When I was 15, I got a new pair of shoes for school. They were too tight and caused hyperkeratosis on the ridges of my big toes. This got so bad that the skin started painfully splitting.

The right one slowly resolved itself over time. The left has got worse and worse. 36 years later it has spread to three toes on that foot and despite trying to control it with debriding, salicylic acid, and steroids, it gets worse, and frequently cracks to the point it bleeds.

I have searched and searched and searched on the internet for the same presentation, but it’s always the other side of the foot. Never on the ridges of the toe joints.

Until yesterday. I saw the exact same thing in a photo on duck duck go.

I clicked through.

“Patient told to stop sitting on foot”.

I looked down. I was sitting on my left foot.

Fucksake.