IF your skin is sensitive to some chemicals, it can and does get tricky. The 'sensitive skin' types of things help, as does soaking in some sort of footbath--warm/tepid water w/some baby oils thrown in...
I've tried vasolene for some periods of time as well [but then? you gotta wear socks IN bed...can get messy any which way]
That said, my podiatrist is my tie for medical appointment priorities! I go regularly, HE gets the scalpel and pares those feet and I feel soo much better! He'd been doing it less frequently before I got PN? But now it's about 5-6 weeks before I start 'needing' more. Do keep in mind, that you aren't really feeling what's going on? So treat your feet as IF you had diabetic feet. Watch them, use lotions and potions, use scrubbies to get soft dead skin off asap. Then USE your feet as best you can as much as you can! Once you lose foot and toe tone muscle wise, it IS HARD to get some back and often painful.
Ultimately, slather then scrub off, then slather again ....then repeat. The more YOU do? The fewer scalpels you get to meet! 's - j
And YES the itches are beyond skin deep! Resisting the urge to scratch is hard, but? It doesn't really get to where you need it anyhow! It can get to the point of needing to see your dentist for a 'bite gard' to keep you from grinding your teeth from the ITCHES! -Havent found a tee shirt for it yet tho....