To have removed (most of) my own toenail

[Cornana]

I know that sounds very barbaric, but I’ve had an increasingly bad ingrown toenail throughout lockdown. It got to the point where it was so swollen and red I can barely walk. Doctors have said they can sort me out antibiotics for Monday, but that doesn’t help the fact I had what felt like half my toenail growing down. In the end, I got a pair of tweezers and have removed the entirety of my toenail horizontally and leaving 1/3 or so at the bottom. I literally pulled out over half a centimetre of nail which was not visible due to how ingrown it was. I have no idea if this was sensible or not, but the pain is gone and the part which is left is ‘normal’ and not ingrown.

What can I do to make sure it grows back ‘normally?”

My friend thinks I’m crazy and should have waited til Monday, but the pain was so bad I couldn’t bear it any longer. And they only would have given me antibiotics, god knows how long until it actually gets removed. My light duvet on my toe felt like fire. I couldn’t walk without limping. Now I can actually run like normal, it doesn’t hurt nearly as much.

AIBU to not have waited? No clue if I’ve made it worse, but it doesn’t hurt. I’m now going to rest my foot til Monday at least, have applied disinfectant and suppose I’ll just wait now.

I once had gel toes done at the salon and I got a snag under one of my big toes and it basically ripped my nail off down to the last 0.5 of a centimeter but with a bit still hanging on at the end. I taped it up for a day and then over about two hours of painstaking fiddling gradually just picked it off until I had just a tiny stub of a toenail left. I kept it clean and savlon’ed it and had a bath every night (you could just soak it in hot water if you don’t want a full on bath). Anyway it’s grown back to about 1cm now but the initial spot where it ‘ripped’ is a bit yellow so I think it’s going to be damaged.

@sallyjuliet If it carries on being a problem, get your GP to refer you to an NHS Podiatrist (we’re all still working as normal!) and they will remove it and use phenol (or an equivalent) to stop the damaged bit of nail from growing back again.

My Podiatrist tried the phenol on mine twice and both times it grew back. She pulled out the laser on the third attempt and that's what resolved it.

MyFuckingFairyGarden

"I sometimes pull entire toenails out when I'm very stressed confused*

CoRhona - what’s more shocking is the amount of people that pull out entire toenails due to stress/anxiety. It sucks.

I can only advise after doing something similar for my husband to pull back the skin the side that was ingrown ond tape it back with a plaster, it's annoying but nowhere near as painful as the ingrown toenail was as might hopefully help the regrowth not grow in, good luck!

Iv a constant ingrown toe nail.that comes back after a injury years ago. I have sharp pair of thin scissors. I chop downside and use tweezers to pull the ingrown bit. I know to do it now as soon as feels a bit tender before it gets infected. Just make sure you bath it twice a day with antiseptic or tea tree oil