General Cycling Discussion - Riding (racing) with an ingrown toenail?

I have a race coming up here in a week and all of a sudden i get this stupid ingrown toenail. its nasty and it hurts. would riding be a bad idea? how long does it usualy take to grow out? i dont want to have it cut out yet becuase when my friend had one they cut half his toenail off and he couldent do much for a few weeks after. but maybe his toe was worse than mine? mines starting to puss (nasty) and its all inflamed.

if there anything i can do to lessen the pain and help it heal faster? other than drugs.

Originally posted by Mad Dog JR
I have a race coming up here in a week and all of a sudden i get this stupid ingrown toenail. its nasty and it hurts. would riding be a bad idea? how long does it usualy take to grow out? i dont want to have it cut out yet becuase when my friend had one they cut half his toenail off and he couldent do much for a few weeks after. but maybe his toe was worse than mine? mines starting to puss (nasty) and its all inflamed.

if there anything i can do to lessen the pain and help it heal faster? other than drugs.




i played football with one... absolutly agonizing.


how hard is the race? can you just put up with the pain and deal with it later?

Just wear a crapeating-grin and deal with it, you'll feel alot better about yourself later.

Well im going for a ride tomorrow so ill see how my foot feels with a shoe on (i have been using sandles)
I guess after seeing tyler hamilton race on the TDF with a broken collar bone a simple toenail isent all that bad. lol

Originally posted by Mad Dog JR
Well im going for a ride tomorrow so ill see how my foot feels with a shoe on (i have been using sandles)
I guess after seeing tyler hamilton race on the TDF with a broken collar bone a simple toenail isent all that bad. lol





heh. still hurts like a mofo.




just channel the pain into your pumping.

Last time I had an ingrown toenail, I took some clippers(one with a file) and dug the thing out. It was nasty, but felt better.

i think i might let doc do that perhaps after the race. lol

Grin and bear it. Tyler Hamilton has been racing the TDF with a double fracture in his collar bone!

What might help a bit it to take some cotton and use it to prop the nail from the skin a bit.

Originally posted by fubar5
Last time I had an ingrown toenail, I took some clippers(one with a file) and dug the thing out. It was nasty, but felt better.

That's what I usually do. I'll dig it out with a knife and then use something to just rip it out. Usually hurts like a ***** for a few minutes but after that feels soooo much better.

If you go this route make sure to put a bandaid or something on your toe since you'll have a gaping hole and the last thing you want is to go on a ride having your feet get all sweaty and stuff from the heat outside and cause infection and to help keep dirt out of it. It's also a good idea to wash your toe in peroxide a few times a day.

I've been operating on my ingrown toenails for years, I have plenty of experience :0

hehe i have one right now! its been like 2 years lol i went to the doctors got it cut on the side but it came back. i am trying dcSholds thing for ingrown nails. mine doesn't hurt, only if i hit it on something.

Normaly you can take care of it yourself, get a toenail clippers and use that litttle file thing to go under the nail to the side and hook on it and pull it out. Tkae about 4 shots of whiskey first :) Seriously it does not hurt that bad, if you want painful leave it alone let it get infected then go to the doctor have them put a dozen shots in your toe then cut half your nail off. The shots are the most painful part after that in about 2 days you are fine other then the bandagnig on the toe. I had this done when I was 13, I will never go back to a doctor for a ingrown toenail. Those shots hurt like *****!!!!! From my experience in this, I found since they cut back my nail when it grew back it was more likely to happen again since was fresh nail pushing against the skin.
Is why it is best to pull it out rather then cut it and pull it out. Let me state I'm not medicaly trained at all I just know what has worked for me.

Kev, the whole nail growin' back thing is why I don't get them cut out either. Last time I had one I just used the file thing to dig it out every evening till the toe nail grew out. I now keep my toenails a little longer, and I haven't had an ingrown since.

You got it fubar! I figure it would be less painful to take a knife and cut part of my toe off to free the nail then go get it done by doctor again :) I will admit though I have a deathly fear of needles to begin with, most people I know who went through having a doctor do it by cutting nail off and scraping out the infection wont' do it again. They pull nail out themselves.

well i went to the foot doctor and he was real cool about it. i told him i did not want a huge hole in the toe and so he only cut off a little bit not at much as he normaly does he says. but all is well and i didnt feel a thing while he was cuting my nail. i even went for a 20 mile ride that very same morning (toe was numb) and all was well. it doesnt hurt any more and seams to be doing good.
I have a race this sunday so i hope it get even better. and the doc was a cyclist aswell :D

later

THe actual cutting of my nail did not hurt, afterwards only real pain was swapping the bandage since half my nail was gone the bandage would stick first few times. The painful part was the shots!!! I was back to normal activity 48 hours later, since then I had less bandaging on my toe so could wear normal shoes.

for me the shots didnt "HURT" but was a little weird fealing more or less. and since i asked the doc to only cut as little as needed i only had a small gap of about 1/8 inch or so (maybe less). but it sure was bleeding like crazy! lol, i used 3 full gozz pads durring the first morning.

Recovery is nothing, you should have no probelms in 1-2 days you won't even realize the difference. At the time mine was infected, so they had to take the nail, plust cut/clean out all the infection. I did not watch so not sure how much blood there was :)