(no subject)

[unbibium]

Sunday night I got a hangnail on my pinky toenail. I ended up tearing it off.

I don't know wherher it's growing back right, but the nail-area is pretty close to black, and it hurts when walking with shoes on. It seemed worse Tuesday than Monday.

Not sure whether to go to the doctor. And if so, not sure whether I should get an appointment with a family practitioner, go straight for a podiatrist, or run as quick as I can to the Urgent Care facility. Or should I just put some Neosporin on it and hope for the best?


Afraid to look at it too closely, in case I might see something I don't wanna know is going on down there.

Comments

Wait, you tore off what? The hangnail, or the nail?

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

Either way, bandage it up tight to even out the pressure on it to stop your shoe from hurting it. If it continues to hurt worse after that, it's probably infected. Take it to your family doctor.

It's entirely possible that you've turned a simple hangnail into a massively annoying ingrown nail. Look closely and see if the corner of the nail is jammed down under the skin. If it is, take a tiny bit of cotton from a Q-Tip, twist it up tight, and jam it underneath as much of the nail and the skin as you can without hurting it worse. If it still hurts when it's packed, wrap it up to even out the pressure as above. The good part is that an ingrown nail isn't anywhere near as hard to deal with on a pinky toe as on a big toe. It should grow out within a couple weeks if you keep it packed. If it stays inflamed after a day of packing, though, again, it's probably infected, so take it to your family doctor.

Of course, if you have any history or significant risk of dangerous infections like cellulitis, skip all these steps and run to your urgent care facility right away.