horrible, horrible hand eczema

[blackmonday]

I had always been proud of my good skin up to around 2 years ago. I started to get itchy palms and over the last couple of years have been plagued by hand eczema. I have been to docs numerous times and tried various creams and steroid creams but nothing seems to help. They itch constantly and even though I try really hard not to i end up scratching. The skin on my hands is now horrible. I also have psoriasis that has developed on my knees and elbows about the same time as the eczema. Does anyone have any idea what i could do to get rid of this or even a reason as to why I am suffering with these problems having never had any skin disorder before? It is really getting me down and even dds don't like to hold my hand anymore cos they don't feel very nice!

I would agree with everyone who urges referral to a specialist. Something hormonal may be in play here because I had very bad eczema on the bak of my hands from age 11 or so through to being 34 when I had my DS1. After the birth it completely cleared up and apart from a tiny bit on one finger has never returned. If It does come back on my finger I find that wrapping it in a fabric type plaster and keeping it damp helps it clear up faster than anything else.

jamaisjedors and blackmonday The Eat Right For Yr. Type diet is by Dr. Peter D'Adamo you can google it or buy the books it explains why we all react differently to varying foods and works for everyone i know who tries it.

Thank you for asking and having open minds, it has saved me so much time and money and Iam very fit now!!

sensitive skin , once triggered can take 6 months to calm down.

i have had years of nasty hand ezcema, and had to seriously change /limit the contact my skin had with iritants.

so, no touching raw meat with bear hands, no peeling potatos,unless under a running tap.

tomatos, and fruit, can irritate, so , use a plastic bag to pick them up.

i used to use a fork if i was cutting up fruit and veg.

keep hands warm , and dont expose to wind, as that dries skin further.

get cotton lined rubber gloves for hand washing.

avoid detergents touching as well.

use the night time slick of steriod hydrocortisone, with a thick layers of moisteriser.

moisterise as much as possible.

all sounds extreme but my hands recovered, and its never been as bad since.
have got visable skin damage on hands....after years of steriods, infected skin and non stop cuts...

poor you, I feel for you.
I have eczema and it flares up about once a year now. I really need to make sure that my skin is kept moisturised, I use weleda skin food mornings and evenings and inbetween if I feel I need it.
when I get a flareup and the skin is of risk of beeing inflamed I use HC45 (steroid cream) for up to a week and go to the gp if it doesn't get better by then.
I find that using a bar of soap instead of liquid soap really helps.
hope for you that it gets better really soon.

blackmonday and jamaisjedors (I hope you sleep sometimes!!) The Eat Right for yr Blood Type Diet is by DR. Peter D'Adamo you can get the books etc. I have no health probs. and my mum is skipping about at 82 on it

OP - I had horrendously bad hand eczema on and off for the past few years. Don't know what yours is like, but in my case my skin started to feel very hot and itchy under my palms. I would have horrible urge to rub them together. This would then traumatise the skin, and in time in became really thick and leathery, and would crack open all the time. I was really worried what it could be, and was worried it was the pets or something. Allergy test came up with something totally useless. Worked out in the end (sorry AliceWorld) that it was my Lush shampoo (Rehab) that had caused the flare up, after I used it once while hands were clear and experiences a mini resurgence.

I went back to using cheap shampoos etc, and that helped me - I think it must be an essential oil or something that gets me.

Haelan tape is amazing stuff - literally tape you can use to seal the cracks in your hands. It contains steroids so helps to heal you up while it's on.

Totally agree re cheap shampoos. I use Boots Essentials 2 in 1 - it is 58p a bottle and has nothing in it - but it cleans my hair and is fab.

and i can use it on the kids too.

What do you use on your hands everyday? Handwash, shampoo, bodywash, lotion, washing up liquid, laundry detergent?

I have this & could have written your post so I share your pain .

In my case, I realised that it was some (but not all) cleaning products and was diagnosed as contact dermatitis. I now wear gloves even to put washing tablets in the dishwasher, ie, no contact at all with my hands and detergents. I wear gloves when using furniture polish. Even toothpaste running down my hand sets it off, but I now have an electric toothbrush and less foaming to deal with

Diprobase did nothing for me. In terms of potions and lotions, the only ointment that works to stop the itching is a steroid cream called Dermovate (Clobetasol). It's pretty strong apparently but I've only used it following attacks of itching and scratching, have never used it daily or anything.

Sometimes my hands have itched so much, and I've scratched them so much, my fingers swell up and then my rings are uncomfortably tight for hours after. It's miserable. Handling foods in particular tomatoes, lemons, potatoes and butter. Butter is the worst, meaning that if I bake I use disposable gloves (I would anyway for hygiene though because obviously, having hand dermatitis and baking don't go together!)

The last and most important thing I want to say to you is PLEASE wear handcream at ALL times, day and night. It helps your hand protect themselves against whatever it is that's setting it off. I have tried pretty much ALL the handcreams on the market and found most made my hands itch; the only one that doesn't and is the best, is Aveeno hand cream, it's around £5 & comes in a beige and green tube. My hands get worse in winter so I keep pairs of gloves all around - in the car, my handbag, by the door. I don't go out without gloves on past a certain temperature.

I personally think I brought this on myself through exposure to cleaning products, my mum made me clean the bathroom and kitchen from around age 11 or 12 and throughout my teens, I never used gloves (there weren't any to use) and merrily used neat bleach for years to scrub the bath. Same for washing up, never a glove in sight for years. This problem has only started in my late 20's but it's been coming on very gradually before that. I also have patches of excema on my knees and the tops of my arms are always rough and bobbly, they used to be beautiful (honestly) smooth as a baby's. I heard blackcurrant oil capsules can help so I took those for a while too but didn't keep them up.

Good luck, hope you can glean something useful out of this mound of type

Ah I see a few others have recommended Aveeno - that's good! I'm not just imagining it works!

I have never heard of Haelan tape and have just looked it up. I'm definitely going to get some. At the moment my hands aren't flared up but I do have a crack in the skin on one of my finger joints, so I can't bend my fingers as it'll crack it open further Haelan tape sounds just what I need! I have picked up a top tip, thanks

Apologies for repeating myself!

Bearsinnight

Sounds very similar to mine - I get Aveeno on prescription which is cheaper - the one I get is £12 normally I think.

Glad to help bears - you never realise quite how much wear your hands take until your skin stops doing its job properly. If I was doing manual work of any kind without the tape on I would look down and find my hands covered in blood :(

I'm not sure whether this is a good idea for everyone but I always use those kind of "magic gloves" in winter - really soft and very stretchy and usually in all kinds of weird colours. Woolly gloves irritate me like nothing else, when the wisps get caught on your skin

OP, my lovely DP suffers with eczema and it's worst on his hands, he offers you the following advice!

I find that the Body Shop hemp cream is excellent for keeping the hands well moisturised, but only if the skin isn't already broken - if it has become broken it can be more of an irritant than a help tbh. Unfortunately eczema on the hands is one of the easiest places to pick up an infection - so if this is a recurrent problem, please go and see your doctor to see if it is normal eczema or if you have picked up an infection on top of it. If it is infected it's really only going to get better with a course of antibiotics ... not a treatment you want to do regularly but at least you see improvements almost immediately.

I've got awful eczema on my hands. I've constantly got painful fissures and itchy patches of flaky, suppurating, raw, painful skin. I've been prescribed steroids, antibiotic cream, antifungal cream, doublebase. Nothing works. I've asked for a referral to a dermatologist and my GP said that they wouldn't be able to do anything he couldn't . Whatever's causing it, it was at its worst just after having each of my dc. With DS, it cleared up when I stopped breastfeeding. However, I stopped breastfeeding DD a year ago, and it's still not gone this time.
The worst thing is that every time I find something that works, it stops bloody working after a couple of weeks. Argh.
OP, I feel your pain.

Proles- a friend ofmine had a smilar experience too. There must be something in it!

Yes get a referral if you can. I use Epaderm as much as possible which is great on the hands but thick and sticky. Sometimes I wet wrap my hands and that does wonders but it sounds like you have lots of different skin problems and it's worth getting someone to see if they are related!

Just returned to this thread and there is a lot of great advice and things to try! The betnovate i'm currently on is doing nothing to help and i'm worried i am using too much out of desperation. The skin on my hands now has very deep lines, is thick and cracked in many places. My palms start by getting hot and then itching so much i could seriously scractch the skin off. Really sad I have scarred them for life and would love to resolve this once and for all. I have started taking the Q10 capsules as someone advised and am wearing gloves at all times. The moisturisers work for an hour or so then the dryness returns. I have tried Aveeno but that didn't seem to work for me. I am looking forward to going back to the docs and hope he refers me as i would love to get this sorted once and for all!

bm you must layer your moisturisers (see my earlier post), ending with a thick ointment. This is in order to retain as much moisture as possible. Then gloves.

You poor thing. I have a finger that looks exactly as you've described. Poor, poor you.

Also take a look at the nat ecz society website (think that's their name) as I think they have tips on there.

Finally, steer well clear of anything perfumed, as perfumes can aggravate an existing condition. Do you see any eczema flaring around your rings? If so the rings may be causing an allergic reaction (not necessarily a permanent one), so you'll need to use ointment, soap, whatever you can to help you remove them.

Good luck!

is it possibly pompholyx eczema. My son has that and his hands itch like mad and then the skin all breaks down.

Doc prescribed mometasone cream for short term use and it has sorted it out. It was a real mess and was almost at the weeping stage because the skin was so cracked and sore.

Hi BlackMonday.

I had this a few years ago and it was horrific. My GP eventually referred me to a dermatologist as nothing was working.

I had an allergy test and it turned out I was allergic to a particular preservative found in cleaning and comsmetic products. It was also in Huggies baby wipes which I used constantly, hence the problem.

I was prescribed Dermovate and wore cotton gloves all day and night until it cleared up and obviously avoid products with that particular chemical in.

It's totally under control now, hardly any flare ups.

Will your GP not refer you for allergy tests? I think when it's on your hands they are more likely to agree to a referral.

I put anthisan on mine when it's itching. It's the only thing that helps. I told my doctor that unless he could come up with a very good reason why I shouldn't, I was going to continue to do it (it says on the box that it shouldn't be used for eczema). He told me that the only reason it was contraindicated was that it addressed the symptoms, not the cause.

Aveeno's is very good - can also recommend La Roche Posay, which I think you can get in UK now.

our gp suffers from pomholyx and recognised it as soon as she saw it. We saw one of the other gp's in the pratice first and she thought it was fungal. It just shows how much skin problems and their treatment is down to luck.

My son ended up with it in odd patches on his feet too.

Pompholyx excema - I have just looked at some pictures and am amazed to see this is what I have! When I first got the blisters I panicked and thought the blisters were scabies as I didn't know any better about either excema or scabies!!

Well I never. There's a name for it. I always thought it was funny looking excema but that's because it's a specific type.