I've had an ingrown toenail for a little while now, and it had gotten quite inflamed. I've had them since I was a girl, and I've generally just cut the toenail and wrenched the offending toenail bit out. Anyhow, this time I'd cut and wrenched as much as I could stand, but the infection just seemed to get worse. I was seriously considering visiting a podiatrist, but I asked Michael to try acupuncture anaesthesia, which worked wonders twice when I had tooth extractions. Anyhow, he looked up a technique for the big toe, and it was the only protocol he could find, but it didn't really seem to work for me.
We also scraped the surface of the toenail (I was hoping it might weaken the toenail so that the inflamed area might simply eject the offending part, or, even, that we might scrape all the way through to 'cut' the toenail and then pull). That didn't work, either.
Yesterday, when my toe was aching in a warm bath, I wondered if I should perhaps ice it to numb it, and then I recalled that some topical surgeries are done simply with ice for numbing, for folks who are sensitive to anaesthesias. So, last night I filled a big bowl with ice and water and numbed my big toe for 2-5 minutes. I then clipped away the offending toenail part, down to the root of the nail and pulled it out, virtually pain-free. Amazing. Unfortunately, once my toe started thawing out, it did start throbbing! We bandaged it up with Neosporin, and I took some Tylenol P.M. before bed, and it's feeling alright this morning--even a bit better, I think. We'll see how it grows out and if it heals up properly now!
Anyhow, ice is amazing. I once took a massage class led by a geriatric instructor who called himself 'Ice Man'. He saw only geriatric clients, and he used ice routinely with them--especially for arthritic hands and joints. The hands would be drawn up with pain, and he would apply ice to numb the pain. While the joints were numb, he would stretch the digits, and by the end of the treatment session, their hands would be much less clenched and disfigured.
Anyhow, I'm appreciating ice right now...so simple and effective!
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