Stupid comments ....

Singlemom1 and VLH, you might check into Laser treatment, Jublia topical drops, and toenail removal. Be aware that the fungus can live in and on shoes for two weeks, and it is in and on soil all over the outdoors.

Very doubtful that many Doctors would do permanent toenail removal to treat nail fungus.

I had it in two toenails for about nine years. Two easy, painless sessions of Laser treatment cured mine. The cure was confirmed by biopsy/Lab Culture much later (my toenails grow only slowly), when all of the nail growth appeared undiseased. in each of the two sessions, each of my eight toenails was treated by Laser, and my sandals were sterilized while my toenails were being treated. I was directed to use Terbinafine cream on all my toenails between and following the treatments for a time, to help prevent re-infection.

My biggest toenails were removed and their nail beds destroyed long before for being chronically badly ingrown. That is a rough treatment. It was two weeks with hard pain medicine, staying down with feet always kept up, except to hobble on my heels (heels only) to the nearest bathroom -- otherwise, no walking whatsoever. Even after those first two weeks of recovery were done and the stitches then removed, lymph leaked from the surgery sites from just a little walking.

Ladies, if you don't mind me chiming in, an old wives remedy from the old world was to smear the respective nail/toe with sticky pine sap then keep it wrapped until it was cured. Checked on from time to time and more sticky sap applied if needed. I've known this since I was a child

When I grew up I realized why it worked. Fungus needs oxygen to survive. That is why toenail fungus doesn't go systemic, because it needs access to open air - that is why it breaks down the nail to get access to air. If you find a way to completely seal off that area, you should have it gone after a while. My mother had that and - for lack of pine sap lol - she just kept putting thick layers of nail polish, going over the nail and on the skin as well. Took it about a month of that but she got rid of it.

Soaking in vinegar is another home remedy. It worked for me a few years ago.

Yes! I was diagnosed last week and was telling m’y neighbour on the weekend. I love on my own and won’t be able to after my surgery, so I was letting her know my house will be empty for a bit. Her first comment to me was about how her cousin passed away from breast cancer. I must have given her an awful look because she got all uncomfortable. I think some people need lessons in common sense.

Before I had breast cancer I had frequent scares and biopsies. One time I had a swollen lymph node in my armpit, that I was trying not to worry about because I was temporarily uninsured at the time and stuff like this was always happening.

Friend of mine felt compelled to tell me all about her brother-in-law, who was an athlete in perfect health and felt a small lump on his groin and he died a few months later (he saw the doctor immediately and it didn't make a bit of difference in that scenario!). I was like, thanks a lot for that story when you know I can't afford to go to the doctor right now. She pressured me to go, insisted she would take me to the appointments so I did.

In the end she ended up resenting me for taking up her time to drive me around and acted like I was taking advantage. $4000 in medical bills later, for what turned out to be nothing and could have waited until I was re-insured soon after. Needless to say, I abruptly ended that "friendship." I never even told her why because some people are so lacking in self-awareness that they would never get it if you tried.

Okay, Solfeo, you got me going on Cider vinegar. I studied it one time. It goes back 5000 years. It has antibacterial and antifungal effects. I have used white vinegar in a pinch b/c I had no cider vinegar available.

I'm an old nurse. Never did the pedi/mani thing no time, no money. Plus, to support my thought they weren't sanitary, a study came out in a nursing journal in 98-99 That was very well done. I was very happy b/c I alwys thought bacteria. The results measured bacteria of normal nails above and under. Scratched broken lines of the top. The worst were the artificial nails. Underneath gawd awful bacteria and fungi

The results were seriously bad, I took the article into the bosses. I figured they would ban artificial nails and nail polish.

Didn't happen for many years. JACHO accreditation, finally did the ban. But it was almost a decade.

My story, think it was 2011, I had my first pedi/ mani. The mani was the shellac? It was the second one that caused the problem. They abraided my skin in the removal. The abraided skin was red for a few days. Then the trouble started.

It was dx'd as by a dermatologist as dishydrotic excema. Absolute textbook picture. Except the treatment of steroids didn't work. A friend Chevy said in a post about sticking her thumb in Cider vinegar. It was a major Yahoo memory moment.

I stuck the hand in a cider vinegar thing for soaks twice a day for the next many months. It was a process. It was amazing. After time I was able to drop off to once a day. Then as needed. But it was MONTHS.

I used the same container of cider vinegar with a lid for 9 months. Clean hands going in and cider is a natural bacteriocidal and antifungal. In a hospital situation , they wouldn't do that, but I was at home.

The advancement of the disease that I watched, was unexplainably by anything on the net. It fixed my problem. The problem never has returned. I wished I had pictures as validation.

Frankly, I think it was a mycoplasma bug. They take forever to heal.

But---would a doc have been able to connect abraided skin in a nail shop that didn't go straight to an all out infection and figure to soak in cider. DUH.

Yes, I was and l and most BIATch in the post I deleted. It probably shocked you. Sorry. But also not sorry. I've lived here for years. I've lived people going MIA. It hurts. I apologize for the preaching that I deleted.

Girl you are such a great snark. We need you here. Even occasionally.

Bride you too.

I have to say the girl who does my pedicures is more anal about cleanliness than I am, but I understand that’s not the case 99% of the time. She uses an autoclave to sterilize her tools, and has different files, etc. for each client. They’ve gotten very strict about the rules in Texas, they just don’t have enough people to police it.

I’ve been very lucky and had no stupid comments that were bad enough that I remember them. In the last 10 years, 3 of the women in our 15 person office (3 are men) have had breast cancer. My radiologist, who is also a close friend, said it’s a very high percentage. I did reply, that two of us were overweight for years and were on HRT, my mother had two instances of BC (but died at 84 of COPD) and the other had Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma as a teenager, although I don’t know if that predisposed her to get BC or not. It’s amazing once the word is out in a small town that you have BC, how many people you find out have had it as well. I remember with Mother’s first bout, this was in 1974, her attitude was that she’d been given a death sentence. Her GP had his wife, who was a BC survivor, talk to her, and her attitude changed dramatically. (Ah the days before HIPPA.). The second BC in 1982 she took in stride. I really wish, strictly from it just being interesting, that I knew what type of BC she had. Both her and my MXs done at Baylor, but pre-computer no way to get her info.

Once I had seen the BS and he had given me my options, I sat everyone down, except the two 20-something guys who would have been horrified to have been included, and told them everything. The woman with the most recent case had had a LX, but said she wondered why she’d bothered, since she now had one normal breast, and one that looked like red leather.

I probably didn’t have any problem with my family because of my mother’s history, added to the fact that my 35 year old niece had been diagnosed as triple positive and had neo-adjuvant chemo, then a BMX a few months prior. We both had gene testing done, and don’t have the same gene abnormalities. Daddy’s family has a history of prostate cancer, and my brother recently found out he has it as well. Her gene abnormalities include one that predisposes you for prostate, uterine, breast and melanoma. The docs think hers came from her mother’s side.

Now my girls, 35 and 41, will need genetic counseling and testing. The older is overweight like me, works long, stressful hours, and doesn’t get enough exercise. The younger one has done an Ironman, although not recently, and works out a lot, with a much less stressful job

Thanks so much for the nail treatment tips. I've only had one pedicure in my life and it was several years ago. I scrub my nail clippers with alcohol wipes before and after every use and always clip the affected nail last. I was surprised that Jublia doesn't have a more impressive track record given its cost and prescription status. I believe Dr. Andrew Weil mentioned Tea tree oil while acknowledging that other home remedies (Vicks, original Listerine, vinegar, etc.) work for different people.

I'd wondered about the laser treatment. Was that performed at a podiatrist's office? I happened to run across an ad, but the facility seemed rather shady. Again, apologies for going off-topic.

Lyn

Royaltea, that really was a stupid comment. You handled it better than I would have. I would probably have told her that I have gotten some stupid questions in my life but that by far was the stupidest question anyone has asked, whether she was a superior or not, and suggest that she get informed.

Sorry she said that. It almost sounded intentional. Who is that dumb?

"I don't know, but whatever it was, it's also really increased the number of stupid questions I get."

Ah! Royaltea, what a stupid comment they made. I feel that being diagnosed has removed my filter. I think some people need to be told when their comments are that awful. After I was diagnosed, the day before my MRI, my boyfriend at the time (now my ex)’s dog had a seizure. He was a wreck from the dog, not because of me having cancer. That seemed to be the least of his worries. He asked me what his dog did to deserve this. His dog has a cyst, and he asked me if dogs can get cancer. I just said yes. The timing on his part was pathetic

Royaltea, that comment wasn't just stupid, it was violating and blaming! Oh my god. I am mortified. And it's easy here in the comfort of my computer room to think up pithy and sharp retorts. It's like being an armchair athlete, I find it kind of fun. But in the moment, I too have been open mouthed speechless at the STUPID things people say.

Yesterday a lady told me to just cut my boobs off. Just get rid of them if they're that much trouble. Like it's trimming your nails, nip, nip, done, good.

I actually did tell her that at this point, getting rid of my boobs is NOT going to save me. That's like closing the barn door after the horse is out. Yes, in some cases, mastectomy IS the most prudent path. But not all. What I did NOT tell her is all the complications that can come with that surgery. All the life long effects if not months or years of struggling to get back to some better place. Everyone knows women who 'had their breasts off and never looked back'. That's because I think many women do not sit down and share the misery and struggle that losing their breasts can bring. In the face of stupid comments they have decided to edit their realities to the masses. Who can blame them?

If having your kid's tonsils out had a 30% chance that your kid's vocal cords would be ruined and he'd be mute the rest of his life, how many parents would subject their kids to a tonsillectomy? Removal of breasts can affect shoulders, mobility, removal of lymph nodes has its own shit show of misery - I know! I'm there, and I only gave up one node! A hairdresser here in town who lost both her breasts is thinking she'll have to give up her hair cutting career because of pain and inability to use her arms like before. For some, depending on the effects, mastectomy can be career ending! I realize many women do NOT have problems. But people who say 'cut them off' have NEVER laid on a table while a man with a knife hovers over your exposed chest. It's a big, fudging deal and people are so stupidly flippant about it. But before I got cancer and educated myself and researched some of this stuff, I hate to admit, I was firmly rooted in the Stupid category - because I did not know.

Thank you, Icietla!

It's difficult to think of an appropriate answer on the fly when someone asks something as unexpectedly asinine as what you did to bring cancer into your life. I would want to respond, "Given that even small children get horrific cancers, why on earth would you ask that question? Cancer isn't some divine retribution or the result of a negative attitude or it would never affect a bubbly, innocent toddler. Would you ask such a thing of that baby's parents? We don't get to pick our genomic alterations or none of us would ever face the devastation of cancer."

I think this attitude may go back to the mumbo jumbo concept that bad things only happen when we "invite" them into our lives. I recall arranging my hip replacement surgery several years ago when one of Oprah's gurus was touting that idea. I was so excited to kick the excruciating pain to the curb & return to my busy, active life. My highly-regarded surgeon somehow inserted an incorrect component, requiring a second surgery the following day. Two brutal surgeries in two days put me into kidney failure. I ended up needing a blood transfusion and my hospital stay was doubled. Clearly, the issue wasn't me "inviting" something bad into my life, but rather the lack of redundancies to ensure such an error couldn't be made. I don't know how you didn't blow a fuse!

Lyn