I wish to continue this thread. I don't understand why it was closed in the first place; especially since the Dr's advice seem way off.
Original Thread:
Peeling skin in finger and toes, water exposure makes it worse
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Dermatology/Peeling-skin-in-finger-and-toes--water-exposure-makes-it-worse/show/244485
I have the *EXACT* condition as the first guy described it in his thread:
1) Had a significant throat infection that lasted for 8-10 days about 2 months ago. I was tested, and the results did NOT confirm strep throat, but they also did not know what it was. It hurt to swallow and got bad enough that it would wake me up at night.
2) That went away on its own, but around the same time or shortly after, I started getting tiny white bubbles on the under side of my finger tips (opposite side of nail). It started on 1 or 2 fingers, and after 2 weeks, I had it on all my finger tips.
3) The white air bubbles "rise" to the top and are very small and usually not filled with fluid
4) The first week they were not itchy but now they are quite itchy, and i do get a slight ache if too much skin peels off (i.e. too many bubbles in a row popping on finger tips).
5) The key factor that differenciates this from other finger bubble/skin peelings I've seen is that any exposure to water of any kind makes it MUCH MUCH worse. So the Dr. in the thread above saying that swimming is ok, completely and utterly misdiagnosed this. There is NO way that exposure to water is ok. Even 30 seconds to 1 minute of exposure to water can tripple the skin peeling, the number of bubbles that surface and also the itching gets much worse.
I've gone to a walk in clinic a few weeks ago and was prescribed with 2.5% cortozone cream mixed with 1/3 moisturizing cream and 1/3 glycerine. Since then my condition has gotten about 3 times worse, and all the cream does is remove the itchiness.
Unfortunately I've been too busy to go to my personal doctor, but will try to do so this week, as this is starting to get out of control. It's to the point where I take one shower per day with gloves on (so as to not get my finger tips wet), but even so, just the sweating from a 10 minute hot shower is enough to double the problem instantly. I also have been restricting washing my hands no more than once per day which is not very sanitary, but it's the only way I can keep this from getting worse even faster.
I should also note that I have been prone to skin problems in the past few years. I have very mild psoriasis on the top of 2 of my fingers, but this is not at all like psoriasis. I've also gotten a small common viral infection on my back 3 summers ago that was treated with some prescribed pills and resulted in temporary skin discoloration in circles (I forget the name now, but it is common, but again not at all like these white bubbles that get worse with water that I described above).
I don't know what they are teaching general western doctors about skin diseases these days, but no matter what problem I've had, they always start out by prescribing hydrocortizone... as if that's some kind of cure all - but it rarely is.
It pisses me off that most of the time not only do they not have a clue as to what the problem is (until further tests are done), but that even after tests are done and they finally identify the problems, that they don't understand what the root cause of the problems are. This is the part about Western Medicine that I strongly dislike and find that is seriously lacking in understanding.
Anyway, if I have time over the next few weeks, after I've had a chance to go to my doctor and hopefuly a specialist, if I get some proper answers, I'll try to remember to come back here and post the real problem name and hopefuly a solution.
This discussion is related to
Peeling skin in finger and toes, water exposure makes it worse.