How to Get Rid of Ringworm

I happened to have some over the counter cream in the closet from the last time I caught ringworm. I didn't remember that case being all that bad. That occurrence was several years ago and the topical cream that I had just past its expiration date. I thought to myself, this stuff should still work. They only put the expiration date on there so you'd go and buy more. So I applied it twice a day for two weeks, covering it with a bandage every single time.

These kinds of creams apparently loose some, if not all their effectiveness over long periods of time. On my small spot of ringworm (smaller than that of a dime) it helped it fade away. Here was my mistake though. The bandage I was using had some pretty strong adhesive. It was important that the bandage stay in place because of where the ring was located. Thinking it might hurt less if I ripped the bandage off quickly and easy it might not hurt as much. It didn't hurt as bad, but it did pull the top layer of skin off opening the area up to catch the ringworm.

After a few more days of the cream, the original spot had all but disappeared, but I had grown two larger spots on either side of the original area. Both were larger than the original and were starting to itch.

When the cream didn't seem to be working, I started to wipe down the area with rubbing alcohol. I read online that applying it twice a day would help to make it go away. To keep from spreading the ringworm to the bottle or anything else I was using, I soaked q-tips in the alcohol and rubbed it over the infected area.

I will tell you now. It burned. My thought pattern was I could deal with the burning if only the infection would heal and go away. Needless to say, it didn't go away. I tried if for several days. I don't know if I w as doing something wrong. If I were to do it again I might soak a piece of cotton in the alcohol and tape it down over the spot.

Another home remedy I read about was to completely cover the area with clear nail polish twice a day. The object of this remedy was to suffocate the fungus. When it died of asphyxiation, the body would clean up the mess and clear up the spot.

I tried this for over two weeks, and yes, it burned, too. The thing to remember is to use a q-tip to apply. Don't ever double dip the q-tip because you might infest the nail polish with the ringworm. Then you might spread it to other parts of your body, or to someone else if they use the nail polish.

The first week, the two spots that had each grown to a half dollar area on my thigh started to fade. The only problem was the nail polish would not stay on the spot because of my constant movement at work. Then there was the trouble of removing the old polish to apply new polish.

For a while I was just applying the new polish over the cracked and broken old polish. Now the ringworm had faded from the original spot and had settled in to the area closest to the joint. This made it difficult to treat. Then no matter how I applied the nail polish it continued to grow. I was so frustrated. I had this infection for nearly two months at this point.

At this point, I had given up. I was trying not to spend money on going to see the doctor and having a prescription filled. I went anyway. I waited for nearly an hour just to go in, tell the doc I had ringworm. She looked at it briefly and agreed and wrote a script. I was diagnosed and kicked out within fifteen minutes. We won't talk about how much I spent to have the doctor look at me for that little bit of time.

I had the prescription filled and started applying it to the spot that had grown to the size of an orange. It was way to large to cover with a bandage at this point. I was just making sure I was changing clothes regularly and washing them in hot water to kill any spores that might have found their way into the hamper.

I will say%u2026 the cream helped. It was a ten day treatment. At the end of the ten days, the ring was no longer visible. I had a large red spot that didn't itch anymore. It wasn't completely gone after the two weeks I was applying the prescription cream. That was when I finally decided to call in help from some of the matriarchs in the family.

I contacted one of older women of my family and asked them about how they dealt with ringworm. They told me of a home remedy they used often. They would smoke half a cigarette, then open it up and rub the unused tobacco onto the spot and let the chemicals absorb into the skin. From what I understand, you will have a reaction to the nicotine almost like you were smoking the cigarette. The chemicals will kill the fungus almost immediately. She said that I probably would not have to apply it more than twice before it went away.

The problem was, I am not a smoker. I thought I might bum a cigarette off a buddy from work, but before I did, she called me back and told me that one of her friends said Limes would do the same thing. I decided to try the lime first.

I bought the lime from the grocery store for fifty cents. I cut a disc of lime, like you see those women on TV in the spas do. They lay a disc some kind of fruit over their eyes. I laid the disc of lime over the worst spot on my leg. It burned as the acidic juices seeped out of the lime and into the infection. I let it sit there for nearly fifteen minutes.

I tried to do this twice a day for another week and a half. When I didn't have the time to lay the lime, I applied what I had left of the prescription cream. When I ran out of the prescription cream, I sprayed on an athlete's foot spray that was in the closet. Finally the entire thing faded away. It only took three months for me to make it go away. I think it was a combination of the disinfectant properties of the lime and the staying power of the prescription cream that finally made it disappear. I hope I never have another infection like that again.