On Athlete's Foot

It usually comes on so slowly I don't notice until it's too late. Maybe I wore the same pair of shoes too many times in a row. Maybe I didn't dry my feet well enough after a shower. Maybe I haven't given my feet enough time out of socks. Doesn't matter if any or all caused it, there's always that one time I take off my shoes and suddenly realize how bad they smell. My feet, the shoes, the socks, doesn't matter. It all converges.

Athlete's Foot is a terrible thing in social settings.

It's a terrible thing on one's own, too.

When I was younger, I'd have an infection every month. Dad would have me sit on the side of the bathtub after I'd showered so he could spray my feet with Tinactin antifungal powder and roll a clean sock over each foot. The bathroom would be avoided for at least a half hour after each treatment, it would be so hazy with the stuff. I'd have to wear those socks for 24 hours while the white powder did its magic.

Though one spray rarely fixed the problem, my cases were hardly what one would call extreme. I'd get the excessive dryness over the entire foot and toes. Sometimes it would peel and I'd have to use a pumice stone to scrape it off. But all that's still only the first or second level of the infection.

When the fungus really gets going, nails can turn yellow and rise from their beds. Blisters will form and pop and form again, leaving scars and pockmarks. The body can be taken over, especially the groin area. Children have lost patches of hair on their scalps from this same fungus.

A lot of people freak out over Athlete's Foot. I haven't known any personally, but I'm sure there's someone out there who refuses to exercise or refuses to wear sneakers because they're afraid of it. I do know more than a few people who can't shower in a locker room or their college dorm because they're so paranoid about contracting it.

I laugh, because this seems like such an irrational fear. Sure, those places are ideal locations for the fungus to flourish, but the amount of things we're exposed to and don't contract each day should put the probability into perspective.

All it takes to thwart the fungus is good hygiene. When my father finally got fed up with spraying my feet, he made sure I at least alternated shoes each day and made sure I changed my socks after cross country and track & field practices. When I did get reinfected, he would take my shoes in the backyard and spray them with the Tinactin, leaving me to deal with my own feet.

In the two years since coming to college, I've only had to spray my feet for two separate infections. I never wear "shower shoes" and I don't use antifungal or even antibacterial body wash. I wear a different pair of socks every day and use different ones for exercise that are hung to dry after each use. I don't alternate shoes as much as I should (which is why one pair now needs to be sprayed), but I'm sensitive to how my feet react.

Extreme cases only arise when you're uneducated. Don't run away from something because society's deemed it distinctly "unfabulous." Odds are, you'll have to deal with it eventually, be it for yourself or your kids; knowing how to deal with and treat it gives you all the defense you need.