Need a good foot doctor in Illinois?

How do you heal a busted toenail? Do I need to see a foot doctor?

• Warning: this question is not for the queezy reader, and contains graphic details. I do a lot of social ballroom dancing, and once in a while mishaps happen. A couple months ago somebody stepped on my second toe on my left foot, and the skin underneath the toenail became bruised and purplish. A few days later after the bruising pain stopped, it developed into a scab underneath the toenail, causing the nail to have a higher left-to-right curve over the toe. When I clip my toenails every week or so, the scab never seems to grow out. The toe has no pain whatsoever, but I'd like to remedy my toe's appearance to it's former beauty. Should I bandage it, manicure it, have a doctor see it, or what? I'm worried that the toenail is no longer going to grow straight anymore now that I've cut off so much of the mis-shapen excess parts. If the toenail is mostly removed, do you know if it will eventually grow back again? I would like to know more about the way toenails grow in general.

• Answer:

  Toenails are tough. Ever heard that? Tougher than toenails.. But there is a chance that hiding behind your injury you have nail fungus. Perhaps you had it before, in fact. I cannot see your toenail from here so only a doctor or somei=one in the know could tell you for sure, but toenails that grow upward or have thickening can be fungus infected. A damaged toenail has to be pretty damaged to not finally heal. You would have to have something eqaul to a horse stepping on your toe to do irreversable damage. It sounds like you love your toes, see a doc, be sure you do not have fungal toenail. Easy to treat in the start, hard to treat when it is older and established. I have seen a lot of fungal toenails in my time. I am against them. Good luck. Take care.