Where I live, we still believe the saying that says, "Ang sakit ng kalingkingan ay sakit ng buong katawan." That is a Tagalog saying that is roughly translated as, "The pain of your little finger is the pain of your entire body." I would attest to that as my ingrown toe nail on my bit toe throbbed painfully all day yesterday until early this morning.

It started yesterday, when I woke up. I started feeling that my toe nails were already dirty, so I decided to trim them a little bit. Knowing that it has been a chronic problem, I took careful attention when I was trimming my big toe's nail on my right foot. I stood at the threshold of our kitchen's back door because the early morning light illuminated the space better than the living room. I trimmed away, not knowing that I was in for a big surprise later on in the day.

The day went on lazily. My family and I just watched television and some DVD's. I also played Warcraft on my PC. I slept in the afternoon and continued watching TV; all of these activities didn't require that I use my feet much.

However, when the evening came, I felt a throbbing on my right big toe. Thinking that it will subside, I decided to ignore it until I banged my foot on the floor. It hurt like being impaled by a swordfish! I was still not paying attention to the pain. I just tried to numb my foot with some topical analgesic, which did the trick for a few hours.

I was already asleep when suddenly, a sharp jolt of pain woke me up. I banged my toe again; this time, it was on the wall on the feet side of my bed. I wasn't able to get much sleep because of that. I think, I was able to finally sleep at around 3:30AM.

When my mother woke me up, the pain was still sharp, and it felt more raw than ever. I felt like my toe was being eaten by worms from the inside out. That was when I decided to really go in deep and get the toe nail that was killing me.

I tried to remove it by using hook-shaped nail cutters, but it didn't work. Then, I hastily borrowed my aunt's nail cleaning set and got out her nippers. With the nipper's help, I was able to remove most of the nail on the side of my toe but the part of my nail that was slicing on my flesh was still embedded deep in my skin. Each snip that I tried seemed to feel like flowers, made of pain, blossom from my foot. I don't know why that is how I describe it, but that's really how it felt - red roses 6 inches wide, blossoming from one end of a field, moving like a field of barley being bent by the passing wind, causing pain and agony.

That was when I asked my aunt to intervene. I'd like to detail more about her, but to cut that part short, she wasn't able to help. Each time she tried fishing out the sharp shard of toe nail, the pain intensified, causing me to feel nauseous, dizzy, faint, and sore all at the same time.

Out of sheer desperation, I decided to clench my teeth and do it by myself. I'd rather face the pain just for a while than to spend the rest of the day agonizing over a tedious and persistent feeling. I decide to nip, pull, cut, push and slice my way into the nail and skin of my toe to get the ingrown piece out. After a while, seeing that my flesh has been macerated by my attempt, I gnashed my molars for a final tug.

All of a sudden, the pinnacle of pain was know to me, and I was writhing. A few minutes passed and all of it slowly drew away, like the ebbing of a flood. I am just thankful that the pain was gone. That's when I realized that the old saying was true. Hopefully, this is the last time that I have to endure this suffering. Thank you, God, for pedicurists.