Just wondering if I should go to a GP with this toenail issue.
I wear socks day and night and don't really look at my feet from one month to the next. Every so often I think to check the length of my toenails and cut them if necessary. Earlier this year (February or March) I looked and found that all my toenails needed clipping except those on my big toes, which appeared to have not grown at all since I had last looked. The cuticles had also disappeared and there was minor inflammation down one side of one nail. I assumed they were ingrowing or headed that way, and soaked my feet in epsom salts twice a day for a couple of weeks. The cuticles reappeared and the redness faded a little so I stopped the routine.
A few weeks later I looked and there was indication that both nails had started growing again: near the cuticle of each was a narrow band of nail less thick than the rest and an abrupt step up to the older nail. So I assumed all was fine. Since then I've cut the big toenails once (and the rest a few times), so they are growing (but relatively slowly).
Today I looked and there is a black... thing in the corner of one nail, filling the space between the cuticle and the thicker, older nail. Thought it was a bit of fluff from my socks, but it's fused to the nail. Could it be fungus? Or something more sinister? Or a bit of fused sock fluff?(!). I've googled images of black toenail things and all the pictures seem to be of blackness under the nail, but this is sitting on top of the recent growth. Has anyone here had anything that looks similar? Should I bother a GP with it?