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  • - I saw something sticking out from the middle of his foot

  • and his big toenail had grown over and under his foot

  • and had poked through the skin from the bottom

  • and sticking up from the middle of the foot.

  • (curious upbeat music)

  • Hi, I'm Abby.

  • - Hi, I'm Terry.

  • - Today we're gonna talk about some foot

  • doctor horror stories.

  • - Okay, my horror story came in about 1993.

  • I was a residency director at the time

  • and we had a patient who had some rather extensive

  • foot and ankle surgery done.

  • We had placed him in a plaster of Paris cast,

  • which is like the white cast material.

  • Nowadays we use fiberglass, and he came in for his first

  • post-op visit and I looked at his leg and his cast

  • and it was basically melted and I came over and I said,

  • "What happened?" And he said,

  • Well, he was feeling pretty good.

  • He didn't use the crutches as much as he should have

  • and he went swimming in the ocean the day before.

  • This is just a few days after his surgery.

  • So needless to say, we cut away the plaster cast

  • and he had a rather swollen and red and infected

  • surgical sites and had to admit him to the hospital

  • and what was supposed to be something

  • clean, neat and simple,

  • became a disaster.

  • - So one of my horror stories has to do with this

  • gentleman who was a police officer who apparently

  • had gone through a very, very, very, very horrible

  • divorce and for years he was not looking

  • into meeting anyone.

  • Finally, he decided that he wanted to meet someone

  • that would be special in his life.

  • He loved to walk on the beach bare feet

  • and take strolls with whomever was gonna be

  • his significant other.

  • The day I saw this gentleman, he had come in

  • because apparently his chief complaint was

  • very sensitive toes and so I wasn't sure exactly

  • what was going on.

  • I didn't know what had happened.

  • I assumed that because he was a police officer,

  • he had just been in boots all day long,

  • he had blisters or something like that.

  • And when I walked into the door the smell of in that room

  • was nauseating and when I saw his feet,

  • and because when I walk into the room I see my patient's

  • feet first, all I saw was this disgustingly red

  • feet that has pus oozing out of every single toe

  • and they were all infected and some of them

  • were even bleeding and I asked him what happened.

  • He very nonchalantly said,

  • "I was so embarrassed about my nails because I had fungus

  • "on my nails and I was so looking forward to take

  • "my new girlfriend out on the beach and walk bare feet

  • "in the sand that one night I just decided

  • "that because I didn't have time to go see a doctor

  • "to take a whole bottle of tequila, drink it all by myself

  • "and decided to go sit in my tub and use a wire cutter

  • "and I pulled every single toenail without

  • "any other means of anesthetizing my toes."

  • Basically he didn't think anything of it

  • and he pulled all of his nails and thought just

  • to take a bath and went ahead the next morning

  • and wrapped every single toe in toilet paper

  • and put his boots on and basically went to work.

  • By that afternoon, he had a full-blown cellulitis

  • with infection running up his toes, all the way

  • to the ankle and that's when he decided to come in.

  • Basically what we had to do was put him on several weeks

  • of antibiotics, gave him a note that he should not

  • be wearing his boots and he should just do desk work

  • for a while until the infection is all cleared up

  • and he healed finally and he ended up not having

  • beautiful looking nails, but he ended up taking

  • his stroll on the beach with his girlfriend

  • without being embarrassed because he ended up

  • realizing that having fungal nails is not

  • as disgusting as he thought it was going to be.

  • - Well this is not necessarily foot related.

  • However, I had a patient come into the office

  • a number of years ago.

  • The staff brought him from the reception area

  • into the examination room.

  • As I'm walking and pick up the routing paper,

  • find out who the patient is and head towards the door,

  • there was just something that didn't seem right,

  • didn't smell right.

  • So I walked through the door.

  • It was quite obvious that the patient had lost

  • control of their...

  • - Bowels.

  • - Pretty much, yeah.

  • Control of the bowels and it was a rather large mess.

  • Gave him as much dignity as possible

  • in a situation like that.

  • He was an elderly man and he was very thankful

  • and we got him all put back together again.

  • I did what needed to be done.

  • After he left, unfortunately this room had to be

  • quarantined for the most part because the smell

  • didn't go away for several days no matter what we did.

  • So whatever he ate stayed in the room for a while.

  • - In another instance I was told that I have

  • a couple in a room where the wife had filled out

  • the paperwork for the husband stating that

  • he scratches her in bed.

  • So before going into the room, I assumed that because

  • most of our patients, especially the ones that are elderly

  • come in because they can't reach their feet,

  • because they have very thick, deformed, rough,

  • flaky nails that she was basically concerned

  • about the fact that her husband's nails were too long

  • and they couldn't get them treated or he couldn't

  • have pedicures, whatever the reason was,

  • I just made an assumption that it had something

  • to do with his nails being too long.

  • He was also diabetic and that was part of the information

  • that I was given before going in,

  • so I again, assumed that it's just a simple cutting

  • of the nails and talking to the patient

  • about having their nails treated by a professional

  • and come in on a regular basis.

  • However, when I opened the door and I walked into

  • the room, I was just like Terry was talking about

  • his patient, smacked in the nose with the smell

  • of this infected foot that he came in with

  • and what was very bizarre was the fact that I saw

  • something sticking out from the middle of his foot

  • that looked like a thorn or some foreign object.

  • When I got closer and I actually looked at his foot,

  • which was also almost all black because he had

  • gangrene set in, apparently nobody had cut his nails

  • in years and his big toenail had grown over

  • and under his foot and had poked through the skin

  • from the bottom and sticking up from the middle

  • of the foot and it was dripping pus and a little

  • bit of some gooey, greenish kind of liquid.

  • His wife didn't have any idea what this was all about,

  • she just cared about the scratching in bed

  • and when I asked him if it hurt he just said, "No."

  • and because he's diabetic, he basically had no feelings

  • in that foot and she just asked me if I just

  • could cut the nail and let them go.

  • I unfortunately had to tell her that this is not

  • something we could treat, that he must probably

  • will have to have his leg amputated,

  • which unfortunately he did.

  • We had to take him to the ER, admit him and end

  • up seeing a surgeon who actually amputated his leg

  • below the knee.

  • So the moral of the stories that we just told you

  • is that we're hoping none of you, no matter what

  • the problem is, how simple you think it is,

  • just don't try to diagnose it and treat it yourself

  • with home remedies.

  • Just come in, we promise we will get rid of the problem

  • as quickly as we can.

  • So please go see a foot doctor

  • instead of treating it yourself.

  • (upbeat music)

- I saw something sticking out from the middle of his foot

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