I am unable to hook my camera to my computer at the moment, I will post some new pics in my next post. Although things are pretty much the same after my efforts I like seeing a couple of things actually looking better than they did before (some spots are worse...).
It can be difficult to scrape keratin out from under the nail depending on how the infection looks. In my pointer finger for example I have now two 2-mm wide canals of yellow keratin where the nail is detached from the nail bed, almost all the way back to the cuticle. I tried something unusual:
A microdrill. A small hand-drill for household and industry purposes which I happen to have drills for that are tiny. I don't know, but maybe 0,20 mm thick. With this, I went to work....
With the drill on low to medium speed I inserted it under the nail, directed along the underside of the nail. With some care I went from side to side, and further in. I scraped the underside of the nail and the top of the naked finger. When the nail is detached from the finger you kind of have two nails growing. On the finger you get a semi-soft skin tissue that grows along with the nail, and eventually you can tear the tip off just like you do cut the nail. I rubbed the drill on this surface, scraping off tissue until, well, it was uncomfortable. I also went back as far as I could from the fingertip and scraped until it felt uncomfortable, then I knew I was about to get into healthy tissue with functioning nerves. The drill worked excellently by continuously pulling loose tissue back and out, I have sworn by the vinegar soak before, but now I got LOTS of stuff out that I couldnt get to before.
Happy with having no unnecessary goo hanging around under my nails, I altered my daily treatment slightly. For a couple of months I have used a used small glass dispenser to apply pure vinegar on the nails and also underneath, since it fills up the empty area I am hoping for some of it to spread to the nail matrix and battle the infection there. Anyway, I noticed a couple of depressions in the outgrowing nail surface and suspected the pure vinegar may be too much for the nail.
I switched to a household preservative that has some good words for it when it comes to battling nail fungus, sodium benzoate. It is not acidic, it is on the "wrong" end of the PH scale, but it is a presevative and keeps moulds and fungus off jam and beetroot, so I figured it would be an excellent choice for keeping fungus busy.
söndag 14 februari 2010
söndag 24 januari 2010
After many outbursts of rage over disappearing text I have now concluded that if you change the settings to "edit HTML" you are indeed able to copy and paste text, and thereby staying safe throughout the writing process. I am now content again....
I am sitting with my toes in plastic. As I said before, in worse cases of fungus keratin is likely to build up under the nail, lifting it from the toe and causing it to grow upwards in an angle. 4 of my toenails are growing abnormally, 4 and 5 one could say, if the big toes are no. 1 and one counts outwards. 2 are rather bad, one is bent badly and both are growing in a 45-degree angle. It has been a few months since my last procedure and it is time again.
What I do: I cut fingers off disposable plastic bags and fill them with PURE vinegar (not balsamic, it stains the nails). I put them on my toes and wrap up with rubber bands. It has been sitting for like 20 mins now and I usually leave it for close to an hour. What it does is it softens up the keratin and enables you to scrape it out using a toothpick, needle, nail, match, whatever. It sounds icky, and kinda is, but it relieves the nail of pressure and enables topical medicines to more easily get under the nail. I really recommend this procedure. Even though I mentioned it before, I do so again. The excess keratin should simply not be there and it is not good for the treatments.
Vinegar is good for this purpose. Some use it with success for long-term treatment of the fungus infection itself, applying it daily on the nail. It is a very logical treatment, considering the PH of vinegar and how acidic environments are unfriendly to fungi, so this is no scam, even though it may not be as potent as some people say. But vinegar smells, and combined with feet that sweat throoughout the day, it is not very nice. It smells very sour, and I take my hat off to those who can keep this up for many months. I would probably lose my motivation, considering the drawbacks.
This post is only for stating the usefulness of vinegar as a part of a treatment. More to come. My treatment is underway, and some bright spots csn be seen (my right middle finger show less infection than it did 12 months ago). Also on the medical side, there are a couple of new treatments in research that look rather promising. I will look into that in my upcoming posts.
Fungus
I am sitting with my toes in plastic. As I said before, in worse cases of fungus keratin is likely to build up under the nail, lifting it from the toe and causing it to grow upwards in an angle. 4 of my toenails are growing abnormally, 4 and 5 one could say, if the big toes are no. 1 and one counts outwards. 2 are rather bad, one is bent badly and both are growing in a 45-degree angle. It has been a few months since my last procedure and it is time again.
What I do: I cut fingers off disposable plastic bags and fill them with PURE vinegar (not balsamic, it stains the nails). I put them on my toes and wrap up with rubber bands. It has been sitting for like 20 mins now and I usually leave it for close to an hour. What it does is it softens up the keratin and enables you to scrape it out using a toothpick, needle, nail, match, whatever. It sounds icky, and kinda is, but it relieves the nail of pressure and enables topical medicines to more easily get under the nail. I really recommend this procedure. Even though I mentioned it before, I do so again. The excess keratin should simply not be there and it is not good for the treatments.
Vinegar is good for this purpose. Some use it with success for long-term treatment of the fungus infection itself, applying it daily on the nail. It is a very logical treatment, considering the PH of vinegar and how acidic environments are unfriendly to fungi, so this is no scam, even though it may not be as potent as some people say. But vinegar smells, and combined with feet that sweat throoughout the day, it is not very nice. It smells very sour, and I take my hat off to those who can keep this up for many months. I would probably lose my motivation, considering the drawbacks.
This post is only for stating the usefulness of vinegar as a part of a treatment. More to come. My treatment is underway, and some bright spots csn be seen (my right middle finger show less infection than it did 12 months ago). Also on the medical side, there are a couple of new treatments in research that look rather promising. I will look into that in my upcoming posts.
Fungus
fredag 22 januari 2010
Firstly I must say I am rather annoyed with Blogger's ability to make text disappear, and also it's ability to automatically save posts, but without including the text, so you are left with nothing and need to start all over again. Anyway, let's go at it again.
So I have not posted for a long time, that is how it happens sometimes. Anyway I am glad I put these pictures up for me to be able to monitor my progress, and I plan to post frequently from now on. This will be an informative post, and my personal progress will be reviewed in a later post.
I think people should know one thing about Alternative Medicine. What makes it alternative is not it's magical efficacy, not it's east asian (or any romantic sounding) origin. What makes it alternative is the fact that it is not scientifically proven to be effective.
So in medicine, "alternative" actually means "not proven to be working". Once an alternative medication has been proven effective, it CEASES to be alternative medicine. It simply becomes medicine.
With that in mind. With that in mind..... You should gather as much information as you can about a particular subject or medication before investing money or time in it. If you see a webpage advertising a miraculous cure for nail fungus that makes wonders within 14 days, don't create an opinion from that page only. Go to a search engine like google and look that word up. If there are not many relevant hits, it may be safe to assume that the "opinion" that this cure is miraculous belongs to it's creators only, and few if any actual users.
Getting rid of my nail fungus has become quite a bit of a hobby of mine, and I have spent days and nights in front of the computer because of my problem. Let me share this with you: Google "nail fungus", "fungus cure" or anything like that, and you WILL find tons and tons of resources and sites offering help.
Maybe 5 % of this information has any value at all, or is sincere and correct. I would say about 85 % is complete horseshit, ungrounded claims and false statements, false information that tells you to buy a product or try a home remedy (the former is of course most common).
There are ways to get rid of nail fungus, but it is not easy, and many never does. Figures vary, but between 5-20 % of the world's population seem to suffer from any form of nail fungus. That is why there is huge money in this, and where there is money, there will always be crooks.....
Remember that. And stay tuned for my next post!
Fungus
So I have not posted for a long time, that is how it happens sometimes. Anyway I am glad I put these pictures up for me to be able to monitor my progress, and I plan to post frequently from now on. This will be an informative post, and my personal progress will be reviewed in a later post.
I think people should know one thing about Alternative Medicine. What makes it alternative is not it's magical efficacy, not it's east asian (or any romantic sounding) origin. What makes it alternative is the fact that it is not scientifically proven to be effective.
So in medicine, "alternative" actually means "not proven to be working". Once an alternative medication has been proven effective, it CEASES to be alternative medicine. It simply becomes medicine.
With that in mind. With that in mind..... You should gather as much information as you can about a particular subject or medication before investing money or time in it. If you see a webpage advertising a miraculous cure for nail fungus that makes wonders within 14 days, don't create an opinion from that page only. Go to a search engine like google and look that word up. If there are not many relevant hits, it may be safe to assume that the "opinion" that this cure is miraculous belongs to it's creators only, and few if any actual users.
Getting rid of my nail fungus has become quite a bit of a hobby of mine, and I have spent days and nights in front of the computer because of my problem. Let me share this with you: Google "nail fungus", "fungus cure" or anything like that, and you WILL find tons and tons of resources and sites offering help.
Maybe 5 % of this information has any value at all, or is sincere and correct. I would say about 85 % is complete horseshit, ungrounded claims and false statements, false information that tells you to buy a product or try a home remedy (the former is of course most common).
There are ways to get rid of nail fungus, but it is not easy, and many never does. Figures vary, but between 5-20 % of the world's population seem to suffer from any form of nail fungus. That is why there is huge money in this, and where there is money, there will always be crooks.....
Remember that. And stay tuned for my next post!
Fungus
onsdag 26 augusti 2009
Furthermore
Ok, got another minute now so onto the details. A little less than a year ago I started the internal Lamisil (terbinafine) treatment for the first time. This is something they don't prescribe to all because it can be harmful to your liver. The standard treatment time where I live is 12 weeks, so I got doses for 12 weeks. I was happy to get the strongest stuff there is, but it later showed that after the treatment no improvement could be seen whatsoever... I have read a lot on the topic of fungus and read in a medical study that after 12 weeks about 40 percent see an improvement whereas after 18 weeks 75 percent are likely to see an improvement (I will not swear by these figures, but they are roughly what I recall, I will try to find that page again). It also said that terbinafine is slowly collected in the body and actually reaches the nail beds only after a long time, it kinda works its way out there, hence the time-consuming procedure.
I am now 2 months into my second treatment, and my plan is to follow the advice of another man who sucessfully got rid of his fungus, complete the 3-month period and then demand another dose for another 3 months, and point to this study. If I have to take a liver test at some point, so be it. I want to rid myself of this now.
Apart from that, I apply pure tea tree oil to all nails twice a day (I have been lazy, but now I stubbornly apply it morning and evening). As for all the different substances out there on the market, I am skeptical. They all contain tea tree oil to some extent, and then sesame oil and other household stuff that I can't really see how it would be of any help. Pure tea tree oil is concentrated and strong, therefore I think it should be more effective than diluted stuff. This I apply to nails and nailbands, I know that there is no way for it to penetrate into the nail bed, but at least it should kill all fungus on the surface. I also use tea tree oil cream on the feet from time to time to kill any skin fungus, and occasionally lamisil gel, when feet seem to be dry and it seems they may get infected again.
I have tried vinegar 2 times. I have diluted it with water to a 20 % mixture and put it in cut-off fingers from plastic gloves and put the on the toes and fingers for 30 mins or so. What this does (apart from the fact that the acidic vinegar is cryptonite to superficial fungus) is that it softens the white stuff that tends to build up under infected nails, causing them to grow upward. Some of my toe nails grow upward in close to a 90 degree angle, and after this procedure I can take a semi-soft tool and scrape that gooey stuff out, enabling the nail to grow back normally once the debris is no longer there to push it up. It feels strange to do this since it leaves the nail unattached to the toe where you have been scraping, but fear not, it will grow out normally and be attached to the skin again. You should cut it down a bit more so it does not snag on socks and stuff. I plan to repeat this process with pure vinegar and take out as much as I can. I will not use vinegar on a daily basis since one wants to wash the feet thoroughly afterwards. It really does smell.
The vinegar procedure is something I recommend, because even when the fungus is gone, you need to get rid of that excess keratine under the nail for it to be able to grow normally.
In my next post I will post useful links to informative web pages along with other blogs and success stories. There is a lot of info on the subject, allow me to silt away the bad ones and leave you with the useful and correct information...... =)
Fungus
I am now 2 months into my second treatment, and my plan is to follow the advice of another man who sucessfully got rid of his fungus, complete the 3-month period and then demand another dose for another 3 months, and point to this study. If I have to take a liver test at some point, so be it. I want to rid myself of this now.
Apart from that, I apply pure tea tree oil to all nails twice a day (I have been lazy, but now I stubbornly apply it morning and evening). As for all the different substances out there on the market, I am skeptical. They all contain tea tree oil to some extent, and then sesame oil and other household stuff that I can't really see how it would be of any help. Pure tea tree oil is concentrated and strong, therefore I think it should be more effective than diluted stuff. This I apply to nails and nailbands, I know that there is no way for it to penetrate into the nail bed, but at least it should kill all fungus on the surface. I also use tea tree oil cream on the feet from time to time to kill any skin fungus, and occasionally lamisil gel, when feet seem to be dry and it seems they may get infected again.
I have tried vinegar 2 times. I have diluted it with water to a 20 % mixture and put it in cut-off fingers from plastic gloves and put the on the toes and fingers for 30 mins or so. What this does (apart from the fact that the acidic vinegar is cryptonite to superficial fungus) is that it softens the white stuff that tends to build up under infected nails, causing them to grow upward. Some of my toe nails grow upward in close to a 90 degree angle, and after this procedure I can take a semi-soft tool and scrape that gooey stuff out, enabling the nail to grow back normally once the debris is no longer there to push it up. It feels strange to do this since it leaves the nail unattached to the toe where you have been scraping, but fear not, it will grow out normally and be attached to the skin again. You should cut it down a bit more so it does not snag on socks and stuff. I plan to repeat this process with pure vinegar and take out as much as I can. I will not use vinegar on a daily basis since one wants to wash the feet thoroughly afterwards. It really does smell.
The vinegar procedure is something I recommend, because even when the fungus is gone, you need to get rid of that excess keratine under the nail for it to be able to grow normally.
In my next post I will post useful links to informative web pages along with other blogs and success stories. There is a lot of info on the subject, allow me to silt away the bad ones and leave you with the useful and correct information...... =)
Fungus
tisdag 25 augusti 2009
Nail fungus: my battle
To be honest I am not much into this whole blog hysteria. I don't follow one single blog, and I am surprised to find myself here now. The reason I am starting this blog is mainly to share with others my experiences with different fungus "cures" and hopefully those who read and have similar experiences can give me useful tips. Maybe it can eventually be a bundle of information that is useful to others. Because believe me, I will not suddenly start praising any of the alternative cures out there and reveal myself as just another fake person who is secretly advertising the products that his own company manufactures. Here I will, with pictures and text, share my specific story with nail fungus on fingers and toes. I will update with photos and lists of what products and methods I use. This is a brief first post, let us start with the horrific state my nails are in today. =)
I am not much into the technical stuff, so the pictures ended up on top of the page. Fair enough. I have only a couple of minutes, so this time a brief rundown of my history and treatments will have to suffice.
5 years ago my toenails started growing with a rippled surface, and some thickened. about 2 years ago one of my fingernails started to loosen after I had hurt it, and it has looked like that since (my middle finger). Suddenly about a year ago the rest of the hand quickly got infected, except for the little finger. I has gradually worsened.
I have eaten Lamisil and also used it externally to no avail.
My current procedure is: A new internal lamisil dosage, Tea tree oil on nails 2 times a day, and vinegar from time to time. I also experiment with household products. More to come later.
Thank you for reading, I am most grateful for any input, so don't hesitate to post.
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)