hi
i realise that alot of people on here will have been dealing with a lot worse than me, but i was hoping SOMEONE might be able to shed some light on a problem i have been dealing with for about
12 years now, which has stumped doctors, and as its only my nails, they aren't that concerned!years ago, one doctor shoved a prescript
ion for a steroid cream at me and announced it was psoriasis..i thought that was ridiculous, as my skin is fine, so put that idea out of my head.
i was hoping that maybe someone has had something similar, that doesn't necessarily match all the "pics" you see on google!
i have NO skin lesions of any kind-skins fine...
but what has occurred with my nails is really odd...
i had nice long natural nails, no injury occured to them, and out of the blue, the area at the top,under the free edge of my nails, suddenly went red and sore,in a kind of moth eaten pattern...i could feel it throb, even when my fingers weren't touching anything...
a few days later the soreness would subside, and the reddened area would start to go a hazy white colour and then all the nails would suddenly separate from the skin down the where the red pattern ended...
at this point, i would usually give in and cut my nails short so i didn't hurt them, being somewhat unattached...
the doctor did two cultures for fungus, both negative, then i became convinced maybe it was some kind of yeast infection, as my nails would be fine for some time, then this would suddenly occur, then the nails would separate to the lowest point of the red, then it would arrest, and grow out...the nail would look fine again, until at some stage the cycle would start again...
this doesn't happen with fungus, so maybe is was some sort of yeast infection???
so i took courses of fluonazole to no avail either...
then i realised that when i took the fluconazole, i had also started on heavy iron supplements as my stored iron, ferrit was very low, down to 3 and almost exhausted....when i started taking the iron, the problem arrested and grew out again, and they were fine for a while.
most of the years, now, unfortunately ,ihave just kept my nails very short, as it seems to happen when ever they start to grow out at all, and i could avoid it if they were very short.
one of my doctors thought it may be the iron too, as onycholysis can happen with low iron....but unfortunately, i have had my stores tested and they are good now 54 umol , yet it has happened again! :(
i have been in bed for the last 7 weeks with bad morning sickness and vomiting, so have done nothing with my hands, have hardly had them in water or anything, and over the two months they have grown quite long...for an experiement, i though maybe i'll just see what happens, and sure enough, once i got a few mm growth, the soreness and redness statred and the process has begun again!
now it has started in my toes nails about
6 months ago too!
the left big toe had a funny swirly marking in the pink bed for a few years, and i kept an eye on that, but nothing happened til we went on a little walk up a mountain 6 mths ago..during the walk, i felt this pin prick kind of pressure pain in my nail and when i got home and removed my nail polish ,there was an oval white air bubble under the nail to the top right side!
i knew this wasn't good...then i got a smaller patch to the left of it and they both joined up till the top right half of the nail bed had detached from the nail...the other big to isnt like that, but has a yellow orange band across the top half of the nail..some of the smaller toes have little areas of motheaten detachment now too...the detatched bit on the bog toe has almost grown out now, so you can just see a little area to the right that is lower than the other, bout is has funny bands and colourations through the nail that doesn't go away and funny pale patches towards the bottom..
the doctor said it definately isn't fungus, and its not psoriais, as nail only is rare and i don;t have pitting!
the actual nail plate is fine - no crumbling or damage...it is the skin UNDER the nail that causes the problems so far..
in point form below i will list what symptoms i DO get though :
- onycholysis
-splinter hemmorages
-airbubbles under nail (big toe only so far)
-pain in fingernail bed
-yellow ink discolouration when it is active in toenails..
-recurring cycle, or coming and going
is it possible that it could be a mild form of nail psoriasis?
the doctor seems to think you should have pitting and nail plate deformity, but from what i have read, that is not always true! it depends on the part of the nail structure affected!
as far as i know, no one in my family has psoriasis..mum did have some funny scaly itchy rash on her arms for ages that she had to have some kind of therapy for, but she never said it was psoriasis..she always has some sort of ailment or another!
I KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT DOCTORS AND CANT DIAGnOSE me,but i want some opinions from people that have psoriasis and know what it can be like, so at least i can go back to my doctor and say, hey, can you at least consider this possibility?
can they do a biopsy to confirm it?
i know if it is nail psoriasis, theres not really anything i can do, but while i think there may be a chance to work it out and stop the cycle i want to at least exhaust every avenue and finally, if it is, accept thats just the way it is, and stop thinking about
it!
here is some pics which might hopefully be helpful to show you what they look like...a few weeks ago, there were some splinter hemmorages in 4 of the fingernails towards the top but they have almost grown out now, so wont show up in the pics..its only visible in the ugly pic of my left toenail! (they were beautiful and long and polished till the nail separated..now they look awful and discoloured !
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