odd rash on finger

A few weeks ago while we were on vacation at an amusement park, the skin on the very tip of my thumb, very close to the nail, started to look excessively dry and cracked. I don't recall it itching at that point. It just looked very dry, and had a crack in it. Within a few days, the cracked dry skin was chipping off, exposing red raw skin underneath. A slightly yellow liquid oozed out of my skin a couple of times, spreading over a larger part of my thumb. My thumb really began to itch!! I noticed a few tiny dots below the raw skin (closer to my hand), which I thought might be the beginnings of some flat worts. There was also a slightly larger bump on one side of the top of my thumb, which I thought might be the beginnings of a larger wort.

I began treating the area as if it was worts, using a banana peel on it a couple of days, garlic on it a few days, vitamin E on it another day..and when none of that seemed to make any difference at all, I even tried one of those things you buy at the drugstore to get rid of worts. (It came on a bandaid.) I tried the bandaid thing for about three days. The itch was growing more and more intense all the time, and the skin continued to flake off in large chunks, even though the entire red area was, and still is, not much bigger than a peanut. In other words, the skin on the same spot keeps chipping off, over and over again.

Next, since treating it as a wort wasn't helping, I began to wonder if the spot might be caused by the herpes virus. (I do get cold sores ever so often - although rarely - so I have the virus in my body.) I started taking a bunch of lysine, as that's what works for cold sores. No effect. The itching and red, raw skin continued. The tiny dots below the affected area, which look like they are under the top layer of skin, also stayed.

Next I decided maybe it might be some sort of fungus. I tried soaking my thumb in apple cider vinegar, which helped TREMENDOUSLY with the itch, but did nothing (that I can tell) to help heal the skin.

The past two days, I've put an antifungal cream on it. The itching is down some (probably just from the ingredients of the cream - and not because it's actually healing any), but the texture of my skin in the affected area is still quite odd. Not only is it redder than the rest of my skin, but it's also dryer and tougher..a bit rough..and feels odd when I touch it with another finger. I don't have as much feeling in it when I touch it with another finger, as if it's somewhat numb.

Sorry this is so long!!!!!!!

Anyone have any ideas what this might be, and what I might can do to get it better? I've had this problem for about three weeks now, and am running out of ideas!