Your First Visit
Allow 40 minutes for your first assessment and treatment (subsequent visits are 20 or 30 minutes, as agreed will be sufficient for your needs). On arrival you will be welcomed by our receptionist, who will confirm your contact details, date of birth and your usual GP. If you have toddlers in-tow, we have a toy box and early reader books to help keep them entertained. Nemo the clown fish is very popular! You will be offered complementary tea, coffee or Ribena, if you arrive a little early or need to wait a short while.
What to wear
If you suffer from any difficulties regarding your hips, knees, ankles or feet, please bring your regular footwear with you, to your first appointment. That is, whatever you normally wear for walking the dog, doing the shopping and so on... If we need to consider the way which you are walking, then shorts or slacks should be worn - so that we can roll them above your knees when observing your gait.
Your medical history
If you have any medical conditions, please bring along a list of your medications, or a recent repeat prescription form. We need to be aware of your medications and long term medical status, in case your healing ability is affected.
We will discuss the history of any difficulties you have been having. We may discuss how your walking or sports activities are being affected, how medications may be affecting your situation and most importantly, how your footwear is helping (or not, as the case may be).
Record keeping and consent
We use a computerised records system, developed in the UK called Practice Pal. This is a web-hosted, secure password-protected system. Rather uniquely it allows you to make your own appointment bookings on-line at any time (click on the picture on the Home Page of this site). We also use discrete digital photography to record close-ups of any problem areas and to monitor their improvements over time. We are therefore registered with the Data Protection agency (PZ 9192868 September 2005). You will be asked to sign a consent form for any planned courses of treatment (ingrown nail operations, fungal nails and verrucae). Provision of your personal and GP details and your attendance is deemed as verbal, informed consent for simpler treatments such as corns and nail care.
As part of your treatment, particularly infections and long-term joint or pain difficulties, it may be appropriate to refer you to other health care professionals. If so, this is discussed with you at your appointment, as part of your planned future care. Such referral letters are included as part of your routine consultation fees (at no extra charge). They may include personal details, photographs and your consultation history, in order to justify the referral and to speed your ongoing care. Your verbal consent will be sought to the appropriate release of these details at your appointment.
Minors below the age of 16 years must always be accompanied by their parent or guardian.
Pensioner Specials
Pensioner Specials are available for the second and subsequent treatments only, once it has been agreed at the initial assessment that 20 minutes will suffice. Pensioners are considered to be in their sixties or beyond.
The clinic in Woodford Halse is generally open at the following times. Since reception cover is required, prior appointments are required.
Premium Sessions
Premium sessions incur an additional charge, since outside of normal 9am - 5pm office hours. They are intended for those who work some distance away and prefer not to take time-off for having their podiatry treatment. Thus the availability of Friday evenings or Saturdays afternoons, with advance booking required to ensure that we're on site.
Home visits
Home visits are exceptional, available to regular clients when convalescing at home and are priced accordingly. Much has been invested in the assessment and treatment facilities available in the clinic, which are not available when visiting clients in their homes. Taking a bottled milk analogy: drive to the supermarket and it's cheaper; having it delivered to your doorstep costs much more!
Verruca treatments
There are no 'cures' for plantar warts, or verrucae as they are called when on the feet. They are caused by the Human Papilloma virus, of which there may be eighty variants. Like the common cold viruses, they are too small and too varied to develop a specific cure. However, there are many treatments! These may be considered as causing a mild irritation or wound, to stimulate your immune system response. Foot Wise Pod offers a range of acid and cryotherapy treatments, to help you win this battle. These may be purchased as one-off treatments, or as a discounted course.
Foot Wis Pod also offers the Swift microwave treatment for the treatment of persistent verrucae (typically five years or more, resistant to everything!). This uses heat shock energy (akin to a cooker burn on the arm when removing those cakes) to trigger the production of Heat Shock Proteins to attract the immune system. The still-alive infected cells also present copies of live virus to the immune system, for recognition and its development of the antidote. This is the first new warts treatment in 30+ years and is non-destructive for the skin and can be treated through the skin (and nail beds in the case of beneath-the-nail warts).
Fungal nail treatments
Thickened, crumbly, streaked nails are often characteristic of a fungal infection, which can spread from nail to nail over a few years. 90% of fungal nails are caused by the same infection as Athlete's Foot, typically Trichophyton rubrum - a fungus that likes to eat keratin, the main component of your skin and nails. Foot Wise Pod offers a range of topical and more determined treatments for the removal of fungal nails. Since the fungus 'deadens' the nail bed, these treatments are usually without any pain or discomfort.
Cracked heel treatments
Traditionally the resolution of dry, cracked and painfully fissured heels was a slow process... involving much cutting-away, filing and softening with urea-based moisturisers. But no more!! Foot Wise Pod uses a medical grade adhesive called LiquiBand Optima, which retains flexibility as well as strength when 'zipping-up' painful fissures. It is a non-toxic 'super-glue' that remains in place for about 5 days, whilst normal skin has the opportunity to develop beneath it. Since tearing is prevented at each end of the fissure, there is usually immediate and lasting pain relief. LiquiBand is water-resistant and withstands short showers, but not swimming or immersion in a bath (soggy skin makes it come away too quickly).
LiquiBand Optima is anti-bacterial. However care is required to avoid trapping any deep infections beneath the adhesive. It also cannot be used on currently bleeding or weeping lesions. For this reason, LiquiBand is not licensed as a self-treatment product, but must be administered by a qualified medical person, with appropriate after-care available. Foot Wise Pod can add LiquiBand as an adjunct to a current treatment, or offer it as a separate stand-alone treatment. Clinical testing indicates there is a low recurrence rate for fissures treated with LiquiBand, though subsequent filing and moisturising may be required, depending upon the skin characteristics.
Ingrown nail surgery
When a nail edge becomes repeatedly infected and the usual efforts to re-educate its growth and proper cutting have failed, then a minor surgical procedure may become appropriate. The procedure itself takes 10 minutes. However, you should allow a hour for the medical paperwork and a rest afterwards with your foot raised (time for a cup of tea!).
Having taken your medical history and written consent, local anaesthetic is first used to numb the four nerves supplying the toe. The area is cleansed using a strong iodine solution. Once we are sure that you cannot detect any pain or discomfort, we then remove the troublesome side of the nail (a partial nail avulsion) or more rarely the whole nail (if both sides are troublesome and the nail is particularly narrow). To prevent re-growth of the nail bed, Foot Wise Pod uses a couple of drops of a strong caustic called Phenol. This has the advantage of killing any deep infection and also of deadening the local nerves - hence less post-operative pain. However, being a strong acid, the superficial skin is sloughed-off over the following couple of weeks (as with a severe burn from a cooker). For this reason, tepid salt water bathing is recommended every other day at home, followed by application of clean dry dressings.
We tend to perform the procedure in the afternoon, so that you can go home and rest with your feet up, to help with the blood clotting. You may retire to bed for a normal night's rest, taking a couple of your usual pain killers if necessary (NOT aspirin). You may continue with light duties, your normal schooling or work activities on the following day. Strong physical exertion, swimming or strenuous sports activities are not recommended until the toe has stopped weeping. Ignoring this advice is likely to damage the delicate, regenerating tissues, to slow your healing and to encourage an infection. There is the possibility that the troublesome nail will re-grow as before, particularly if you bleed more than is normal during the procedure, neutralising the Phenol before it has had its effect. You are not insured to drive with an anaesthetised toe, since your reaction times and emergency braking may be affected. Hence you must be accompanied and then driven home after the surgery. You also need to bring some open-toe sandals on the day of the surgery, since for one night only you will have a rather large toe bandage!
We ask you to return to the clinic on the day following the procedure, to receive further instruction on salt water bathing and how to apply dressings, so as to keep the toe as clean and dry as possible. We then review your progress at fortnightly intervals, using digital photography to monitor progress, until all weeping of the toe has ceased. The initial procedure and all follow up appointments are sold as a single course for a fixed fee. You are expected to purchase dressings and apply them yourself at home - a 5% discount has been arranged for you with our local pharmacy - Popson's Chemist.