I had jock-strap itch. I used every known anti-fungal remedy under the sun, but I still itched. I consulted a doctor. He said: “That’s telling you something”.
He suggested that I cut back on the aggressive cleaning agents.
(pharmacist here) You’re going to create resistant fungal strains with all those meds. Wear clean shoes and socks every day, and I second changing socks mid-shift if at all possible, and go barefoot on your days off.
And see a doctor. You may have more than just plain old garden variety athlete’s foot, and you need to tell the doctor what you have been doing (and better yet, bring the containers with you). Your doctor will not be shocked; s/he’s seen it all.
Any updates on this? Hope you saw a doctor, and are getting treated and seeing improvement.
I will give it to the end of next week. If it does not seem to be improving then I will call my Dr.
Concur. Excessive sanitising can just leave a nice clear playing field for whatever organism is strong enough to survive it, with no competition from other more benign skin flora. You can’t sterilise your own skin (well, you can try, but bad things will happen).
Breathable shoes, gentle washing, thorough drying with a soft towel, let the air get to your feet as much as possible
Just do it now. Don’t suffer any more than you have to.
Though I have had and cured athlete’s foot a couple of times, I currently have a different problem in that my feet have decided to start sweating like crazy and stink to high heaven. I can tell you that it has definitely affected my footwear.
The doc told me that I need to switch shoes/sandals each day to allow the pair to dry out completely before wearing again. So I let one stinky pair alone for two weeks. I wore them again today, while using an anti-perspirant lightly and after 10 hours I am just beginning to smell them so off the sandals go and I’ll wash my feet before going to bed. I’m now washing the floors I walk on barefoot weekly.
Has a doctor actually said it’s athlete’s foot, though? Contact dermatitis between the toes looks an awful lot like athlete’s foot as it’s also red and peeling, sometimes it itches depending on what you’re allergic to, and it doesn’t respond to any meds for athlete’s foot.
…and what you’re putting on your feet. I wouldn’t be surprised if the OP no longer has an Athlete’s foot problem at all, and is now merely fighting an assortment of irritations, dryness and bacterial infections, with the same frankly nuclear regime that possibly is causing them.
So, after writing that yesterday I decided waiting was pointless. I called my Dr. and explained it to the receptionist. She called back a few hours later and told me the Dr. was giving me a prescription for clotrimazole betamethasone, and to stop using the meds I have been using.
I actually stopped using the rubbing alcohol last Friday, so the only treatment I am using is the clotrimazole betamethasone.
And for 2 weeks now I have been wondering if I have already beaten the athlete’s foot (and if it even was to begin with), so in a way I wish the Dr. actually looked at it. But my insurance is really bad in general, but it fully covered the clotrimazole betamethasone, so I’ll use it till it’s gone and take it from there.
Thank you all for the advice
Glad you’re taking care of it. Just a thin layer of that cream is sufficient, too; glopping it on won’t benefit you either and you’ll just run out faster.
There are several common fungal infections. Topical treatments do work for athletes foot, but can sometimes take a surprisingly long time (8-16 weeks of application several times a day). Oral ones are more reliable and sometimes much, much costlier.
Years ago, I had a doctor explain that the oral medication for athletes foot ran a very high risk of liver damage, and consequently he did not recommend it. Is that still the case today?
Oral terbinafine carries a risk of liver damage. “Very high” seems to be overstating the case, since damage is rare, but the reaction can be fatal in some cases. When I was prescribed it, I had to take liver function tests both before starting and some weeks into the treatment.
I don’t use these medicines often, but I did not think that the risk was that high. No doubt it is higher if there is preexisting disease.
I think the usual course would be to use ointments, creams or sprays since athletes foot is often confined to superficial skin layers in the toe webs; sometimes in the side of the feet as well. If one or two different topical treatments did not work after twelve weeks, I would specifically exclude diabetes, consider testing for the specific cause, and try an oral preparation. They use some of these medicines for pediatric patients, so these ones cannot be that toxic.
Should I be using lysol (generic) on my shoes? I have been ever since this started. But Tuesday I wore a pair of sandals, and used lysol on them after. Today I was waring them, and after a few hours I felt a light burning, especially where the top straps touch the tops of my feet. Was the lysol causing it?
So does oral ketoconazole, and griseofulvin is not a fun medication to take either. My dad tried all of those for recalcitrant toenail fungus, and finally ended up having the affected toenails removed.
This wasn’t just a rash, either. Those toenails were literally cubic and tore his socks and made shoes very uncomfortable.
Fluconazole, which is the go-to drug for vaginal yeast infections, isn’t usually recommended for long-term use.
My dad took griseofulvin when the fungus he’d picked up in the tropics started to go up his foot, and it not only cleared up his toe infection of 15 years, – coincidentally or not, it cleared up his sinuses, which was a problem of even longer duration.
I don’t think it’s sold anymore?
Oral terbinafine was the only thing that worked for me, too. I did have to have liver function tests, but they were good (I’ve also been on methotrexate for ten years so my poor liver is taking a battering, but my liver function results are always still good).
My doctor said that fungal infections are a whole-body infection, so treating the external appearance doesn’t usually work. Possibly he was overstating and they can work for relatively new infections.
There are different types. Athletes foot is not only just in the foot, but only the surface layer of the skin.