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There's Sumthin' Wrong With My Big Toe...

SamIchi

SamIchi

macrumors 68030
Original poster
It started hurtin' last night. I thought it'd go away after I goto sleep. I woke up and it still hurt. It's only on the left side of the toe near the nail. Anyone have an idea of what this might be?

I looked up ingrown toenail, but it doesn't seem to be that, cause it's not near the front of the nail, i dunno. Physically there is nuthin' out of the norm except redness. I hope it goes away.
 
ingrown toenail is possible.

minor surgery would fix that.

i would recommend putting your foot in warm water and see if that makes it any better
 
Gout?

Did you stub your toe at all?

Do you have sheets on your bed that are tightly tucked in?
 
It could very well be an ingrown toenail. Is the toe very swollen in the area?
I suffer from this myself. I went to my G.P and he apparently took out the root of the nail. It grew back however so now I end up conducting minor surgery on myself whenever it gets bad. Normally just sterilise a swiss army scissors and cut out the offending section of the nail. Quite often some pus is ejected but after that I've relief for a good few weeks. Tis been a chronic problem for me tho so don't know if its advisable in your case.

Assuming the whole toe isn't inflammed and its just tender over the area of possible nail ingrowth, i'd say thats your most likely diagnosis.
 
Angelus said:
It could very well be an ingrown toenail. Is the toe very swollen in the area?
I suffer from this myself. I went to my G.P and he apparently took out the root of the nail. It grew back however so now I end up conducting minor surgery on myself whenever it gets bad. Normally just sterilise a swiss army scissors and cut out the offending section of the nail. Quite often some pus is ejected but after that I've relief for a good few weeks. Tis been a chronic problem for me tho so don't know if its advisable in your case.

Assuming the whole toe isn't inflammed and its just tender over the area of possible nail ingrowth, i'd say thats your most likely diagnosis.
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you know you can have a surgery so it doesn't grow back right? It is when they take out the matrix and also burn away any remnants of the matrix.

I know this procedure because well I have had ingrown nail surgery like 8 times.

Thankfully none in about 5 years.
 
I'd say ingrowing toenail. I have a possible cure that will be shunned by everyone!

whenever the corners of any of my toes hurt I go at them with nail clippers. always involves blood. I snip a little bit in just to get a still attached sharp pokey nail-bit poking out, going towards the source of the pain, then I pull for all I'm worth! it hurts like bleedin hell but I've never had a toe problem since starting this about 9 years ago! It's ridiculous and theres probably long term problems. but my toes look and feel right so 🙂

Probably not an ingrowing toe nail though, could be something a little more minor.
 
raggedjimmi said:
I'd say ingrowing toenail. I have a possible cure that will be shunned by everyone!
Click to expand...
Eew... unfortunately I do the same for a couple offending toes. 🙁
 
Vster said:
I also have my ongoing battle with the "ingrown menace". I've have the surgery on one big toe now the "menace" has jumped to my other big toe.

Anyways, just to throw another diagnosis into the mix...

Gout?

Just a thought
🙂


http://www.podiatrychannel.com/gout/
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I dont think that's it. There's no pain in my joints, just on the side of my toe. I had someone else look at my toe, and they said the don't see anything outta place. Can the part of the nail that's affecting me, be unseen?
 
raggedjimmi said:
I'd say ingrowing toenail. I have a possible cure that will be shunned by everyone!

whenever the corners of any of my toes hurt I go at them with nail clippers. always involves blood. I snip a little bit in just to get a still attached sharp pokey nail-bit poking out, going towards the source of the pain, then I pull for all I'm worth! it hurts like bleedin hell but I've never had a toe problem since starting this about 9 years ago! It's ridiculous and theres probably long term problems. but my toes look and feel right so 🙂

Probably not an ingrowing toe nail though, could be something a little more minor.
Click to expand...
Hmm, I would think that doing this is what makes the nails grow in. That's why you should cut toe nails straight and not in a curve. With your method the nails can't grow in (of course), but by doing this they always start to grow in, so you have to do it again.
 
SamIchi said:
I dont think that's it. There's no pain in my joints, just on the side of my toe. I had someone else look at my toe, and they said the don't see anything outta place. Can the part of the nail that's affecting me, be unseen?
Click to expand...

hence why it could be ingrown, it would be inside your toe growing sideways. if it is ingrown just wait till it pops through the skin. then it will hurt.
 
Johnny Rico said:
Whenever this happens to me it manages to correct itself in a couple of days. I say stick with it and see what happens.
Click to expand...

That's what I always do. But if the pain gets really bad, I'm gunna have to give in. I haven't been to the doctors in so long.
 
Sometimes it is not the nail, but the skin around the nail that causes the infection. That's what I get once in a while. I went to my foot doctor the first time and watched carefully as he trimmed it out (and charged me $150). Now I just trim it out myself. Doesn't hurt...too bad. My doctor said some people are just more prone to ingrown nails then others.

If it hurts bad enough to write here about it, go to the doctor....
 
I had a similar situation until about a week ago.

I think it was October, I kicked the raised area in front of our fireplace on accident and my toe started bleeding alongside the nail. I applied pressure and stopped the bleeding and all seemed well.

About a week later it started to hurt so I looked. It appeared that the nail was growing back and applying pressure to the front area of my toe where the skin was wrapping up around the corner of the nail. If I worked a clipper in and took out the corner of the nail I found that I could get about a week or so reprieve from the discomfort. Unfortunately it kept coming back. About three weeks ago I started to tape it up every morning and apply neosporin to an area where it looked like it was not re-attaching well. Some days were better than others but once the corner of the nail made it past the front of my toe it was over. It no longer bothers me and everything seems back to normal.

Mind you this worked for me and I had some mornings where it bothered me quite a bit but it usually got better throughout the day. I probably should have seen a doctor but I'm a stubborn idiot most of the time although I did make a deal that if I could not get it fixed by the end of January I would go see the doctor.
 
I have this also, but it's usually after I do a bad job clipping my nails. Waiting for it to grow back past the area will solve it for me.
 
It's an ingrown toe nail. What you said perfectly describes one. I get them on both of my big toes all the time. Take my word for it - get a doctor to dig it out for you. If you wait, it will get worse. I usually dig my own out. Very painful, I know. To be honest, I don't know how I do it.
 
where did my mind go.....i thought this thread said "whats wrong with my big nose"....i was like😕


Bless
 
It could be an ingrown nail. I'm gonna need a complete history.
Age:
Sex:
Location:

Are you on any medications:
Any known allergies:
Any drugs or alchohol:
Has anything else changed in the last week:

Any thing else you can think of that might be related. And a picture might be helpful. You said it was red, is it swollen too?
 
Wear different, looser shoes for a week and see if it goes away. (I had a big toenail go bad because of an ill-fitting shoe.)

If it doesn't go away with that change, it sounds like an ingrown toenail problem and it will not get better on its own.

Don't bother with your regular doctor. Go see a podiatrist. They can take care of this problem very effectively by cutting off the nail and chemically cauterising the root so it won't grow back. This will hurt very much, but not as bad as cumulative pain of an ingrown townail.

And a note to all the people who regularly self-operate: WTF?? It's pretty cheap to see a podiatrist and fix this problem permanently. I can't imagine showering yourself with toe pus and blood every three weeks is fun.
 
I always get ingrown tonails from playing so much soccer. One time I went, the doctor used a scalpel to remove pus and put me on antibiotics for a week.

Wait a few days, see what she looks like.
 
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