Musings of a Catholic Convert

The best way to treat ingrown nails is to not get them in the first place.  If I've read it once, I've read it a thousand times, CUT YOUR NAILS STRAIGHT ACROSS!  Now have I EVER listened to that advice?  Yes and no. 

I got this monster ingrown nail about 10 years ago.  It got so bad that I was afraid it would get infected and kill me, so I reluctantly went to see a doctor.  I hate going to the doctor.  He looked at it and said, "Ughhh!"  Then he asked, "Do you cut your nails straight across?"  After getting a million shots in my big toe and watching him DIG TOENAIL out of my foot for what seemed like hours, I was thinking that the straight across method would be a good thing to do. 

Did I follow his advice?  Yup.  Well, most of the time.  Every now and then I have performed the old "home surgery" of cutting a nail out that is digging into the sides a bit.  Who wants to go to the doctor for something easy like that, right?  So I had such a situation a few weeks ago.  I cut and when I was pulling the ingrown part out, the nail broke so everything did not come out.  I couldn't get at the rest without digging into my toe so I had to leave it alone.

I let it grow and I didn't mess with it that much.  I looked to make sure it wasn't getting red and puffy or that stuff wasn't coming out.  I bathed it in peroxide every night to keep stuff out.  Ooooh it was sore for days and I could feel in my toe where it the nail grew under the skin.   After a nice long time I could not take the pain anymore, so I put on my scrubs and went into surgery mode.

Let me tell you something, brother.  I got it all out in one cut and pull.  That dude was HUGE!  I should have taken a picture to show you the crooked growing mess that was dwelling under my toe surface.  It looked like a giant shark tooth that was pulled out at the root.  Maybe it WAS a shark tooth.  I don't know.  I just know that the thing was out.  What followed?  Instant relief.  No more pain, no more crooked nail. I felt like a million bucks after I extracted that monster.

And you better believe that I am cutting ALL my nails straight across now.