Athlete's foot getting worse. Help!

[PurpleThursdays]

I think a trip to the docs is in order. Had athletes foot for a week now. Tried spray and that didnt work so bought some powder at the chemists and that hasn't worked. I found some daktacort and clotrimazole that I've had for a while in a drawer. Been alternating with a combo of these and the powder and nothing works!

I've scratched the skin off my foot, it's bleeding and the skin between my toes has peeled leaving exposed red raw flesh (sorry).

It wont stop and I'm going crazy scratching it. Too late to go to pharmacy now (kids asleep) but it's getting worse and I'm tempted to cut my foot off at this rate.

Can anyone suggest anything?

We steamed my shoes after a persistent fungal foot infection, that seemed to help. And lamisil

Vicks Vaporub. DH and I are both runners with awful feet including athletes' foot and slathering that stuff on daily has sorted it out a treat.

Another vote for Lamisil here. I get AF persistently and Daktarin etc just don’t work. I read somewhere once that there are 2 ingredients that work on athletes foot and one kind (what is in Daktarin etc) doesn’t work for everyone. So I tried Lamisil and it does work on me, so now I have to have that! DH once brought back the wrong kind and I think he thought I was being a princess when I told him he had bought “the wrong kind of athletes foot cream” 😂 hope you get it sorted!

@PinkCosYouAreSoVery

Lamisil Once - trust me it works better than the spray/creams/powders.I had it for 3 years until I tried it! Much better after 24 hours.

Yes. This stuff. Pricey but bloody amazing.

My DC had athletes foot last year. You need to attack it with full force. It will not go away easily. My poor DC missed out on a whole semester of swimming school because of the bugger! Took about 6 months in total to get rid of it for good.
We tried all creams and powders available over counter, and some prescription ones too, so don't know what eventually worked, but in addition this is what we did:

• Air it. Socks and shoes off whenever possible. Wash the area with soapy water every morning, night and when coming back home. Dry well.
• Get some medical sterile wool from the pharmacy. When having to wear shoes, wrap the medical wool around the sore to keep it dry and breathing. Tape it in place with medical tape.
• Treat all your shoes. I used to sprinkle baking powder inside them every night and put on the radiator overnight to make sure they were dry thoroughly. Also froze the shoes in a plastic bag overnight in the freezer a few times.
• Silver plasters. They were amazing. Antibacterial/-fungal properties. Tried these inside socks a few times instead of the wool. Seemed to work really well.
• Silver socks. Socks with silver thread sewn into them.
• Woolly socks. Cotton is the worst. Change and wash in hot cycle.

Hope this helps. It's a nightmare!

Forgot to say earlier, toothpaste is a good solution too. Takes away the itch. Usually a white paste, not a blue gel type one

I know people say treat your shoes but the only thing that worked for me was getting rid of my shoes completely. They were reinfecting it.

If the skin is broken, it will hurt like hell. But try a soak in water with a bit of TCP or tree tree oil in it. Also using a foot cream with a high concentration of Urea in it helped mine.

Yep, Lamisil. You can get it from Amazon. The ‘once’ is a bit of an exaggeration, but it works better than anything you’ll get off a supermarket/chemist shelf.

I have had athlete's foot since I was as teenager. The only way I can prevent it is to use boots dual action athletes foot cream every day and dry in between my toes throughly after a bath. Even then it sometimes flares up. In this case I use surgical spirit to dry everything up. This usually does the trick.

I used to get AF really badly - the only thing which worked was washing with salt water morning and night then making sure it was totally dry (use a hair dryer) between and under the toes before applying a thin layer of cream (too much and it doesn't work as well) followed by powder. Did it religiously til it cleared after about 5 days then for another 3-4 days afterwards. I've never had it since.

Tea tree oil. Works like a dream.

Boots own cream worked for my ds - but changing his socks from black school socks to Isocool liner socks made a huge difference too.

I would absolutely love to have a hidden camera in my GP practice the day someone called to say "I've had athlete's foot for a week and I think you need to take a scrape and send it to the lab to find out why it's still here".

I don't know who would hide the camera though, since nobody except staff have been allowed inside since March 2020.

@TheYearOfSmallThings

I would absolutely love to have a hidden camera in my GP practice the day someone called to say "I've had athlete's foot for a week and I think you need to take a scrape and send it to the lab to find out why it's still here".

I don't know who would hide the camera though, since nobody except staff have been allowed inside since March 2020.

I had someone see me in A&E last week for 2 verrucas that she'd had for a week

Try this -

Evagloss Antifungal Cream Repair... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B083ZHT7HK?ref=ppxpoppmobappshare

I found it really helped when all the usual powders etc didn't.

Walk around in flip flops or similar when you can do feet are airy not sweaty (not so great in February I appreciate!)

Give your usual shoes a complete break and leave in sunshine to dry completely, air, and zap the fungi etc

Fresh socks every day. Wash inside out

Fresh towel to dry so it's not harbouring stuff.

Cuticura medicated talc.

It can drive you to distraction, I know!

Mine totally cured now. I realised the key culprit was my ancient gardening / decorating trainers. I finally got rid, did all above. And now all good!

You won't get rid of it in a week!
Yes to salt soaks until you can get some tea tree oil. And yes to drying it with a hairdryer.
Get yourself a set of foot towels, which get washed after every use. And sort the socks and shoes too. It's a war, not a single battle.
We've never found the creams and sprays effective.

We use the lamisil once, get it off amazon. Keep a tube in now for DS sweaty feet !

I was told to use potassium permanganate for athletes foot as a foot soak. This was years ago. I had lots of issues with my feet but eventually it cleared up.

Lamisil once used after a brief reencounter and it's great.

Take paracetamol to for the discomfort. It does help with getting to sleep!

GP if you can - not always possible at the moment.

@cherrypiepie oh yes you're right, I forgot - potassium permanganate foot soak, really helped to reduce little blisters I got from it too - OP - prescribed from GP or can purchase. That and Lamilsil Once worth trying.

I got some lamisil once and it's worked a treat. Thanks for the recommendations all.