Dyshydrosis

[calzephyr]

What's not to love about the Internet, especially when oje can type in "tiny blisters on my fingers" and find out that one is having an occasional flare up of dyshydrosis.

I first noticed it happening in 2003, after applying some suntan lotion, but it cleared up within a day or two. Unfortunately there isn't an easy way to pinpoint this itchy flare up - it could have been from dusting or cleaning on Friday, feeling stressed, my bird or a hand cream I sampled at Bath and Body Works. It could have even been too much Purell drying out my fingers from a recent cold. I would say this is the worst incident of it yet, because previous times did not itch so badly. It looks mildly gross too, like something from The X-Files. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize seems to be the answer at least.

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

FYI some moisturizers have alcohol in them, I think to help carry their scent? If you react to alcohol, avoid anything with an "-ol" in their ingredient lists. I have some Burt's Bees hand creams and beeswax stuff which don't have any alcohol in them, and I also like Aveeno. I don't have your particular reaction, but I can get painful red cracked skin just from a single application of a moisturizer with alcohol in it.

When I use alcohol hand sanitizer I try to apply it only to my palms, and I've never had a problem with it there, it's only the backs of my hands that react to alcohol moisturizers.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I checked the labels of the moisturizers at work and home, and they don't have alcohol, although I don't know if cetyl alcohol is the same thing. Mom likes Aveeno, but I find it too greasy. The causes of dyshydrosis seem so varied - it was much worse on the hand that Muffin sits on, and very painful when he bit the affected areas!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's many types of alcohol (cetyl, ethyl, methanol, ethanol, and more), and for me any of them in a hand lotion is a problem.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. It turns out Mom was affected in the same way, and I broke out into bumps on my hands from being out in the sun. That's definitely a new thing :-P