Opportunistic Fungal Skin Infections as part of many cancer symptoms and how to get relief!
Read our story of dealing with a nasty fungal infection on my husband's arm and how we finally found a holistic answer!
Cancer has so many aspects that it is hard not to stress out completely, including the cost of holistic therapies, pain control, opportunistic infections, and the list seems endless. One of the problems with cancer is that the immune system is compromised. That can lead to infections, such as fungal infections. These fungal infections can be persistent, stubborn, and hard to heal.
The past two weeks were difficult with my husband. He has had his entire right arm prone to infection for the past 7 years, starting in TN. It was diagnosed in TN as a staph infection by the doctors there. It would flare up once a year from a cut while working on our property. It would be stubborn, but would respond to medicine either with Mupirocin or alternative medicine.
This year, his arm flared up again, but nothing seemed to completely wipe out the infection. Oregano and tree tea oil would knock it down, but it would just flare up again. We went to two doctors who gave out two different kinds of medicine without testing for the skin infection, as I requested. Neither of the medicines worked.
After several more weeks, we scheduled a visit with a dermatologist. I wanted a biopsy scraping to find out exactly what we were dealing with. His arm was breaking out in blisters now, which was new. She agreed with me and took a scraping of it. This time, it came back as a fungal infection. The infection did not look the same on his upper arm as on the lower arm areas. She would only scrape the upper arm area.
She gave him a prescription for Ciclopirox Olamine cream. I read the drug facts about it and did not want him to use it. He insisted on trying it, despite the serious adverse side effects listed.
The morning of the 3rd day, he woke up with his entire arm, including his hand, swollen with very intense itching and severe burning. Never in all these years did he have swelling in that arm. Never was it burning hot. It looked like it had been burned. He was completely miserable. It was nasty looking.
I stopped the medication immediately. Now we had an arm that looked and felt like it had been burned. I did not call the doctor, because we were not going to use any more commercial drug ointments again. I already knew the oregano and tea tree oil only worked partially on the symptoms.
This is my husband’s right arm swollen after the medicine from the dermatologist, which caused severe swelling, burning, pain, itching, and was bright red and very hot!
The above picture is where the blisters were emerging. That is why we originally went to the doctor, because blisters had been breaking out, and nothing seemed to stop them. The medicine made it severely worse, didn’t deter the blisters, and caused pain, inflammation, and swelling of the whole arm and hand, as in the first pictures shown. The medicine also caused the whole arm to ache severely.
What holistic treatments did not work in his case?
I tried coconut oil mixed with Andrographis, both of which are antibacterial and antifungal. That made it itch more. I think it was the coconut oil rather than the Andrographis that made his skin feel warmer. The Andrographis is drying too, and the skin needed healing moisture.
I felt that, at this point, he needed a cooling treatment on his arm, but with antifungal properties. I then tried Neem and colloidal silver gel, which helped a little, but he was still miserable.
I next tried colloidal silver gel by itself, which is good for burns. The colloidal silver gel only relieved the itch and brought down the burning a notch or two. I was disappointed in that.
I then decided to just take a step back to reconsider what had not worked and why. I think at this point, I came to the decision, it was more the burning and itching caused by the dermatology medicine, and less the fungal infection itself we were dealing with. The colloidal silver did not really do the job, so what next?
Drugs.com downplays the side effects concerning standard medicine products on it site, in my opinion.
If people knew how common these side effects were and how severe they were, the pharmaceutical companies would lose billions.
I looked up more about drugs that deal with fungal infections. Drugs.com downplays the side effects of fungal drug ointments. These fungal drug ointments can cause the skin to feel burned and inflamed…with swelling and redness. Those symptoms exactly fit his worsened symptoms. So now, along with a fungal infection, we were dealing with his arm feeling severely burned by the medicine. So, we needed to try something different to reduce the inflammation and swelling, the burn, and itching that was gentle. The skin needed a healing salve.
Below is an excerpt about the damage commercial fungal infections can cause and the problems.
“Antifungal drugs play active roles in the treatment of some fungal infections, but their misuse always makes the fungal infection worse. Superficial and subcutaneous fungal infections are very dangerous if not promptly and properly treated with appropriate drugs.
The erroneous use of antifungal drugs has contributed to frequent resistance experience over the past decades [4].
In addition, most antifungal drugs currently available to treat fungal infections have serious drawbacks, which include low concentrations of active ingredients, itching on the skin due to chemical composition, development of fungal resistance, and toxic side effects [5].
Conventional formulation of creams, powders, and gels to treat skin or deep-seated fungal infections still have various side effects like burning, redness, and swelling on the application site [6].
Besides different side effects associated to commercially available antifungal drugs, these days, multiple drug resistance is rapidly rising worldwide, and the efficacy of single antibiotics against resistant microorganisms is abating.”PUB med
Aloe Vera and Fungal Infection Relief
Then, finally, when nothing had worked well, I looked up if aloe vera is antifungal. It is anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antifungal. I had always used aloe for burns and sunburn over the past 35 years. I used it on my shingles, and when I accidentally spilled boiling water on my thigh, years ago, when bottling Essiac. I did not remember it was antifungal.
In researching it years ago, I had missed or forgotten about aloe gel’s antifungal properties. There is extensive research to confirm its value in treating fungal and bacterial infections. I then realized we should have used the aloe first. I was focusing on the fungal part of the problem, rather than the issue of the burn from the Ciclopirox Olamine cream.
Finally, he got relief with the aloe gel!
Within 30 minutes of applying a thick coating of organic aloe vera gel without alcohol to his whole arm, he felt some relief except for two areas. We applied a second coating to those areas, and he got his first relief in those two areas. We applied the aloe gel two times a day to the whole arm and three times a day to the two worst areas.
Now it is 3 days later, and the swelling is 80 percent gone, and the redness and burn are significantly decreased. He has only mild itching in the two worst spots. The heat is also 80 percent down as well.
I also gave him Vitamin C in large doses, turmeric, and fish oil caps to help decrease the inflammation. The rest of his body was not affected in any way, only his right arm.
We washed the arm gently this morning before reapplying the aloe, and his lower arm looks so much better. It may take us another week or two to get complete healing but we know now we are using something that is working. It is interesting that my sister called today and gets the same reactions to most antihistamines, including body swelling.
You have to be creative to cover a large area with gauze and aloe gel!
The hardest part was covering his whole arm with bandage material because aloe is gooey, and it is his right arm. The bandage material was either too small or too thin to do the job. I had to resort to using clean t-shirt material cut into wide two-foot strips to cover his arm completely, front and back. Then I used thin electric tape to keep it in place. His arm looked like a mummy's arm, but it worked.
I bought long-sleeved cotton t-shirts for him to wear over the bandaged arm to go places in public. Where there is a will, there is a way!
You can also use clean cotton handkerchiefs for large areas. The material should be nothing but pure breathable cotton material, and white.
Be aware that a lot of the gauze is not pure cotton. If it adheres easily as you wrap the limb, it is not pure. Pure gauze is harder to wrap but better for the wound. If you are holding a bone together, the other is easier to use.
The pictures below are after 5 days of aloe gel.
It will take more time, perhaps two more weeks, to complete the healing on his arm. It will not look like a young arm again, because my husband is 79, and the skin on this arm has had issues. You will notice the swelling is down, the blistered area looks cleaner, and the blistered skin is healing.
The picture below is this morning with no blisters on the arm area below his sleeve, no burned look, some discoloration left but greatly reduced, swelling gone, and deep aching in his arm is gone, and overall cleaner and healthier skin for the first time in months. The area above the wrist is better, but still needs work on that. We gently wash his arm every morning before applying new aloe gel.
The above picture shows that the blisters are gone and the skin is healing. I will show updated pictures in another week. I used straight organic aloe gel that I bought from Amazon, which was organic with no alcohol or chemicals. I hope this demonstrates to all of you reading this that there are solutions to skin infections other than commercial creams that often cause more problems than they cure.
I have achieved better results in one week than the years of different ointments given to us by 5 different doctors in the past years. Yes, it was messy and hard to bandage, but it is working beautifully.
Several alternative medicines did not work as well, but in the end, we did find the answer… aloe gel! When you are trying different things, test small areas first to see if it helps or hurts first. If you are working with open, bloody raw infected wounds, that would take a different treatment as well. We did know what infection we were dealing with, did go to a dermatologist first, did try 5 different prescription creams first…all that did nothing. Aloe worked when nothing else did in his case.
In the next Substack, we are going to dive into herbs that are antifungal, antibiotic, and antimicrobial.
Review and Buy The Cancer Cure Catalog (Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4)(ad)
Product information
reg $59.96 ….on SALE $47.99
Description
The Cancer Cure Catalog series is a comprehensive collection of four volumes dedicated to exploring natural, alternative, and complementary therapies in the fight against cancer. Each volume provides in-depth guidance on various healing methods, offering patients and caregivers practical tools for enhancing cancer treatment and recovery.
Volume 1: Diet and Nutritional Therapies focus on the power of nutrition and dietary interventions, emphasizing anticancer diets, fasting protocols, and supplements. It introduces renowned approaches like the Gerson and Gonzalez therapies, explaining how food, vitamins, and minerals can support the body’s healing process. This volume also highlights the use of fasting and colonic therapies, offering detoxification strategies that improve immune function and overall well-being.
Volume 2: Supplements, Herbs, & Animal Products delves into the world of natural remedies, exploring essential vitamins, minerals, and herbal treatments that have shown promise in fighting cancer. From high-dose Vitamin C to powerful herbal remedies like Ayahuasca and medical marijuana, this volume provides detailed insights into their medicinal properties, dosages, and protocols. It also discusses animal-based therapies like Shark Cartilage and Víbora de Cascabel, offering an expanded range of treatment options.
Volume 3: pH Therapies, Intravenous Therapies, and More examines advanced treatments like Cesium therapy and Sodium Bicarbonate protocols, which aim to raise the body’s alkalinity to create an environment hostile to cancer cells. This volume also covers intravenous therapies such as Vitamin C and Phosphatidylcholine, as well as emerging treatments like Hydrogen Peroxide and Ozone, providing a deep dive into each therapy’s mechanisms and benefits.
Volume 4: Heat, Energy, and Vibrational Therapies, Immunotherapy, Cancer Treatment Technologies introduces non-invasive therapies that utilize energy, light, and magnetism to target cancer cells. It also explores immune-boosting treatments that stimulate the body’s defenses, offering new hope for patients seeking alternative paths to healing.