Swollen under the toenail?!

Swollen under the toenail?

I am used to ingrown nails/toenails because I get them all the time, so I know how to take care of them. But this time I had my middle toe nail getting very swollen. I cut the part that seemed to be bothering the skin but it wasn't going away. Next day it was swollen all around the nail and I even could see white collor underneath it, which I never had before. I cut it again and eventually it went away. Only the problem was the swollen under my nail eventually disattached my nail from the skin and now I am hoping my nail will get back. I heard that you are supposed to get your nail drilled to release the swollen but since I didn't have much pain and it was so quick, I didn't go to see the doctor. My toe looks healthy and fine and I keep a bandage on it. Did anyone have a similar experience? Anything I can do to prevent from swollening underneath again? Dont get me wrong. I didn't wait for days to go away. The swollen happened overnight and now I have to wait months to get a nail back.

1 month ago
It didn't seem as an infection, although the swollen and pain move to the bottom part of the nail, which was unusual (maybe because the middle toe is so small). The white collor undeath didn't look like a big deal, if it was a different color, I might have gone to the doctor right away. The whole thing lasted just a few days because I think I got the nail out of skin by the second cutting. The white collar stayed and eventually disattached the nail. I never touched underneath the nail or anything. I let him fall off naturally.

I had a similar thing happen from trail running. My second toe hit the front of my shoe too much on the downhill parts. Anyway, that swelling was really like a water-filled blister. I used a sterilized needle and pierced and drained the blister for a few days until it went away completely. Most of the pain I felt was related to the upward pressure on my nail from the blister. Unfortunately, I ended up losing the toenail and kept a Band-Aid over it until it was healed (and until I began to get new toenail growth). Now though, it looks fine and you would not be able to tell that my toe went through such drama!