toenail separation

law01

It has been 9 months since my last chemo. My fingernails have all returned to normal. It is a different story with two toe nails, one on each foot. One is still just slightly separated from the bed at the top. The big toe is nearly completely separated and seems to be getting worse. My dermatologist had tests done and it does not appear to be a fungal infection. The toenail doesn't appear to be thickened and there is no oozing or color change that indicates a bacterial infection. Can anyone give me some insight or advice? How can this be treated so that my toenail will be normal again. What are other options? Help.

Poppy_90

Nice to meet you, law01. I also have the taxol toenails. Sadly, I lost one this week and the nail behind is also black. There’s some good information here:

https://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/side_effects/nail_changes

My job requires lots of hosting in warm locations, so I’m trying to figure out what to do instead of sandals by the pool. Nobody wants to see how ugly my feet are.

Best of luck and nice to meet you

Kristen

Redkitty815

i have a similar situation and similar timing of last chemo (1 year out for AC-T). I have solidarity but not wisdom. I lost my most of my big toenails last March. I think the remainder of the toenails were not secure and now that they are the top half of the nails, they are clearly not attached to the nailbed, but also not thickened or oozing. For now, I am trying patience and hoping that I will have better-than-nasty feet by the end of the summer, but would love to hear from those that have more experience.

WC3

law01:

It took over a year post final chemo for my nails to return to normal. The nail on one of my big toes had stopped growing during chemotherapy and the cuticle started to ooze blood and fluid. What had actually happened is that while the nail had stopped growing out, it had thickend instead and when it started to grow normally again, the thick base had to clear the cuticle. After it grew out a bit I had this weird ledge that made my toenail look like I had put an acrylic nail on it that had grown out. It took over a year for it to grow out enough to clip that last bit off.

My fingernails would break on the edges just below the quick for about as long. I carried nail clippers on me to trim them as short as possible when this would happen to prevent the nail from snagging on something and ripping off the nail bed.