Hehe, had a couple of home surgeries myself. Thing is, as brutal as it sounds, it's always worth it - the relief you get from getting the thing out of your flesh is worth the 5 mins of pain alone. Really, anyone had someone stamp on their ingrowing toenail?, that would drop anyone - it's that sickly pain that wipes you right out.
Whether you go and pay money to get it sliced off permanently, get a chiropodist to fix it, or do it yourself - deal with it ASAP, it's the sort of thing that likes to hang around, dealing with it quickly will limit the damage. Consider that when you have to remove it, you don't want a big nasty wound for it to grow right back into again, you want the infection to clear up and the wound to heal by the time the nail get's as far as that in growth. Never just dig out the ingrowing toenail, you won't get it all, you'll just make it worse and maybe end up making it a repeating problem. My brother used to home-fix all the time, until he kept snagging his sock on it - didn't realise it was actually the toenail growing down and out the opposide side of his toe!.
One tip I would add to anyone considering home-fixing. Have a real long hot bath first, the dry scabby skin around the toenail will be a pain otherwise - let it soak, dry properly, then removing the excess scabbies and leaving a smaller 'lumb' will make your job easier and more pleasant. Antiseptic cream should be applied too, and the toe dressed - remember to try to reduce the chance of infection whenever you can, that includes boiling your 'tools' before hand. It's your feet dudes, look after them, you only get 1 pair!.
It's a bit easier in Britain, our health system means most people will never have to pay for foot care - we pay for meds and dental, but things like chiropody are part of the NHS, so we'd just get referred from our doctor and have to go see a chiropodist or nurse to get it taken off permanently. I'm always for the permanent approach, but that's probably due to the 6 years of unpleasantness before it
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