The pinky on my left hand has had troubles for over 3 years now. It began as a cloudy, yellow nail that began thickening and separating. I've seen 5 different doctors, spent a couple thousand dollars on almost every medication on the market (Lamasil, Sporanox, Loprox, Penlac, Oxistat Cream...) and now have a half grown in, normal looking nail. I'm looking for advice on how to prompt it's continued healthy growth.

A little more background: The nail was removed to perform a nail bed biopsy to rule out any abnormal nail bed cells. They initially discovered a Fusarium infection then later on another type of infection. What I realized was that between the biopsy, all the infections and all the medications, the nail was simply exhausted. Luckily it continued to grow through all of this. As the infections cleared up, so did the nail. Apparently a half attached nail is the ideal place for infections to move in, so the initial separation seems to have prompted infection after infection.

I now have a normal, but half grown nail after stopping all medications and simply squeezing the nail as often as I think about it. I also coat it in vitamin E and bandage it as tightly as I can stand every night.

I'm hoping you can offer more ideas toward continuing to prompt attachment to regain my once long, healthy nail. A European doctor mentioned that they can place a 'clamp' or 'brace' type contraption on the nail to apply constant pressure to coax reattachment. Does anyone know anything about this?

It's been an enormously painful, stressful and costly battle that still continues to this day. Thanks for any and all input.

Quote from hbvl:

The pinky on my left hand has had troubles for over 3 years now. It began as a cloudy, yellow nail that began thickening and separating. I've seen 5 different doctors, spent a couple thousand dollars on almost every medication on the market (Lamasil, Sporanox, Loprox, Penlac, Oxistat Cream...) and now have a half grown in, normal looking nail. I'm looking for advice on how to prompt it's continued healthy growth.

A little more background: The nail was removed to perform a nail bed biopsy to rule out any abnormal nail bed cells. They initially discovered a Fusarium infection then later on another type of infection. What I realized was that between the biopsy, all the infections and all the medications, the nail was simply exhausted. Luckily it continued to grow through all of this. As the infections cleared up, so did the nail. Apparently a half attached nail is the ideal place for infections to move in, so the initial separation seems to have prompted infection after infection.

I now have a normal, but half grown nail after stopping all medications and simply squeezing the nail as often as I think about it. I also coat it in vitamin E and bandage it as tightly as I can stand every night.

I'm hoping you can offer more ideas toward continuing to prompt attachment to regain my once long, healthy nail. A European doctor mentioned that they can place a 'clamp' or 'brace' type contraption on the nail to apply constant pressure to coax reattachment. Does anyone know anything about this?

It's been an enormously painful, stressful and costly battle that still continues to this day. Thanks for any and all input.

Once the nail has separated from the nail bed, it will NOT reattach no matter how much pressure is applied. As the new nail grows forward, it iwll naturally be attached and will push the detached portion toward the free edge. Applying excess pressure can actually cause more separtion.

If you are afraid of fungus, yeast or bacterial infections, simply keep the area clean and dry at all times. Wear gloves whenever digging in the dirt or using any type of household cleaning solution. To keep the nails from building up water (after handwashing) in the area of separation, simply dampen a Qtip with alcohol and squeeze a drop into the area of separation. During refinement, alcohol has had all its 'water' removed, so it will seek out and absorb any water, then simply evaporate.