Thursday, April 23, 2009

This Is Why You DO NOT Pick Your Toe Nails!!

WARNING: This a bit GROSS....so, if you get squeamish easily, then STOP NOW!!!

I remember my mom used to say "Don't pick your nails and/or your toe-nails"..... That wasn't that hard for me because I never, ever mess with my feet.... now, I do pick my cuticles when they get dry and I will pick at them sometimes until they get raw..... my feet....no way!!!

But my son....my sweet, big boy CJ.... he is a picker... he picks his fingernails AND his toenails.... all.the.time. And when I say pick, I mean he digs into them until there isn't much left at all!! About 2 weeks ago we noticed the two big toe nails were getting a little swollen..... and then alot swollen....and then full of puss...and the dark red all around.
The left one obviously worse than the right.....

Assuming that they were ingrown and infected, I took him to the podiatrist yesterday!! They were very nice and very gentle with him.... but very firm in saying "Don't pick your toe-nails ANYMORE"!! You see, when you pick your toenails, you are pushing the nail inward; therefore it cannot grow staright out...and will inevitably become ingrown!! Always, clip or cut with scissors!!!

So, they gave CJ 2 shots in each toe to numb them, which had him cringing in pain.....I mean, the toes were already hurting and infected, so to then have needles stuck in the them.....well, not so good!!!
Then the doctor scraped out all the infected tissue and cut off the ingrown toenail (and a small portion of the good toenail)!!
yuck!!

CJ did so good.... he didn't complain at all....and listened very intently as the doctor gave instructions on how to care for/clean it!!!
I am fairly certain that he will be using clippers from now on!!!! So, there is my lesson to all of you--- "Only use clippers and/or scissors to trim your nails!!" :)

7 comments:

La Pixie said...

OMG, I will probably never ever even TOUCH my feet again. I didnt read the whole post, because Im very squeamish and I didnt want to faint, but oh Lordy, what I read!!

Hair Bows & Guitar Picks said...

Wow...good for him getting it all taken care of and for not passing out {cause I would have}

Amy McMean said...

WOW. this was by FAR the grossest post I've read....EVER. Ahh You should have had the disclaimer at the very start.

Hopefully he has learn a VERY good lesson here...FEET ARE GROSS!!!!

P.S.
The photo of him with the flip flops. SO FUNNY! He should rock that look at school...with the plaid shorts.

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

Oh my word. Feet make me squirm too! I had to wince while reading!

LazyCrazyMama said...

Oh my!! Youch! My son is a big nail chewer, but thankfully he hasn't started on his toes yet, and after this, I so won't let that happen!!

Unknown said...

Holy cow!! I pick my toe nails all the time but I think I'm going to stop now...that sounds so painful!!!! OUCH!!

Glad to see him still smiling though! hehe

April said...

That poor kid! I hope he learned his lesson. What a painful way to learn it!