Feet

[Ollie]

The last few months I've been having a lot of problems with my feet. They've been very resilient up till now, but now they're really giving me grief! :mad:

Last November I was getting small hard blisters on the bottom of my feet. I went to the doctor and he diagnosed it as excema and gave me some cream for it. I used it till it cleared up but then got a bit lax.

A few weeks ago it flaired up again, although differently, with much larger blisters. At one point I was finding it incredibly difficult to walk! I went to the doctor again, but she was completely useless and just gave me some sterilised needles to 'go and sort it out myself!'. Luckily when I asked a nice nurse for some dressings she offered to take a look and sorted it.

Now able to walk, but with my feet in a very bad state, I came home and saw a nurse here. Within seconds of taking my socks off she diagnosed Athlete's foot and prescribed me some more cream which seems to be dealing with it, although my feet are still somewhat scabby and in generally bad condition :(

I was wondering if anyone else had had such issues with their feet and how you have treated them? As I said, I've never had problems with them before, and have always been careful to dry my feet off properly, not wear shoes when I don't need to, etc, but something seems to have changed!

I've been washing them regularly and have just got a foot spa (decided I could justify the girlyness of it - after a day in steel toe capped boots doing technical theatre stuff it's going to work wonders!) but am very concious of softening my feet too much and making myself more prone to blisters (which have never been a problem before)

Any comments, suggestions, advice?

Ollie

[Marmot]

Athletes foot is a bacterium, which may be living in your shoes and reinfecting your feet - might be worth giving them a clean

[clunk]

hi ollie , ive had a problem with my left foot , must have damaged it on the rylestone cross walk , it felt like id'e damaged the ball of my foot , untill a doctor told me i had damaged my heel , and this shows up in the ball of the foot ( i forget why ), and its only in the past few days that i can honestly say its getting better ( it happened about 3 months ago i think ),
as far as your athletes foot goes , it takes ages to sort out , but dont worry , you will get it sorted eventualy, my bro had it and it took about 12 months to sort out

[David]

All I can say is that I had athletes foot once, tried some stuff with no effect. Just kept myself in good hygiene after than and after a long time it went away completely.

[Ollie]

Athletes foot is a bacterium, which may be living in your shoes and reinfecting your feet - might be worth giving them a clean

Actually it's a fungal infection :p I have gone and got myself a new pair of 'trainers' to wear generally, and have sprayed my trainers. It's a right proper pain, as I don't really want to do much in terms of walking or climbing in fear of making it worse. Trying to get it sorted as quickly as possible.

It's not just a small 'between the toes' thing either, it's all over the base of my foot. Unfortunately the useless doctor at my uni medical centre didn't seem at all interested in helping diagnose it so it's taken so long to work out what it is that it's got really bad.

[guru]

Boil wash all your socks, get new insoles for the shoes/boots you wear most and try to not wear the same shoes day in and day out. theres a powder you can get for your feet that helps to slow down the rate the fungus multiplies too. Ur doctor will probably know the name.... Athletes foot can be really painful and you wanna sort it asap mate!!

[Marmot]

fungal, bacterial - its all just small things! i actually did know that, just got it worng. Thanks for pointing it out tho

[MariaD]

I agree regarding boiling or binning your socks - a normal 40 degree wash isn't going to sort them out. I'd get new insoles and stay out of rock shoes - they'll make it far worse!

[Ant]

boiling socks... Sounds like some sort of witches brew...

[ishepster]

I've had Athelete's Foot quite a few times over the years (admittedly not as bad as yours sounds) and I've always found using the talc or spray treatment in your shoes along with cream on my feet clears it up in a week or so. I then spray my shoes fairly regularly for another couple of weeks and that seems to work.

I believe that people who wee in the shower never get AF. Something to do with urea, all the treatments I've seen contain it too.

Obviously I'd never wee in the shower.......................well not at home anyway.

[MariaD]

To be honest, I reckon wee (which is sterile at the point of exit) is far less unpleasant than all the dead skin cells, old sebum, bacteria, grime, and other assorted mankiness that comes off you in the shower.

[ishepster]

Yeah especially after spending a weekend in the hills.

I thought Old Sebum was a real ale.

[Anand]

My personal bet would be getting an extra pair of insoles and changing them every day so the other pair can dry out, when dried the fungus/bacteria dies(or something like that), changing socks during lunch break might be good too. Just boil washing them isn't gonna help much, drying them does alot more. a Shoe dryer (fan with 2-4 hoses on it) helps, also great for the outdoor boots. A cheap option is getting a damp collector (white block or crystals in a plastic tray) and putting it with the shoes in a airtight bag.

The socks i normally wear are synth/wool so anything over 30C is not an option but i have solved it with this methods :)

[insane_climber]

ill amputate them for u ollie

[ishepster]

Ollie, if you decide to get your feet amputated, can I have your slippers please?