Welcome to the personal website of

Dr. Michael A. Zapf, DPM, MPH, FACFAS, FACFAOM

Thank you for visiting the web site of Dr. Michael Zapf. He is a member of the Agoura-Los Robles Podiatry Centers

The "real" practice web site, the one that contains registration forms, doctor information for all the office and directions to the office is located at:

www.conejofeet.com   ç Click here

I am Dr. Michael Zapf. I have been offering a full range of podiatric medical services, from ingrown nails to heel pain and foot surgery, to my friends and neighbors in the Las Virgenes, Conejo and Simi Valleys since 1985. This is my personal web site. It has been up since 1990 and has received more than 2 million visits. The entire site is my responsibility only and nearly everything on the site was written by me. You are welcome to peruse this site and learn what you can about me, your feet and the problems your feet can develop. Things happen fast in medicine so whatever you read could well be outdated, especially if it was written many years ago. On this site you will read historic articles that I wrote for a lay audience as long as 25 years ago, so please do not take anything on this site as definitive or as applying directly to your condition. You may wonder why I have my own site even though there is also an official practice site. Well, my partners are of a younger generation raised on tweets, e-mails and iPhones. They want a professional site that they believe better represents the professional nature of our practice. They also believe that people no longer take the time to read anything of length. I, on the other foot, think there is still a world out there full of people who still read lengthy descriptions of problems and solutions. if you are one of those old fashioned readers, then this site if for you. Let me know what you think. Let me know you are out there.

Please note that all information and photographs on this site are copyrighted by me, Michael Zapf, DPM, and cannot be used for any private or commercial purposes. I work with two other podiatrists in my practice who may or may not share any of my ideas and philosophy. Do not expect them to practice the way I do or even believe in any of the speculation I present here. If you appreciate what I have written and want me to be your treating doctor, you will have to ask for me specifically. Even if my office says at first, " He is booked until next month",  I still want to see you as long as you are a little flexible with your schedule. If your visit is an emergency, I know that  you will be happy with either of my associates, Dr. Darren Payne or Dr. Steve Benson. They are exceedingly well trained and capable in any foot emergency.

Michael Zapf, DPM, MPH, FACFAS, FACFAOM     (If you want to know what all those initials mean, click here   è  

Our office phone number is (818) 707-3668 and my e-mail address is zfootdoc [at] doctor [dot] com

Agoura Hills Office: 28240 Agoura Road, Suite 101, Agoura Hills, CA 91301

Thousand Oaks Office: 555 Marin Street, Suite 290, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

For the address, hours and registration forms please see the practice web site: www.conejofeet.com

07/24/2010

To Order Foot Supplies è ç click

For Information about Laser Treatment for Fungal Nails Click hereè
 

For information about Shockwave Therapy for heel pain          click here è

Exciting news!!! New Thousand Oaks Location  è

ACORN October 1997

A College Legacy        - Ingrown Nails

By: Michael Zapf, DPM, MPH, FACFAS, FACFAOM

One of the happy coincidences of joining the Westlake Village Sunrise Rotary club was getting reacquainted with Eric. I remembered meeting him several years before as a patient in my office. When I met him as a patient he was an insurance neophyte and a recent graduate from California Lutheran University. He had what we in the podiatry business refer to technically as some really ugly ingrown nails. He had them for a long time, he said, and wanted to get rid of them permanently. In the office, on his first visit, we did just that. Under local anesthesia thin edges of he nail plate were removed and that portion of the nail root behind the nail edge was killed with a chemical. It is something podiatrists do regularly and Eric was thrilled to find the whole process so easy and painless. Only recently has he come to realize how much this little procedure changed his life.

Eric recently had a reunion of sorts with a couple of his college roommates. They all shared their memories of living together. The strongest memory of Eric, in the minds of all three of his roommates, was his monthly bathroom surgery session. Eric, they remembered, would take his little bag of surgical tools into the bathroom, lock the door and spend an hour moaning and groaning working on his ingrown nails. He would eventually emerge, pedally bandaged, with a satisfied look of victory in his eyes. The victory was short lived, however, for a month later they would find him locked away, again. While Eric thought nothing of these sessions, he was giving his friends memories for life.

This is the kind of courage men find commendable and his roommates tolerated (and maybe even admired) Eric’s endurance. This particular behavior, however, is not something that endears one to a spouse. Soon after graduation Eric secured a real job and a real girlfriend. He knew his bathroom surgery days were numbered and thus found himself in my office.

Eric recently told me this story and gave me permission (actually he begged me) to write about it. Again, he told me how happy he is not to need these monthly sessions. But I bet it is nothing compared to how happy his wife feels. I may have saved a marriage with this little office procedure.

(Rotary, by the way, is an international service organization dedicated to making the neighborhood and the worls a better place. There are tens of thousands of clubs worldwde and we have 5 right here in the Conejo Valley. I would encourage anyone interested in service to the community to give me a call. Our Rotary clubs have a unique way of recognizing achievement among the members by assigning them a fine. I bet that all of these nice things I am saying about Rotary will not get me exempted from the next fine session. Luckily it is all for charity.)

Dr. Michael Zapf is a board certified podiatrist with offices in Agoura and Thousand Oaks. For more information you can call his office at (818) 707-3668.

Send mail to (zfootdoc at doctor dot com) with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2000 Michael A. Zapf, D.P.M., F.A.C.F.A.S., F.A.C.F.AOA.M.
Last modified: July 24, 2010