RE: Blackening Fingernails--HELP!

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

That happened to me with my big toe. It looked like it was black and blue

starting from the inside corner and continuing to spread across the nail

until it was about covering half of it then the nail turned kind of yellow

and thickened and then pealed off. It has stayed that way for a number of

years and my Rheumy says it is Psoriasis. The toe nail now grows out some,

the yellow thickness gets worse and it peals off (with a little help). I

just started on Humira and I hope this will make things better. This

started when I was on Enbrel and Methotrexate. Anne

Two of my fingernails are gradually blackening(right pinkie and left

middle). My pinkie is almost 50% black and the other finger is about

10%.They have both been steadily becoming more black over the last 3 weeks.

It is scary-I don't know what to do about it. Has anybody experienced this?

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Guest guest]

The first sign of a major flare for me is my finger

nails start to receed and darken up. This is usually

in the fingers that I have or am starting to have

active joint disease. I just started Enbrel again

because of this and the condition seems to be slowly

clearing up.

[Guest guest]

I was told by my dermatologist that this was a very unfortunate

combination of Psoriasis with Onychomycosis (Tinea Unguinium

infection). This nail fungus is common enough, apparently, but with

Psoriasis under the nail already, it's particularly easy to catch and

difficult to treat because there are so many inroads to the nail bed.

I was also told that it is virtually impossible to get rid of with

topical medications without removing the nail, so I've kept mine,

ugly as they are. Apparently, topical medications really don't work

(the dermy claims) when applied to the nail itself, but there is a

systemic medication (a pill, I think) that does - since I already

take 3 meds for hypertension and 3 for PA, I gave it a bye, but then

I'm a retired old married man.

I haven't noticed either that MTX has affected it at all (or my PA

much for that matter).

See:

http://www.coolnurse.com/nail_fungus.htm

http://www.drugstore.com/qxa1149_333181_sespider-what_is_nail_fungus.htm

You can Google lots of others, as well.

Adam

At 4:51 PM -0700 4/11/04, Anne Mills wrote:

>Dear ,

>That happened to me with my big toe. It looked like it was black and blue

>starting from the inside corner and continuing to spread across the nail

>until it was about covering half of it then the nail turned kind of yellow

>and thickened and then pealed off. It has stayed that way for a number of

>years and my Rheumy says it is Psoriasis. The toe nail now grows out some,

>the yellow thickness gets worse and it peals off (with a little help). I

>just started on Humira and I hope this will make things better. This

>started when I was on Enbrel and Methotrexate. Anne

>

>Two of my fingernails are gradually blackening(right pinkie and left

>middle). My pinkie is almost 50% black and the other finger is about

>10%.They have both been steadily becoming more black over the last 3 weeks.

>It is scary-I don't know what to do about it. Has anybody experienced this?

>Any suggestions?

>

> Thanks!

>

>

>