Is It Supposed to Work This Way?

I have this fungal infection of some sort going on in my thumb. Something that's been bugging me for nearly the whole summer, which finally festered over and emerged as ugly dry, cracked, bleeding skin that hurt like h3LL whenever I had to push the carseat buttons or do anything else with my thumb.

So I finally dragged myself to our family practice doctor for the first time, and she diagnosed it as some type of fungal infection and prescribed an antifungal and steroidal cream to apply three times a day or whenever I get a second with 2 preschool children. (She's a mom to a preschooler--she knows how often handwashing is occurring around here.)

That was nearly a month ago. She casually suggested I might also soak the offending digit in a diluted vinegar solution twice a day. As can be expected, I was quite vigilant about applying the cream and skipped the vinegar for the first week, and it appeared to be clearing up. I thought, "Hooray!" and became less vigilant about applying the cream. Lo and behold, a week later, there I was with cracked and bleeding skin again, and a very sour outlook on this whole "unknown fungus" that my skin is battling against.

I mean, is it fair that I do a good thing, trying to improve our yard by gardening, and am attacked by some virulent pathogenic fungus from my soil for my efforts?? It just doesn't seem right! Now I am tossing out my gardening gloves in case they are harboring these nasty spores, and eyeing the rhododendrons and weeds with an evil eye lest they are responsible for this calamity. I was actually trying to play my harp on a semi-regular basis here! I was getting reasonably decent with some easy Christmas pieces! And now this! I'm liable to split my thumb open if I touch my harp, spewing venomous fungal spores all over its strings!

*sulk* SO, here I sit, with my thumb in vinegar. It stings like h3LL and after I can't take it any more, I will lather it with cream that will make it sting in a whole new, semi-numbing way. Is this how the cure is SUPPOSED to work? Hmmm? And at what point am I going to be sick of having a thumb smelling of vinegar? Since I'm still breastfeeding, oral antifungal medication is out. So I guess I will continue to have a stinging thumb, smelling of vinegar, and hope eventually whatever this nasty little single-celled organism is, it DIES and leaves my skin alone! Harrumph.