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Monday, June 4, 2012

Devastated... Nail fungus is among us!

While I have always polished my nails regularly I don't know that I've ever done it daily until the last few months. I love changing my mani daily or semi daily. It's a fun part of my day and time that I get to spend with myself doing something that makes me feel good. So it is with a heart full of devastation that I realized tonight that the changes I've noticed in a few of my nails is, I believe, a nail fungus.

I've never had problems with any kind of fungus, ring worm, athletes foot, jock itch or tape worm. LOL ok ok jock itch may be a little melodramatic but you get the point. I shower daily, clean my house, my clothes etc regularly. Yet, here I sit feeling like I need to scrub my hands again, even though I just did. I feel complete and utter shame, like I did something wrong.

Thumb on R hand with discoloration, weird white spot and just weirdness at nail line

Since I've never had this problem before I really sort of explained away the signs until tonight when I was inspecting my naked nails. I've watched my thumb change over the last couple weeks and thought that it was due to any number of rational and easily explained happenstances. Then I looked at my left hand and noticed another weird spot on my ring finger. I can't explain how I felt other than to say it was like a thunderbolt hit me in the head! OMG I have a nail fungus!

Left hand with middle, ring and pinky fingers showing affected areas

I spent the last few hours searching online for information. I watched YouTube videos on home remedies, googled medicine, causes and alternative treatments. I mean I feel like I really dug deep... and yet there wasn't a lot of info about nail fungus of the fingers. Every time I searched images to sort of "self diagnose" I got back ugly, disgusting and disfigured looking toes. TOES people. ick.

Weird spot on other side of middle finger, left hand

So in my hours of searching this is what it all boils down to:

  • Nail fungus is not necessarily brought on by anything you've done, there are literally thousands of fungus in our world
  • Fungus loves dark, damp places to live so a frequently polished nail is it's happiest place on earth
  • Keeping your nails free of polish, dry as much as possible and treating with some form of anti-fungal med is a necessity to kill it
  • Anti fungal prescription medication is hard on your liver so consider the side effects carefully
  • If not treated the fungus can spread to other nails and possibly get into your blood stream and make you much more sick 
  • There isn't anything to be ashamed of necessarily, but you should be very careful in handling other people's nails and your own nails so as to not spread the fungus
  • This is not something that can be cured over night
  • There are ways to prevent further infections such as allowing your nail to breathe, keeping your nails and nail beds dry, using an anti fungal topical to prevent future infection
  • There are lots of home remedies that can work, just pick one and try it!
Some of the home remedies that I plan on trying:

  • 1 cap of bleach in 1 tall glass of water (at least 8oz), soak fingers for a minute and repeat for several days
  • 3 cups warm water, 1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar, soak fingers for 15-20 mins, rinse hands off and pat dry with a dry, clean washcloth. Soak a cotton ball in 100% pure Tea Tree Oil and use a Band-Aid to hold onto end of finger
  • Use a 50/50 solution mix of Apple Cider Vinegar and Hydrogen Peroxide, soak nails for 45 minutes and repeat daily
Items I found that have anti-fungal properties:
  • Corn meal (make a sort of mash with it and soak hands/feet)
  • Vaseline
  • Oregano Oil
  • Vicks vapor-rub (apply to finger nail in the morning and evening)
  • Listerine (the original kind)
  • 100% pure Tea Tree Oil
  • Bleach
It's important to remember that if you're treating yourself either for the fungal infection or doing preventative measures that you apply the treatment to the sides of your nail where the skin meets the nail as well as the nail bed- underneath the nail as far as you can get. Remember the fungus is burrowing down your nail bed, UNDER your nail. So you need to put the treatment at it's entry point- under your nail.

I'll keep you guys posted of my success, but until this is taken care of I don't plan to paint my nails. So posts from me for a couple weeks will be from old manis that I haven't put up or other content. 

wish me luck!





              Have any of you dealt with this before? Any tips for me? 

12 comments:

  1. Awww i hope your problem goes away. I used to paint my nails often but it's more of a once a week thing for me. The only problem i had was bumpy thumb nails. They had dents on them which the manicure person told me was caused by putting nail polish often specially witthout base coat

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    1. Thanks! I hope it goes away too! This is the worst feeling!! Plus I have so many lovely new colors and I sit here naked lol (nails that is!) lol xo E

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  2. Are you sure it's fungus? Was there any trauma to your nails in the past few weeks? It could be seperating from the bed? They only time I've seen nail fungus in real life was when I was working in a salon and people would get it with their acrylic nails. It was the sort of thing where you yelled, "OMGz! That's fungus!"...really discolored. hahaha so that's the only kind I've had experience with. Your nails still look white, so that's a positive! Let me know if the bleach etc works or if you notice any difference...good luck!

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    1. omg MB I so wanted to tweet you last night and be like please help? lol. There's been no trauma at all- to any finger... my nail lines have almost always been crisp and clear until a couple weeks ago the thumb looked weird.the nail is rounded on the side where most of the discoloring and the white mark etc is... now those white marks are on 3 other fingers! going to try the bleach idea first after a trip to the store to buy some. Oh and yeah- my mom (back in the day) did her own nails and got a bad fungus and she had acrylics- it was horrific seriously! xo E

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    2. Is it all on the same hand? Even if you banged it without noticing a few weeks ago, it could just be showing up now? (I bang my head putting my youngest in the car all the time and FORGET...until my forehead is sore. My husband has nicknamed me 'Haphazard' ;) I reeeeeallly want to think that this is not fungus, can you tell? LOL! Either way, I'd do the bleach as a precaution. XOXO

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    3. Nope... it's on my R thumb (only finger so far on R hand) and my L index (just starting), middle, ring and pinky! like seriously WTF lol So I bought Dr. G's Clear Nail last night from Sallys and am also doing the bleach thing. I seriously want whatever is going on to stop right now lol. I will say after two treatments with the Dr. G's stuff my thumb nail (which is the worst looking one so far) does look slightly- and I do mean slightly better. I really want to believe it's not a fungus too but I am SO SCARED to let it go and it get worse. ugh! lol

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  3. Oh that sucks :( Maybe there is hope and its not fungus though. My nail lines have never been good (I think due to the fact that I'm really clumsy and am always causing them trauma lol) Maybe its just a minor thing. Good luck either way!

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    1. I'm trying to have hope Lena lol it's just scary because what if I or other people decide it isn't a fungus and it gets worse THEN they decide it is a fungus? :( thanks for the luck tho!! xo E

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  4. Thank you for the reassuring comments ladies!! This was a really hard post to write because I feel so awful and yucky. I know it might not seem like a big deal but I've always been "clean phobic" lol. I hate the idea that something on me isn't clean lol. I appreciate the wishes of luck and am about to set out to the store to start the home remedies treatments to see if I can get this to go away! xo E

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  5. I get this... It isn't nail fungus. It's just where I hit my nail too hard (don't realize it). And get a bubble. It usually turns white after it grows up (depending on where I got hit at). For me it takes the slightest thing and it happens.

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  6. I just saw this - and hope your nails are much better by now. You might also want to look for Neem oil. Saw a fungal infection on a foot in Brazil improve literally overnight after soaking in a 'tea' of neem leaves.

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