind the toe and JERK on it as hard as you can. The part that's adhered/held to the swollen area will hold, and the quick jerk will pull the skin away from the nail, thus popping out the ingrowing part. (the skin is really the problem, not the nail) If it's got a broken piece in there, that may fly out, along with some uh, gunk . You may have to do this more than once. It feels SO much better after this. Then soak again in warm water, drown it in peroxide, and trim the skin AND the nail, if possible. Also, you can leave the nail because some say not to cut it , but you can wedge a teeny piece of cotton from the end of a q-tip under the nail, which keeps it from growing in. I always soak my toes in very hot water in the tub, and use a file to keep the skin soft, so that the nail doesn't grow in.If you keep the skin trimmed and sloughed, it helps a lot. Finish up with triple antibiotic and the pain will go away. Failing that, get to a doctor, and let them do it...but my method's a proven one! If only it would work for the nail problem I have

I'm gonna need a sumo wrestler to hold me down   lol   Drake  whatever it takes! those inflamed toes HURT!