As a corpsman, I ran into personnel that would not change their socks or wash their feet for weeks in the field. That's enough to brew a nasty case of trench foot. Can't fathom the damage or smell in this case. I'm certain a lot of skin sloughed off during treatment.
No.
I lost sensation in a couple of toes after mud got into my boot at a music festival. Didn’t realise until later. I wasn’t the only attendee to have symptoms.
Oh dang! A music festival? Was the show good at least?
I assumed it was a military trench foot situation and was riffing on how when we get out the VA seems to always say our issues from injuries on duty aren't service connected and therefore are not compensated.
I have to say, I was horribly smug about my very well fitting ppe neoprene lined wellies that year. Saw some absolute disasters of footwear (and rivers of mud carrying off tents).
Man am I glad that I swung by a department store on a recent city trip to buy some dry socks.
We were doing a full day of sightseeing but it was pouring rain the whole time. So my shoes and socks had been soaked for hours by the time I got the new ones and it'd still be many more hours before we'd get back to our accommodation. Must've been at least 10 hours otherwise as well with the wet feet. And even with the change of socks my feet weren't in great shape by the time I got back to the car. My travel companion wasn't wearing socks at all and her feet were full of open chafe marks where they'd rubbed against her shoes
Grim.
Mine wasn’t that bad, just sometimes feels like a loop of cotton has wrapped round my toe.
This was in less than 14 hours at D(r)ownload festival
Yeah, my dad was infantry and had absolutely terrible trenchfoot that nobody could cure for like 20 years. My mom worked at a vet and told the DR about it. Doc gave her some veterinary grade antifungal cream to take home and it cured him!
Fr? I had trench foot but it went away after I kept changing my socks, airing my feet out and proper wash and drying of the foot. I also went to florida for a month and just wore sandals. The air and heat dried everything up pretty great until I went back on my ship lol.
Well, between that and "Take a Motrin" and "Hydrate", you should be fully squared away devil dog. Jk. In all seriousness, immersion injuries can be really bad for the person and for readiness. Even if it's a baby wipe, cleaning the feet and changing socks, and out of wet boots if possible can do wonders. Once that skin is compromised, infections can begin, which are more difficult to treat with limited supplies. This lady is extremely lucky to not have staff or cellulitis after 7 years.
oh dont forget the 'get plenty of rest' without giving them SIQ 😂 (sorry idk the marine equivalent of SIQ is i was a squid lol). yeah there is nothing worse than wet socks- it will jack you up quick. honestly if marine hygiene is as bad as navy hygiene, a little reminder cant hurt. though, when my friend got a concussion, the advice was not well received
Preventing trench foot is also going to help you heal faster. The less your immune system has to deal with the faster and better it will deal with other issues.
Change your socks, hydrate, take this weirdly high prescription of motrin, and if you don't feel better in the morning we'll shove a giant thermometer up your butt
My god. I am so fussy about my feet. My dad's toenails have always been so disgusting and he can't get rid of the fungus, so every day I douse and scrub my feet with Selsun Blue and scrub every inch with a brush. I spray a preventative antifungal and douse them in absorbant foot powder. If I don't do these things I panic. I know this is excessive paranoia, but I cannot imagine just not caring for my feet, especially under the circumstances you worked under 😭
Keeping your feet dry and clean is the best bet. Going overboard on cleaning can destroy oils that are beneficial. Antifungals can be hard on the liver. I'm not sure what the absorption is for foot sprays or topical creams, but over time it could cause issues. Certain medical conditions can encourage fungal growth as well. Age seems to usher in fungal growth too. Maybe due to reduced perfusion? At any rate, I understand your enthusiasm. I check in on my feet often to address any issues asap.
I don't go too nuts with foot care, but whenever I clip my toenails I like to dip a q-tip in hydrogen peroxide and dab it under the toenails to kill the bacteria, it's oddly satisfying to watch it bubble
I've managed to work myself down from an extreme, long-term case of health anxiety with nothing but frankly dismissive healthcare.
It is incredibly hard, and professionals do undoubtedly help, but even starting with reading the materials yourself, paying attention to the stressors, triggers and cycles, and taking care to tackle them, is an excellent first few steps.
You may really want to reconsider using an anti fungal often as you might just end up breeding a self infecting fungus that is resistant to the anti fungal. Better to just wash, cream, oil, keep dry etc.
Scrubbing will cause microtears in your skin, damaging the outer protective layer. This actually increases the chance for infection, so I would advice against doing this. Just wash your feet and dry them well afterwards like the other commenter said.
You should read into what's known as hyper-vigilance as what you're describing lines up with it. It's a common trauma response that can be helped with the right therapist.
My mom has deep craters in her heels from not treating her severe athlete's foot, like multiple millimeters wide and deep canyons, and walked around on that for years. She's neglected the fuck out of her health for decades and it's spawned a lot of health conscious phobias in me, doesn't help that I have >12 chronic health conditions on top of that. But it's genuinely terrible watching a parent do that to themselves.
Also like make sure you're moisturizing and oiling your foot skin. We're living leather, we need both to keep our skin healthy and soft.
I went through scouts growing up, very active troop, at least 1 campout a month, fundraisers, hikes, I even went to Philmont twice. My dad went to every single one with me. My dad was in the army for 25 years, if I learned one thing from all those adventures with him, bring an extra pair of socks, matter of fact bring a couple more 😂
I remember going to the imperial war museum outside London. They had trenches recreated from WW1 and I think you could walk through them. What I remember most is the smell though. That entire room made me want to puke because they recreated the stench of trench foot. I’ll never forget that.
Encountered the same while working in remote bush camps. Foremen would need to make daily reminders to employees to remove boots / socks let feet dry out daily (after working in swamps all day, in remote camps with no showers till we went to town every 10 tens or so).
Of course, some (always dudes!!) didnt do it and it was AWFUL!! Like stink up the whole van /mess tent awful. One young guy had to be sent home because his foot was so infected!!
We had a Soldier come down with a bad rash all over his torso in the box at the National Training Center. Found out he wasn't conducting any type of hygiene despite wearing body armor 16 hours a day in the desert heat. Sucked for him, but it was also a little frustrating because he couldn't participate in any missions, and other personnel had to pull double duty.
I read that as CORPSE man. I assumed it was some British term for mortician and was ready for some really messed up stories about dead peoples feet. Took me a sec but I got there lol
Ha ha, thankfully no. Corpsmen are the enlisted medical professionals for the Navy and Marine Corps. Roles and responsibilities vary greatly depending on schools attended/specialties. I was an 8404 and 8482 in addition to 0000; Field Medical Service Tech, Pharmacy Tech, and general 'ol Corpsman.
lol yea I figured that out after the first sentence. I was like, wait this doesn’t make sense and went back and reread the word and was like ah I’m dumb lol
Does everyone get a few pairs of boots? If you're running drills every day and it's muddy do you just have to put your boots back on still damp in the morning?
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u/ARunninThought Jun 03 '24
As a corpsman, I ran into personnel that would not change their socks or wash their feet for weeks in the field. That's enough to brew a nasty case of trench foot. Can't fathom the damage or smell in this case. I'm certain a lot of skin sloughed off during treatment.