Sunday, May 26, 2013

Toenail Treatment Update

I noticed that several people have recently read my old (2011?) post about toenail treatment. I suspect that back then I was soaking my toes in Listerine once a day to fight a longterm fungal infection in my 2 big toenails.  I developed that infection sometime during the early 80s after a biking accident where my right big toenail was almost torn off. I went to the ER and received only a bandaid on my bleeding toenail. No antifungal or antibiotic ointment was applied. Who knows whether the attendant had even washed his hands before bandaging my toe? 

Within a year my toenail (right foot) thickened. Then the other big toenail (left foot) thickened. One podiatrist told me I had hereditary thick toenails. He regularly filed those 2 thick toenails. When he retired, I saw another podiatrist who informed me that I actually had a fungal infection. He discounted topical treatments (as ineffective) and internal treatments (as too dangerous for my liver). He persuaded me to undergo surgery to remove both toenails and let them grow back as I applied a topical treatment to the toenail bed.  Needless to say, both toenails grew back thick and yellow with the still intact fungal infection.

Many years later (2011?) I read a 'people's pharmacy' column which recommended soaking the toenails in Listerine (or generic equivalent) mouthwash daily to kill the toenail fungus. After many months of daily soaks, my toenails seemed healthier, but were still thick. I enjoyed going to bed with mouthwash evaporating from my feet all night so that I didn't get hot feet during the summer months.  However toenail thickness after many months of soaking suggested I still had the fungus.

When I finally found a really good naturopath (who determine why my immunity was so low), she wanted to check my liver enzymes before we treated my toenails.  I wanted to focus on doing whatever I needed to do to improve my immunity and stop catching continual gastrointestinal bugs and respiratory infections.  So I agreed to wait until after testing my liver enzymes (which were fine).

Last year I again asked my doc about treating my toenail fungus. She suggested either oil of oregano or oil of geranium mixed with DMSO to help the oil penetrate the toenail to reach the toenail bed, where the fungus began. I chose oil of geranium, because I rather have my feet smell like a flower, rather than a pizza. LOL

 Twice daily I applied the oil of geranium/DMSO (mixed in equal portions) to my toenails. My doc suggested that I apply vitamin E capsule contents to any burned tissue around the toenail.  Although the DMSO ingredient made the geranium oil penetrate the toenail, DMSO also burned any surrounding skin it touched.  I soon learned to apply vitamin E oil all around the toenail before I applied the geranium/DMSO solution (1-2 drops per toenail).

After over 6 months my doc looked at my toenails and suggested I stop the geranium/DMSO treatment and see what happened.  Before that point the old toenails had died, peeled off or were filed off, which  allowed new, healthy toenail to grow.  I wasn't quite ready to abandon the daily ritual. So I continued a few more weeks applying the solution.  After I missed a few days when I was busy, I decided to stop applying the solution and watch my toenails. I filed off a few more dead (black) layers and spots. Only white toenail grew back. I could only see pink, healthy tissue underneath the new toenail. 

Now the remaining healthy part of old and new toenails haven't quite merged. So I still file down the old toenail occasionally. However, I'm pretty certain that I will have healthy, normal looking big toenails just in time for summer.  I'm already contemplating which toenail polish color will adorn my healtheir toenails. 

So bottom line for readers of my old toenail treatment post: Listerine doesn't work for longterm toenail fungus. However, oil of geranium mixed with DMSO does work with 2x daily application for at least 6 months.  I suspect less longterm fungal infections might respond to less, but I only know what worked for me.   

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A Month of Hypo Symptoms

After experiencing hypothyroid symptoms (irregularity, bloating, gas,  indigestion, esp. reflux, fatigue, low body temperature) during most of April, I finally realized that I needed to increase my T3 dose by 2.5mcg (which is a small amount, but effective with T3 only treatment).  I tried that small increase off and on during the past couple of months, especially after my last allergen (vanilla) contamination incident.  Most celiacs react to contamination with diarrhea, not constipation, which is more indicative of hypothyroid than allergy reactions. However, I had experienced soooo many years of constipation before my hypothyroid diagnosis that I automatically think that I must have eaten the wrong food or not eaten enough of the right food or not drunk enough liquids or not exercised enough, etc., etc. I heard all that 'constipation cure'  advice for so many years that I can easily forget that the only longlasting solution for me is an effective thyroid dose.

 Last year I spent 8 months slowly raising my T3 dose (according to symptom appearance and resolution). So I believed I finally found my final, full effective dose, when I had no hypo symptoms for 8 months.  I wanted to stay at one dose. I didn't like having to request new prescriptions with new doses, although my doctor lets me tell her how much I need.   

 I should stay open to the possibility that I need to increase my dose.  Of course 2.5mcg is a tiny increase, but enough to notice a huge difference in my digestion, gut motility, energy level, body temperature and general attitude toward life.  I don't know whether I'll stay at this dose. So I plan to ask my doc to give me a new prescription witn a 5 mcg increase, just in case I need another small dosage increase.