Re: New toe topic: ingrown toenails

[Guest guest]

Hi Holli,

Just my thoughts - could there be an infection deep within that oral antibiotics

can't kick and maybe IV would? Or is there some kind of internal fungus causing

this? Has any doc considered oral or IV anti-fungals?

Gretchen

[Guest guest]

My daughter had her nails removed.......she is not sorry!

Geri

[Guest guest]

Hi Holli,

My first thought is that your sons gait might be the problem. Walking in an

inapproriate way might cause the nail to grow into the skin. But it is only a

theory and I have not this problem myself. However, I wish I had known the

benefit of AFOs before. Nobody told me about them, so I had to ask for myself,

and they improve my gait so much. No need to slap my feet down anymore. So I

would actually try this out. If foot drop gait is eliminated, so might the nail

problem be.

Beata

________________________________

From: hmm_md <hmm_md@...>

Sent: Thu, November 19, 2009 8:32:49 PM

Subject: New toe topic: ingrown toenails

 

I have been reading with interest the thread on the " skin under the toes " . A lot

of good, practical advice and remedies. I haven't tried the black tea one but

that seems like a good idea for a lot of reasons.

At any rate, it made me think that maybe you all had some experience/ideas on

what to do about an intractable ingrown toenail. My son, who has probable CMT (I

was diagnosed genetically and he is " following in my footsteps " in so many ways)

has had a problem with ingrown toenails on the inner side of both of his big

toes.

He does not have hammer toes (yet) but is a big guy. He's only 12 but is almost

6' tall and wears a men's 13 1/2 shoe. He has the classic drop foot gait and

drags his toes and then slaps them down as he walks. (I did point that out to

the orthopod, who does know CMT, and he didn't think orthotics or AFOs were in

order at this point).

I have taken him to a podiatrist for over a year. He did 3 " surgeries " which

consisted of numbing the toe, cutting the side of the nail off all the way to

the nail bed and then smearing the area with a paste that does not allow the

nail to regrow. Each time it came back the same and the only result has been a

more and more narrow nail.

At this point I took him to an orthopedist at Cedars-Sinai who is familiar with

CMT. He was very confident it was an easy fix (and informed us that they don't

do that surgery anymore because it doesn't work -- really?) He pushed alcohol

pads under the nail to encourage it to grow OVER the skin and not into it and

gave antibiotics and recommended epsom salt soaks (as did the podiatrist).

One month later it is just as bad and prone to letting loose and bleeding. The

orthopod put more alcohol pads under the nail and used silver nitrate to

cauterize the new skin growth over the nail, but looked worried.

Any thoughts?

Holli

[Guest guest]

Gretchen, it doesn't seem that infection is the main problem. It does keep

getting infected because it is in a warm, dark, place and the toenail keeps

cutting into the skin on the side but the antibotics took care of it. His nail

is not thick or yellow like you'd see with fungus. The biggest problem seems to

be that no matter how they try to make the nail grow right (or stop growing in

that area) it just does what it does anyway.

Geri, interesting that your daughter had the toenail removed (gives me the

shivers, though). Did she have the same problem? How did they keep it from

growing back?

Holli

>

> Hi Holli,

>

> Just my thoughts - could there be an infection deep within that oral

antibiotics can't kick and maybe IV would? Or is there some kind of internal

fungus causing this? Has any doc considered oral or IV anti-fungals?

>

> Gretchen

>

[Guest guest]

Wondering if his shoes are to narrow or toes rubbing on anything inside of his

shoe.

I used to have trouble with the seem and trying to get shoes that were wide

enough.

I used to have ingrowen nails too......

Geri

Hi Holli,

My first thought is that your sons gait might be the problem. Walking in an

inapproriate way might cause the nail to grow into the skin. But it is only a

theory and I have not this problem myself. However, I wish I had known the

benefit of AFOs before. Nobody told me about them, so I had to ask for myself,

and they improve my gait so much. No need to slap my feet down anymore. So I

would actually try this out. If foot drop gait is eliminated, so might the nail

problem be.

Beata

________________________________

From: hmm_md <hmm_md@...>

Sent: Thu, November 19, 2009 8:32:49 PM

Subject: New toe topic: ingrown toenails

I have been reading with interest the thread on the " skin under the toes " . A

lot of good, practical advice and remedies. I haven't tried the black tea one

but that seems like a good idea for a lot of reasons.

At any rate, it made me think that maybe you all had some experience/ideas on

what to do about an intractable ingrown toenail. My son, who has probable CMT (I

was diagnosed genetically and he is " following in my footsteps " in so many ways)

has had a problem with ingrown toenails on the inner side of both of his big

toes.

He does not have hammer toes (yet) but is a big guy. He's only 12 but is

almost 6' tall and wears a men's 13 1/2 shoe. He has the classic drop foot gait

and drags his toes and then slaps them down as he walks. (I did point that out

to the orthopod, who does know CMT, and he didn't think orthotics or AFOs were

in order at this point).

I have taken him to a podiatrist for over a year. He did 3 " surgeries " which

consisted of numbing the toe, cutting the side of the nail off all the way to

the nail bed and then smearing the area with a paste that does not allow the

nail to regrow. Each time it came back the same and the only result has been a

more and more narrow nail.

At this point I took him to an orthopedist at Cedars-Sinai who is familiar

with CMT. He was very confident it was an easy fix (and informed us that they

don't do that surgery anymore because it doesn't work -- really?) He pushed

alcohol pads under the nail to encourage it to grow OVER the skin and not into

it and gave antibiotics and recommended epsom salt soaks (as did the

podiatrist).

One month later it is just as bad and prone to letting loose and bleeding. The

orthopod put more alcohol pads under the nail and used silver nitrate to

cauterize the new skin growth over the nail, but looked worried.

Any thoughts?

Holli

[Guest guest]

Holli

Makes me kinda sick to think of it. But she is not sorry and had all her toes

done at the same time on both feet. She said it wasn't too bad they gave her

pain pills. She said it was allot better then suffering for years with ingrown

toe nails. It was her big toes that were in grown the worst and they were not

infected.

Geri

[Guest guest]

Beata,

I had the same initial thought (his gait) and I did point this out to the

orthopedist. He didn't think that was the problem and pointed out that the

toenail is ingrown on the " inside " side of the toe (closest to the next toe). He

thought if it was from dragging his toes it would be a problem for the outside

side of the toe. Also, that day, I had just bought him some new shoes to make

sure that they were plenty roomy and not too narrow. Any idea how much men's 13

1/2 wide athletic shoes cost??! It's not for the faint of heart. So I'm sure the

shoes are ok, in answer to Geri.

Since buying the shoes I noticed his gait has improved, but not the toenail. He

also was very self conscious when the doctor asked him to walk down the hall and

did his best to walk " normally " . I think AFOs may be in his future, but he was

so grateful when the doctor said he didn't need them. Oh, well. Thanks for

giving it some thought.

Holli

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