Holiday with new partner and embarrassing problem

[Amberjane41]

I’m so embarrassed. I’ve had a fungal nail
infection which has spread from my middle toe to big toe nail. It’s now thickened and looks obvious. I’ve been to the docs and got a lacquer and that’s all fine but I’m going on holiday for 2 weeks with a new partner and I’ve managed to hide it from him so far but he’s bound to see it by the pool and I can’t wear closed toe shoes all the time or he’ll think I’m weird! Im rubbish at doing my own nails at the best of time so I want to get a
pedicure to at least disguise it while im
away but google has come up with no salons that offer pedicures for people with nail infections so I don’t know what to do. Help! Anyone else has this issue? Anyone know what I can do?

ALL my DHs toenails were seriously infected when I met him. He didn't realize that they weren't supposed to look like that... It didn't put me off him generally though. Just explain you've got an infected toenail.

I had an acrylic nail on my toenail last year and I tripped causing it to rip off my whole toe nail. While it grew back it didn’t look great at all. I was seeing someone new and it was summer so I wanted to wear sandals while out. I managed to disguise it at first by wearing a plaster and then with a fake toenail. Once it grew a bit the nail shop then were able to extend the nail and so I was all good again 😅

Don't use a fake nail or nail varnish on top as the fungal infection will get worse. You can file it and then use a specific nail varnish for fungal infections. I have used the one from poderm from amazon, in many colours, and while wearing that one you can use their same brand purifier, which is one of the best I have used.

Vicks vapour rub and a toothbrush, apply to infected toes daily! Works so much quicker than the paint on fungal nail stuff!!

I really don't think he will notice or be bothered? Meanwhile, you can get it skimmed and varnished, a little makeover for it. X

don't waste your time with the lacquer they don't work, speaking from experience.
see if you can't get a prescription of Terbinafine tablets from your GP as there the only thing that will clear it up. I noticed the difference within 2 weeks of taking them although they do have to be taken for many months until the fungal infection has completely grown out of the nails.
for the time being can you just use nail polish to cover it. my nails would fall off the infection was that bad.

And fungal nail is very contagious that's how people get it, I picked mine up in our local swimming pool. I will now no longer swim or walk around the pool or changing area without wearing swimming socks.

Can I recommend that you file the top layer of the toe nail. Sometimes if the infection is bad enough you might be able to pull off the infected nail. Then apply tea tree oil on the nail twice a day. It will clear it up within days, obviously it will take a few months for a new nail to grow. If you want to make it look less noticeable pop some nail polish in a pale pink, but ensure that you take it off every night and put the tea tree oil on. Tea Tree oil works like magic.

For those of you who go to a public pool can I recommend that after your swim you apply tea tree oil all over your feet. You will never get fungal nail nor verrucas.

if your going to walk barefootm shower room, in bed then you might have to warn him incase he catches FN

Foot bath (I just use a big tuppaware). Hot hot water, as hot as you can go without burning yourself, 1/4 cup of Epsom Salts mixed thoroughly into it. Bathe foot for 10-20min for 3x (or more!) a day. Cleared up a 6 year long fungal toenail I had. If you want to really extra eradicate it try neat TCP on it too.

Go for a medical pedicure ( is there a Margaret Dabbs clinic near you?)

Don’t let him suck your toes…

I've no advice for how to disguise your nail, but from personal experience the only thing that worked was treatment-specific antibiotics - none of the paint on treatments worked

Haven’t read the full thread, yes the fake toenails cover it. I used them a lot when going out however when they come off they take the awful toenail with it! Because it’s not a normal toenail it has no strength in it at all and they peel and lift away with the glue.

If you don’t have long to go till your holiday then use the fake toenails this time but long term you must get the strong antibiotics tablets from your GP. They are the only things that will fix it. I suffered for 10 years and it had spread to all five toe nails and wish I had sorted it properly years ago. Only took a few months and had a full set of new toesnails!

I had one that spread to all my toes. I was so embarrassed. Laquer didn’t do much until I took the terbafine tablets. DH didn’t care at all, it was me who was embarrassed.
Just paint your toe nail for the holiday and sort it when back. Enjoy your holiday.

Don’t worry honestly. I had this for years in my 20s. It’s really common and highly contagious I think I caught it from a family member. I have been with my husband for years and I don’t think he ever noticed and I actually can’t remember if I even mentioned it to him. You can’t notice it if you wear nail varnish. I got a course of anti fungal from my gp. It was a 3 month daily dose so it was a bit of a pain but it cleared it. Im a nurse and it’s super common.

sheesh, he isn't going to notice.

My local cheapo nail bar has no issue with doing a pedi over my ongoing infected toenail. They wear gloves and disinfect things. It looks the same as all the others once painted.

Use a verruca sock

Tell him. he really won’t care. make a joke of it, if you’re embarrassed. If you can both laugh, the embarrassment will then disappear.
Alternatively hide your entire foot with a veruca sock. No one will be any the wiser about your dodgy toe….

I was going to say this.

Are you certain he doesn’t have a verruca or athletes foot problem he is agonising about how to tell you about?!

Unless he's got a foot fetish he hopefully won't care
All feet are pretty damn grim. If you're really embarrassed put a plaster on it, say you stubbed it badly or something
or you just think feet are ugly - I know someone who does this every time she goes swimming simply because she says she hates her own feet.

Do not use the same bottle of paint on infected toes as non infected. Same with files & clippers you will spread it. The reason no salon will touch them is because they need treatment to heal & painting them would contaminate their brushes and spread it. Yes they use barbicide to clean tools & anti fungal but I can’t stress enough how easy this is to spread.

Agree with pps, if this bothers him, he's not the one.

On my first holiday with my first love I had a bad dose of food poisoning. Explosive vomiting and diarrhoea, and my period too. My guy carried me to/from the bathroom as needed, showered me, cleaned up. That can't have been a fun 24 hours for him. It didn't seem to put him off long-term.

I however have never eaten calamari again.