Ouch my big toenail!

[KnottedYet]

My toenails just naturally angle up.

So, my shoes all got the hole over the big toe until I started buying 1/2 size larger than before, and buy brands with larger toeboxes. (now they get worn, but I haven't put a hole in a pair of shoes in a long time)

I also wear sandals a lot.

[TrekJeni]

First, thanks for all the replies.

I took my toenail polish off my left big toe, expecting to see some sort of bruise or something. Nothing. Poking, prodding, looking for an ingrown toenail (which I've never had so I thought some of you might be on to something). Again, nothing. Still hurts though.

While walking into work this morning I tried to picture where my toes were in relation to my shoe and foot. I have narrow feet always fit comfortably in my ballet shoes when taking dance. I wear a 7.5 in Nike and an 8 in some other shoes. There is always enough room in the toe box for all my little piggies.

Maybe I'm like Knotted, they just point up naturally.

It's still hurting though, if it hurts after this weekend's century I WILL call my doc for a referral!

Jeni

[KnottedYet]

Sometimes if I don't keep up with my toes and the nails get just a smidge too long the pressure from the shoes will make my nail hurt like you describe. Sometimes it even acts like the edges of the nail bed are very irritated (they'll even get red and a little puffy)

I trim the nail and file it smooth and wear sandals for a couple days, which fixes it just fine.

Is your big toe longer than the toe next to it? (i guess that'd be the pointer toe). I had a shoe guy explain to me that I had size 9.5 big toe, but size 9 other toes; and he told me to buy size 9.5 shoes so my big toe would have the room it was meant to have. That also helped with the nail thing.

[Python]

Just a thought. Last year I had a sharp pain in my other big toe. As the day went on it got worse and worse so I decided to investigate. I saw a tiny black thing just under the toenail so got the tweezers out. To my surprise I pulled out a HAIR just over an inch long It was one of my dog's hairs After I removed the hair I didn't have any more problems. Seemingly, hairs getting under toenails is quite common among hairdressers. Just a thought because they can be difficult to spot.