fungal and viral infections

[anonymous]

I have cf and recently have problems with recurring athletes foot (fungal) and even more troublesome - peeling of skin on hands too. And even MORE bothersome warts on my foot (viral). My doctors (cf, primary and now even a dermatologist) are stumped by the peeling hands.

I'm doing the obvious hygene steps and recently had the warts hit with frozen nitrogen -- ouch! Just wondering if anybody else with cf has had any these problems?

 

[anonymous]

I often get peeling palms of my hands.

I went to a derm - he said I'm not using lotion enough.

-Amy

 

[coltsfan715]

I had a bad problem when I was in middle school and high school with athletes foot and the skin on my fingers would peel of (mainly on my finger tips). I to this day don't know why the skin on my finger would peel off. I think it had to do with the fact that my hands and feet would sweat alot and being all the salt in our sweat it would dry my hands out and cause them to peel. I think that cause I had a problem with excessive sweating up until I was diagnosed with diabetes my senior yr of high school, and I haven't had a problem with the sweating or the peeling hands and athletes foot since then. I never went to a doctor for it though, so I never got an answer from anyone "in the know."

I haven't had the peeling fingers thing happen in years - except from where I stick my fingers for blood sugar checks (on occassion the skin will peel off on the fingers I uses frequently). Also something that helped with the athletes foot when I was in school was to try and wear sandals/ flip flops more often. That way air can get to your feet. It helped the problem a bit when I was younger.

As for warts, I had one on my thumb that has been there as long as I can remember. I used to have more, but got them frozen off - then they came back and I ended up using the store bought wart remover and it worked fine. The one I have left is stubborn though and won't go away.

Lindsey

 

[imondeck]

My 11 year old son with CF has peeling fingertips almost all year long (worse in the winter months). His palms are also hyperlineated. When he takes off his shoes after a full day of school, his feet are all wrinkly and pruned up.

He hasn't had any fungal infections other than when he was born he had a very bad case of thrush.

Sounds like the peeling of the fingertips is pretty common in people with CF?

 

[JazzysMom]

I think peeling is common in CFers because of the salt. Salt is irritating & we would need to rinse that off & then put lotion on CONSTANTLY. I personally dont then whine about how dry my hands are LOL! They are twice as bad when using my saline. I had REALLY, REALLY bad atheletes foot back in 1995. It was after my first husband & I put in our new home & I started using the new shower. It took awhile to clear up. I think I was reinfecting myself tho my ex never had a problem. Warts? Hmmm I had some on my knees as a kid, but was able to take care of them with occ meds.

 

[thelizardqueen]

I used to suffer from peeling heels, and my doc just gave me a cream to apply to them. I haven't had a problem since. I also used to get warts as a kid, but after having them burnt off a few times, they've gone away complelty, and I haven't had one in about 13 years.

 

[TemptressOfTheSea]

I had a wart on my food that had to be surgicallyremoved (two tries with nitrogen didn't do anything) a total of three times!!! It sucked...but I asked and my podiatrist didn't know of any correlation between that and having CF.

I know it's especially important to get this stuff taken care of if you have CFRD...you let something go and it turns into a nightmare!!!

 

[JT]

Original poster here (forgot to login) . . .

Thank you for your responses and ideas. I'm going to have to try lotion on the hands. Seems foreign to me as my hands are always sweaty and moist so I wouldn't all them "dry" but if it's worked for you . . . I'll try airing my feet out more too, thanks Lindsey.

Thanks for the Cavilon suggestion, Eileeen. What did you use, Liz?

Haven't heard of hyperlineation before, Sandra but I definitely have that too.

Haley -- Did surgically removing the wart cause more discomfort than freezing it? I had mine frozen three days ago and I'm still limping.

Thank you again,

JT

 

[TemptressOfTheSea]

JT,

Yes, it hurt a lot more than freezing, but of course they use local anethetic when they do it. Afterwards they wrapped my foot up to the size of an eggplant!!! But the third try was a charm.

 

[anonymous]

After looking at the title of this thread a few times "fungal and viral infections athletes foot and warts", it made me think of that one hooker story my friend told me about when he was in Mexico. Good story, i'll get him to tell it to you sometime.

 

[Alyssa]

I don't have CF (my kids do) but I can chime in on the warts comments here ~ I know warts, let me tell ya

I had so many warts on my knee as a kid, we could not count them ~ it covered the entire knee. We tried burning and freezing, neither worked, they came right back. A friend suggested Noxzema ~ we put it on every night at bedtime and in about a month they were entirely gone ~ never came back (been about 30 years now) I've told that story to doctors and most don't believe it, one said it was just a coincidence ~ it's a virus and it just decided then was the time to leave ~ who knows, they are gone so I am happy.

Fast forward to my late 30's when I joined a Tae Kwon Do school. I got a wart, had it removed, got two more, had them removed, got three or four had them removed.... finally wised up and asked permission of the "master" to wear the "special" shoes that only the black belts could wear... and guess what NO MORE WARTS. <b>I am now very careful wherever I go to NEVER let my bare feet touch a surface </b>except for here at home and even that is mainly my own shower. I almost always have socks on. Now that they make you remove your shoes at the airport... I wear socks and sandals so I can just slip off the sandals but still be walking in my socks ~ there is no way I am letting my feet touch the same surface that thousands of others have walked on barefoot. The virus can live on a surface for something like 48 hours. So after I go through security and have my sandals back I hold up my foot and remove that disgustingly filthy sock and slip my foot back into my sandal ~ my podiatrists recommended I spray the shower floor with 50/50 bleach/water so I didn't pick up the virus again (possibly from my husband) I did it for a while but have now stopped, it's been several years (like 3-4) since my last wart issue.

With all my removal surgeries I never once had my foot wrapped up big as an eggplant like Haley mentioned -- just some gaze and tape, and a Velcro top "walker" slipper kind of thing and off I went. One of the surgeries was some sort of chemical that is illegal in the US, but my doctor got it from Canada ~ it caused a big blister to form and when it healed the wart was gone. The other surgeries she actually went in and cut out the warts ~ fun fun fun

 

[ej0820]

I don't really have overly dry hands, but my upper arms are super dry and rough. I've found that using the skin firming lotion EVERY DAY after a shower clears it up. As far as the warts go, when I was in junior high I had two very painful plantars warts on my heels that had to be surgically removed...since then though, I've had no problems.