............. .  where I wanted to take off my shoes and socks and just scratch my feet. My husband told me that I had athletes foot. I told him that I could not have athletes foot because I had not been to a gym or in a locker room recently. He told me that he had athletes foot when he played football in college and my symptoms matched his.

I had an appointment for a physical so I mentioned the itchy feet to my doctor. He took a brief glance at my feet and muttered something about fungal cells and confirmed that I had athletes foot. He explained that athletes foot is a fungal infection of the feet and toes that lives on the surface of your skin. The fungal cells can live on wet warm surfaces for a period of time, so this is how athletes foot travels from one person to another so readily in locker rooms and pool areas. 

I repeated to my doctor what I had told my husband about not being in either of those types of locations recently. He said that the likely cause was a shared area such as a pool or shower. My doctor stated that the best thing I could do would be to use a powder or cream for athletes foot and to wear cotton socks.

He told me that if I exercised or if my feet sweat I should change my socks often. As I'm a regular road runner I found that to be good advice. I thought about  my nails and all sorts of things that I might have neglected but no, it couldn't be that. I wondered about herbal remedies or Scholl spray but decided to do what the doctor suggested.

He also suggested treating my shoes so that the athletes foot would have a chance to clear up. He suggested wearing sandals or flip flops in the shower so I would not pass my athletes foot to other family members. 

On my way home I was still trying to figure out where I would have contracted the athletes foot. When I got home I told my husband that I did have athletes foot and that I had picked up some powder and cream to help me get rid of it. He offered to cream and powder me but I recognised the glint in his eyes and said that I would do it myself.

He then told me that he'd figured out where I got it from. We had spent the weekend at a friend’s house and we had stayed in their son’s room and had used his bathroom to shower in. He has been battling athletes foot since basketball season and knowing that it is contagious we thought that the boy should have warned us, but that's kids for you.

I don't have a very bad case of the athletes foot, no complications and have found that the itching is starting to go away. I feel very fortunate after talking to several people that state that it took them several months to get rid of athletes foot. I knew that you can pick up athletes foot in public areas, but I never thought that I would get it at a friend’s home so I now advise everybody to take this as a warning.

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Healthy Living Store

Author: Peter Charalambos

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