nancy sv

I posted this in the women's forum, but then thought maybe this was a better place since you guys are out touring...

I took my son to the doctor - for his THIRD ingrown toenail in less than three months. The first one was really bad and had to be taken out surgically. The second one I was able to dig out myself. Now his toe is ingrown and infected again. The doctor ordered some blood tests to see if there is anything going on there that could be causing all the infections, and we have an appointment with a specialist on
Thursday.

But - could it somehow be because of the biking? We had been on the road a little over a year before it started happening. He bought new shoes in Albuquerque and it didn't start until Costa Rica many miles and many months later, so I doubt it was the shoes. Nevertheless, we bought him new shoes in Panama, and it is still happening.

I dunno - maybe I'm grasping at straws here, but there has to be some reason for this! Any ideas?

xyzzy834

It's probably a better question for a doctor. I don't know the root causes of ingrown toenails. I've battled them for most of my life. There were at least 20 years between my teens and early 40's where I didn't ride bicycles.

In my case, something causes a split of the nail very close to the edge of the nail bed. The split off portion tends to have a sharp point and continues to grow along the edge of the nail bed until it embeds itself in the fleshy part of the toe near the tip. It causes great pain until I'm able to dig it out, which is painful in itself, but instant relief follows. (I'm sorry if my toe problem description is disgusting.)

I've been partially successful at avoiding the problem by carefully trimming my big toe nails and paying special attention to intercepting "nail splinters" before they grow into a problem.

nancy sv

Those nail splinters are EXACTLY what happens to me! This is all so new with my son that I don't know if he gets the same thing or if it is something else. We do an appointment with the specialist on Thursday, but I thought I put this out here to see if other cyclists know anything about a correlation at all.

Talarspeed

Cycling didn't cause the ingrown nail, but it can aggravate a pre-existing condition.

nancy sv

That's what I suspected - but somehow hoped there was some magic bullet to prevent this!

Wanderer

This may sound stupid, but works for me.

I take a plastic Q-tip, the ones with the hollow centered stick. I cut one end on an angle, and split it up the middle, almost to the blunt end. The stick ends just outside the end of the existing nail.

I then work it onto the ingrown portion, pushing as far back as possible. I then put a few drops of super glue on the nail/stick junction, and leave it there for weeks on end, as the nail grows out.

It then has a nice big rounded surface to push against the flesh, resulting in immediate pain relief.

Once it grows out beyond the end of the exposed nail end, it is no longer needed.

nancy sv

Wow - that sounds like it might work! Right now it is too painful to do anything with, but a visit to the docwill take care of that. Then we just have to get it grown out...

Peaks

I've thought that ingrown nails are often the result of footwear that is too narrow. Why not try a wider bike shoe?

nancy sv

We've already bought him new shoes - made no difference. He still got a new one with the new shoes.

Doconabike

There is good advice about these topics in medical journals.

You could go to your local library and read the article in
the journal called "American Family Physician," Feb 15, 2009

The article is called
"Management of the Ingrown Toenail"
This article is quite good.

This article will be available in just about any university library or the medical library of any good-sized hospital.

nancy sv

Not sure it would available down here in Colombia though! We've an appointment with the specialist tomorrow afternoon.