Hello all:

I wonder if someone can point me in the right direction? I get small swellings at the epony****m of my fingernails which can ultimately express clear slighly yellow fluid which has the weirdest consistency you've ever seen. You can pull a string of this stuff for 3 feet! The other odd thing is that only my middle fingers are involved. The nails have vertical grooves running the length of the nail from "stem-to-stern" (again, only on the middle fingers).

I'll get a flare of one or the other nail every couple of weeks, it gets a little sore, a little reddened then I'll pop it with sterilized pin and express a small amount of the alien fluid described above.

I'm thinking possibly some type of atypical fungal infection (due to light yellow tinge of the fluid) but this doesn't look or seem like the usual nail infection. Has anyone heard of such a thing?

Thanks for any comments ....

Larry

It sounds to me like you may have a Paronychia infection of the proximal nail fold. This type of infection will result in eponychial swelling, redness adn may also make ridges appear in the nail plate. Since paronychia is usually a 'yeast' type of infection, I would advise that you see your dermatologist immediately as it can spread to all of your fingers - especially if you continue to 'pick' at it. The dermatologist will prescribe the correct medication so it does not continue to flare up.