Toenail Ablation

At last something solid to tell you about. For some years now I have suffered from something called ‘involuted toenail’ which is similar to an ingrowing one, hardly life threatening but it can be quite painful and does get infected from time to time. The photo above is the offending digit at its worst. The inflammation can clearly be seen from the redness around the nail as can the shape the nail grows into, slowly pinching the flesh. How much is demonstrated by the next photo showing the nail after a bit of ‘home surgery’.

I’ve put up with this for years now (as we blokes tend to do – we truly are terrible at looking after our health) but finally I decided to consult my GP, the result of which was a trip to the hospital today to have the nail removed permanently (ablated).

After some confusion I had the procedure done under a local anaesthetic (they were quite keen to put me under). It’s the same stuff as used by the dentist and as with the dentist it took about twice the normal dose to ‘numb me up’ but despite feeling like a pincushion it was better than a general. Once properly numb I didn’t feel a thing and it was all over in about ten minutes. Bit strange seeing my nail in a pair of forceps though.

Several hours later the anaesthetic is wearing off but there is surprisingly little pain so far, the hospital issued me with some industrial strength painkillers though ‘just in case’. I now have a surprisingly small dressing and have to use something called a ‘darco’ boot for a couple of weeks, this keeps the pressure off the toes apparently and makes me walk as though I’ve had about three doubles.

So far the experience has been, if not agreeable, at least not grossly unpleasant. I’m told anecdotally, semi confirmed by the nurses/consultant, that it will almost certainly turn a bit ‘manky’. I’m also intrigued as to life toenail less so I’ll keep you posted.