The Toenail Saga

Today finally marked the end of my toenail saga. I've had trouble with ingrown toenails for years. About 9 or 10 years ago I had to have one cut out and they put some acid on it so that the nail would not grow in again. Since then I have had an issue on and off with the other foot having the same problem but I have put off doing anything because it wasn't too bad. Well, about two months ago it finally got bad enough that I decided I had to do something.

So I sucked it up and made an appointment with my PCM (Primary Care Provider) because I have to see him and get a referral before I can go to the actual Podiatrist, even though I already know what needs to be done due to my prior experience. This, in itself, is a problem because, as usual hubby is out of town and I have no one to watch my girls. Well, okay, I have a couple people I could ask but the real problem is me. I hate to ask anyone for anything! HATE IT! I have some inborn issue with asking for any kind of help I can't seem to help it. So in this instance since I knew the PCM would just look at me, possibly give me some meds to keep infection at bay and give me a referral I decided to just bring the girls with me. The nurses all fawned all over them and one even suggested I should start modeling them. It actually went pretty well except for the delay at the pharmacy because for some reason they have me entered in the computer system as my husbands child instead of his wife which causes confusion all around. Frankly, I was not impressed with my PCM (this was my first time seeing him). Is it just me or are there an inordinate amount of doctors from India all over lately? Anywho, I could just barely understand his accent but what really threw me off was that he saw me for like 2 minutes total and I am not even exaggerating. He came in, confirmed that it was my toe. Barely looked at the toe in question and in fact sort of looked afraid to get near it, which was fine with me but seemed a little weird for a doctor. He says he will write me a scrip for some antibiotics and put in the referral and was gone. Of course, when I got to the pharmacy the prescription wasn't entered so I had to go back and then when I called about the referral it was not entered so I had to call back and prod them about that. Finally the referral showed up and I called for an appointment and they had no openings for a month. Great!

The good part is that the Podiatry referral was to the Navy Hospital which has a child care drop off center you can use for appointments. Now one of my friends told me they never answer the phone and it was impossible to get your kids in, but I had no problems. The only problem I ran into with this was that I did not realize that they would need a shot record until Friday afternoon when the Pediatrician's office was already closed. I have one of those little record books that you are supposed to record all the kids shots in, but I have forgotten to bring it several times, so it is not complete and when I took them to get their most recent shots the pediatricians office just filled them in on the school physical form that I needed to enroll them in Kindergarten for the fall which I then took to the school and forgot to make a copy of. Dummy, dummy, dummy! So I spent most of last night tossing and turning hoping that I would have time to run into the Pediatricians office (which doesn't even open until 9 am) this morning before dropping the girls off at the child care place and still making my appointment (which was across town at 10 am) and hoping that they would not give me a hard time about needing a shot record ASAP on a Monday morning. So far I love the pediatricians office and today was no exception. They accommodated me without even a grumble.

Today was finally the day of my appointment. I left the house and headed toward the Pediatricians. Called them on the way and asked for a copy of the shot records. Stopped and picked the shot records up. Hightailed it across the bridge, through the tunnel, and over to the Hospital. Had to drive through the entire parking garage and ended up parking on the top level. Shuffled the girls down to the child care center, checked them in in record time and practically ran next door to the hospital. Made it to the podiatry clinic by 10:03. Whoo Hoo! Next I started worrying if my toe was infected because this is what happened last time I had to do this when we lived in Hawaii.

That time the antibiotics had worn off and the toe was infected and they said they couldn't cut the nail out with it infected which made me have to come back the day I was flying to California to get it done. Then they wrapped my toe so huge that I couldn't wear shoes and I ended up having to don one of those boots for when you have a broken foot and wear that on the plane. But that is a whole other saga.

Luckily, when I got in there everything was go for the procedure. The doctor was a super nice guy, and not from India. Now the most painful part of this whole procedure is the shot they give you to numb the toe so you won't feel them cutting out the nail. It seriously feels like the needle is going to go through your toe and come out the other side and when they release the numbing stuff it feels like there are 5 or 6 needles stuck in you. After that it is all easy. Well, except for having to listen to the doctor's bad foot puns, but hey it's worth it to get this done. Over. Yeah!