I have an in-growing toenail and yesterday I stubbed my toe.

[TerribleTantrums]

I'm feeling sorry for myself now. It's stopped throbbing but it's still too sore to wear socks or shoes and is extremely sensitive to touch, even just having a light-weight duvet over my foot kept waking me up last night. And, of course, everything that can hit it has hit it, DC, the dog, random dropped toys.

Amputating the toe myself would be a little extreme, right? .

[jkklpu]

Soak it in a basin of hot water for a while - it will soften the skin around the ingrowing part and relive the pressure a bit. If it is really septic and you can do things like that, once you've soaked it for a while, sterilise a needle and puncture the infected area to release the pus and relive the pressure. At least for one night.

[TerribleTantrums]

There's no pus, thank goodness. It's not particularly hot so I don't think there's any infection. I think it's just bruised and the swelling is making the curved edge of the nail dig in quite hard. I will try soaking, maybe tomorrow, thanks.

[EnidB]

Go to a chiropodist! It may be about £30 if you go private but for me, it was worth every penny!! I couldn't even bear the duvet over it. 20 minutes of trying not to crawl up and out of the chair and it was all over. She cuts it back every 6 weeks and it seems to be growing out better. If you go to the GP they may send you to hospital. It is only going to get worse. Sorry - but good luck!

[Meglet]

If it doesn't settle down then a visit to a podiatrist should do it. I had one years ago, he cut out the excess and the pain stopped immediately.

[noteventhebestdrummer]

Chiropodist is the answer. Mine is a pleasingly pretty young man which is a bonus

[TerribleTantrums]

at the thought of an attractive man having to look at my feet. If I do go and see a professional about my toe (and I think I might have to) it had better be a no-nonsense, middle-aged female.

[hashtagwhatever]

oooouch, I feel your pain.

I have so much skin around the side of my toes and boy does stubbing it hurt. worse kids always, always manage to stand on my foot. second seeing a chiropodist.

[candycoatedwaterdrops]

My toe nails are weird and grow side ways, not upwards. Ingrowing toe nails - infected or not - are surprisingly bloody painful, so you have my sympathy. See a chiropodist ASAP!

[ObtuseAngel]

It has calmed down a lot now, the swelling went down and immediately the pain reduced as the nail wasn't digging in anymore. I will probably see a chiropodist, but it's not so urgent now. It helps a lot the weather is unseasonably warm so I'm back in sandals. Thanks for the advice.

[ObtuseAngel]

I have name changed btw, 'tis me TerribleTantrums

[greenpencils90]

Sounds like a strange thing to do, but i've always suffered from ingrowing toenails, and so does my step mum, her doctor told her to cut a deep V in the middle of the toe nail (and let it grow quite long) this relieves some of the pressure on the nail edge as it breaks the curve. It looks a little odd, but you can file it so it looks more like a lower-case m. It's REALLY worked for me, this is the first year I haven't cried everytime that cat stands on my foot!

p.s I just use toenail clippers to cut the V.