This may be one of the most important Blogs I have ever written. We go through life and rarely pay attention to the little things until they hit us right between the eyes. This is one such blog. One of our regular patients came in to the office the other day complaining about a “blister” on the side of her toe. Seems she had a “corn” there for several months and for some reason, on this occasion she decided to treat herself. She had travel plans for the following week to visit relatives and these plans had been made several months in advance. She thought she would save herself some time and treat the corn herself at home, and not bother to Come into the office.
Well, it seems she purchased a “Dr. Scholl’s Corn Pad” and thought she would save herself an office co-pay. Though her intentions were good, her execution failed miserably. The instructions said to leave the pad on for 48 hours. It started to hurt her after 24 hours and she removed it at that time. She waited (in pain) for 5 days expecting the pain and the “blister” to resolve, but atlas it never did. She showed up on day 6 (5 days before she was to leave on her vacation) with an ulcer on the side of her toe that was down to the bone. This may seem like an extreme case but things like this do indeed happen.
Things you should never do to your feet.
- Trying to dig out your own ingrown nails
- Using a “cheese grater” (AKA Ped Egg) on rough skin
- Trying to trim calluses or corn
- Trying to dig splinters or a piece of glass out of your foot.
Never use things advertised on the back of a magazine, as they usually do not work! Thinking you will save time or money will only cost you time and result in more pain.
As far as the patient… she never made it to her family reunion as she needed surgical correction to remove the exposed bone. The airlines felt sorry for her and did allow her to reschedule her flight for 6 months from now.
The moral of the story is this… don’t try to save yourself time or money when it comes to your health. Call or consult your medical professional.
