DIY Toenail Removal – not for the weak of stomach!

*applause*

There’s something about toenails, I used to work for a very successful outdoor shop and the most popular blog post we ever did was the boss losing his toenails after his Bob Graham.

YOUR BOSS LOST HIS BOB GRAHAM??!!!??!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!! (did he have to work it off with a Gerber?) 😀

“cheers Rich”
Threads that end like that turn my stomach…

Top quality post!

I had to pay to have the same job done by “professionals”! Paid in advance too.

And then on the day the chap had to have an older more qualified woman with him as he had never done this before and so wasnt allowed to do it on his own!! I nearly keeled over.

Anyway – I wish I’d saved the cash and just done it myself.

So chapeau! If it happens again, I’m going diy.

Christ on a bike, that’s gross.

You sir are a wrong ‘un.

Why did you DIY? Were you pausing mid extraction to take the photos? Just planning to take photos seems rather confident. I’d want both hands. No scratch that, I’d want a doctor. I had one when I accidentally half ripped off a big toenail myself, and it was still a bit uncomfortable. Then there was the pain and not being able to walk afterwards.

I can’t help thinking your perspective on pain has been altered from normal! Perhaps through becoming able to complete an Ironman?

I skipped the photos because I’m not keen on anything like that, but I wanted to see the responses, and some have been very funny.

Ahh, IM not mara.

Mine take weeks to get to a stage where they want to fall off, that’s why I asked.

My most controversial thread to date 😀

It is the running aspect of the IM that does this to my feet, although it has improved a bit since last year!

This was about a week after my first marathon in August last year, and as you can see one of the nails has fallen off naturally, and the big toenail is just a horrible mess, probably a combination of running and a fungal infection.

This was just after my first half Ironman, feet generally not looking too happy. I made a rookie mistake of racing in brand new shoes which turned out to be a fraction too small, and without socks. Needed quite a bit of superglue to get my feet into a usable state 😮

The reason why I wanted to whip this one off pronto was the pain. It wasn’t a case of waiting it to turn black and fall off of it’s own accord; I had given it such a beating that the root of the nail was fully detached from the growing point, hence why it was so inflamed. It needed attention pretty soon, and as I have another marathon in 3 weeks time, and the 70.3 World Champs in Vegas 2 weeks after that, this seemed like an appropriate time window in which to operate. Subsequent to the procedure I doused it in iodine and wrapped it up, and will get the whole thing cauterised with phenol at the earliest possible moment, hopefully ending up with a nice functional thing like Alandavidpetrie79 showed us on the first page 🙂

Sorry to disappoint, but Jamie, none of the others are in quite such need for a repeat performance, and JoeG, even I draw the line at something 😆

Cheers, Rich

Nice one, do you do amputation’s too when your foot gets infected?

Yep, not doing a marathon, idly considered it, not any more.

It was snowboarding that did for mine, 3 maras and a 70.3 and toenails not fallen off!

I resisted reading this thread, clearly my inquisitive nature lead me back to it.

I wish I was a dumb ass 😆

Bravo, proper man behaviour.

silly enough to run bike and swim till you bleed internally and then rip parts of your body off with pliers.

I am sure yorkshire would accept you as one of their own now.

Imagine how long you could chew on it for…
It would last days.

i saw this thread title when it was created and thought, yeah, i’m not gonna open that one….

yet here i am… looking into a pandora’s box 🙁

stupid curiosity 😐

Looked like a nice tidy job – it appears to have come out pretty cleanly.

I’ve got a couple turning black and lifting a bit, but I just leave mine to biology / evolution and wait for them to sort themselves out.

My feet seem to cope really rather well with running (other than from the occasional bruise / bruised nail-bed from coming down on something loose/sketchy), but I spend as little time as possible on tarmac (although the trails are pretty much like concrete now, after weeks of hot sun).

+ 1 robgclarkson! Ugh I feel sick. I have beautiful feet which have never, ever had any issues. Thank god!

Suddenly this mornings crunchy nut cornflakes have lost their appeal.
However, I doff my cap to your planning and fortitude.

Very interesting thread… Thank you.

Did the nail have a fungal infection?

Some of my nails have had a history of being pretty crusty, so quite probably some fungal infection in addition to the major running inflicted trauma!

Cheers, Rich

What has been seen cannot be unseen…

I’m talking about the guy who had his nailbed removed by the way. That just looks strange. The toenail removal just looked cool in an “I didn’t know you could do that!” sort of way.

I bet you’ll have Mi6 (or 5 or whatever) trying to recruit you now as you’ll be torture proof to a large degree! 😉

Badguy: “Reveal the names of the double agents or we will pull your nails out with pliers!”

Turboferret: “Pliers? bit last year don’t you think, would you like to borrow my leatherman??”

😉

Having had ingrowing toenails and self removed the nasty sharp bits at the edges of the toenail myself with the same sort of kit, I take my hat off to the OP!

This thread is better without pictures.

I’m sure you are all desperate for an update 🙂

Just been to see a podiatric surgeon, he confirmed that I’ve done a very neat job of the nail removal. Booked in to have the remains burnt on Thursday to prevent any new nail growing back.

Sorted 😀

Cheers, Rich