Ingrown toenails

Quite a few years ago I came to my doctor in great distress.

“I’m not going through that again,” I said.

An ingrown toenail was back to its old tricks, a few months after I had had it painfully pulled out. Today – years later – I can still remember that for about half an hour after the surgeon had yanked out the entire nail with his forceps, all I could see were lights exploding in my head.

“What can I do?” I asked my doctor. 

He thought for a moment, then said:  “Take a piece of cotton wool, roll it thin between your fingers and place it under the nail”.

Once back home I rolled a tiny piece of cotton wool into a thin strip, and gently wedged it under the nail.  Next morning, after a shower, I put another piece of cotton wool under the nail.

By the second day the nail was growing normally.  After the third day I stopped treating the toe.  And ever since then it has behaved itself.

Cracks between the toes

As a runner I suffered a lot in my youth from this, until, years later, it dawned on me that maybe I was causing the cracks by rubbing a towel on the sensitive areas in my misguided efforts to “dry” them.

But toes have to be kept clean and dry.

So instead of rubbing I tried pressing the towel down firmly (working my way back and forth along the toes about three times) to absorb the moisture. 

It works.

On rare occasions when the cracks come back, I take more care in the drying process, and in three or four days they’re back to normal.