To avoid foot and toe disorders such as: ingrowing toenails, deformities, calluses and fungus, you should consider regular pedicures with a qualified and experienced beauty therapist. The alternatives could result in costly, traumatic and unscheduled treatments with a podiatrist. I learned the expensive way.

Ingrowing Toenail

I experienced two of these problems. The first was a very, badly, seriously ingrown toenail, which led me to a costly podiatrist visit to have a long slither of toenail surgically removed from my left toe. After the podiatrist removed the rubber band tourniquet from my toe, it bled profusely. I thought I’d never leave. I had always fixed ingrowns with the usual little V cut in the centre of the toenail or cutting the nail straight across. But, during my dairy farming years of wearing gumboots, and pedicures being seen as a luxury, I totally, completely, unequivocally ignored my feet. My mistake.

Deformity

The second, deformity, whereby my feet were either subjected to years of repetitive ill-fitting, poor inner-sole fashion shoes because I just had to have them; and then add five years of being stuffed into gumboots – it was not a good mix. I recall going back to work after dairying, still wearing whatever I could afford, with a heel becoming increasingly sore until the pain became so unbearable that I felt that 80 year olds were walking better than I was.

Heel Spur

It was diagnosed as a heel spur (plantar fasciitis), which led me to a second podiatrist’s opinion, some four hours away. Living in a rural area, does not allow you much choice of specialised services, like podiatrists for one. They usually have to travel weekly or fortnightly to a rural town to provide a much-needed service. I was left considerably out of pocket and traumatised after the first one because that podiatrist extracted $300 for hard uncomfortable innersoles made to fit runners or sandshoes, which after 3 months did not fix my problem. Unfortunately, when you have a sore anything, you make your body compensate – in this case, by walking as painfree as possible, therefore creating other problems.

Second Podiatrist’s Opinion

Finally, I traveled away on a family recommendation to the second podiatrist. She at least gave me a choice of $150 or $300 inner soles which fitted into a better looking shoe. She gave me confidence. I just needed the problem fixed as I didn’t know too many sympathetic bank managers. During that same visit, I also went to the family doctor who agreed with the second podiatrist on the treatment. They advised, it would take about 18months to resolve – if I used these two 10 minute treatments: 1. Roll sore heel; with earth-shattering pain, over a $2 golf ball from sport shop; 2. Roll same sore heel over a frozen bottle of water. The doctor also advised buying runners with a hole in the heel so the external part of the heel would carry the weight. I was gobsmacked. It was incredulously incomprehensible. They were right. It took nearly two years, but I realised my thoughts of being a foot model were no longer a thought.

I may or may not have been able to avoid the heel spurs, but I probably would have seen someone sooner because of the trusted relationship I would have had with my beauty therapist.

Qualified Beauty Therapist

This leads me a qualified experienced beauty therapist of  some 38 years, Mrs Carina Platt, who co-incidently was my beauty therapist in Townsville for some 10 years. And yes, I still ignored my feet. She was originally from Darwin, Townsville, until she settled in Millaa Millaa to semi-retire because she still loves her job. She owns Millaa’s Little Beauty Shop where many locals, including myself, appreciate her personalised special service. And yes, I get pedicures now.

Feet Most Abused

“There is not much I haven’t seen with foot disorders I can tell you. Feet are the most abused parts of our body. We’re on our feet all day and we don’t realise how sore our feet are until we sit down. Our poor toes have been stuffed into shoes that are a little bit tight or a little bit big. Or we let our toenails get too long and they can become badly misshaped or slightly deformed. The problem becomes worse once the toenail lifts from the nail bed. It leaves an area where moisture can sit, resulting in fungus under the nail. It can be very hard to get rid of and costly.

Also, people with diabetes need to have their feet checked regularly and wear protective footwear. Cracks on heels, cuts on any extremities can become infected. Infections like sweetness which is sometimes why gangrene sets in, which leads to amputation.

Even elderly should at least have their toenails trimmed to avoid scratching themselves and ending up with ulcers on their legs. Some salons offer a service to their elderly in the community of a $10 toenail trim. I like to give my ladies a bit of polish also.

Use Experienced Therapist

If you want an experienced beauty therapist, who knows how to recognise feet problem; so they can alert you and recommend you see a podiatrist or foot specialist, look for a smaller suburban beauty shop. One where the owner still works there, staff usually stay for a longer time and you can build a relationship.”

Well! Sounds like I should have included regular pedicures on the ‘beauty’ to do list. It probably would have worked out cheaper having pedicures every 4-6 weeks, or at least manage a pedicure 2-3 times a year.

I could have been having pampering pedicures all this time and saved myself a lot of foot ache.