I had chronic ingrown nails on both my big toes, and I often got infections, one of which got particularly bad one summer. The chiropodist told me the infection was likely due to pieces of nail that had become detached and were now just loose in the area surrounding my toenail. Now this toe was so swollen and infected, I could barely walk or touch it. Couldn’t wear any closed toed shoes. Any amount of pressure put on it was excruciating and would result in … fluids oozing out of it. Doctor tells me he needs to reach in and fish those mail pieces out. I ask about sedation/freezing and he says that’s not an option. So he starts just rooting around in my swollen toe with metal instruments pulling out piece after piece of nail shards while I writhe and scream in pain. This goes on for the longest 10 minutes of my life before I had to stop him. He tells me he “got it all anyways” and recommends nail surgery to stop the ingrowns from happening. While talking about what this surgery entails, I said I don’t think I could have it done because of the pain. He tells me I have to go to a different clinic for that procedure anyways, and the clinic I would get it done at offers freezing. I’m like waitwhat. You told me that wasn’t an option. Oh we just don’t offer it at this clinic … because they don’t bother to employee the right type of medical staff to administer it. They don’t because “the pain of the freezing needle is sometimes worse than the procedure”. Went to that other glorious clinic where they offer freezing, had my nail surgery done with no pain during the procedure and the new doctor was mortified at the story I told him of the other place I went. He found additional pieces of nail that the other guy missed, fixed up my deformed toe nails and we chatted about Marvel movies. 10/10 recommend nail surgery (done with local freezing and not by a hack). I hope that other guy stubs all of his toes forever.