This is a disturbing topic. But I must share. Only read on if you are not easily grossed out. Seriously. Sorry in advance.
Several years ago I got athlete's foot from a ghetto gym locker room. (Thanks Bally's!) I took too long to treat it (terrible mistake) and it got into one of my toenails. My parents made fun of me as the youngest person ever to have toenail fungus. Super rude. I tried several drugstore medicines, and while pregnant with my first child I started to see a little bit of improvement with one (maybe because my toenails were growing faster than the fungus could keep up?), but not a cure. Near the end of that pregnancy I got a pedicure with my mom, and they kindly spread it from my second toe to my big toe. In other news I will never get a pedicure again, and neither should you unless you know they are sterilizing to the extreme. But back on topic!
Years later I still have it in the first toe and it has gotten worse in my big toe. Over the years I have again tried different over the counter remedies which have provided no help whatsoever. Another option was to take prescription medicine to kill it, but this medicine in the past has been very expensive (there are now generics) and VERY bad for your liver. Like they test you in the middle of your 3 month course of medication to make sure you aren't experiencing liver failure bad. That obviously gave me great pause, and the fact that I have been pregnant or nursing for the past long while meant it was not likely going to be an option for me. I had heard in the past that tea tree oil (or melaluca) worked for some people on nail fungus, and once I got into oils I decided to give it a go. I hoped that the strength of this oil and it's anti-fungal properties would help.
For the past 6 weeks I have been applying a drop or so to each toenail morning and night, making sure to get it underneath and also all around the nail bed.
Results:
-Within two or three I stopped having pain in both the nails. Before they were ultra sensitive and hurt if even slightly touched.
-Within 2-3 weeks I started to notice a real change in the big toe nail. It seemed as if the yucky fungus under the nail started to crumble and come out when scraped (after being soaked by being in the shower).
-Around 5 weeks enough had cleared that I was able to cut off part of my big toenail, (the fungus is only in the right half of the nail) making it easier to reach the lower down fungus with the oil.
I took a before picture, but the interim results are too scary for a during picture. I hope to post a before and after photo in several months when I finish ridding the fungus from the big toe. As far as the second toe, I have not had as great of success. The pain is gone, but it doesn't seem to be eliminating the fungus as well. I wonder if that is because it has been in that toenail longer, and is therefore worse. My new plan of action with this toe is to file it down as much as possible (on the top) to allow the oil to better penetrate it. If I don't see results from that I will likely Oregano instead. I will keep this blog posted with more success...
Sorry for the worst grossest post ever! I just want anyone who is having this problem to get help if it works for them too! :)
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