Feeling a bit sorry for myself today. We’ve been having the usual pre-Christmas changes to schedule – Christmas concerts, husband away with work, sick children – you probably know the score. These I’m coping with (sort of), but the thing that is getting me down today, is my sore hands.
I’ve had eczema since forever, and I think on the whole I’ve learned to live with it or at least manage it pretty well. But just occasionally, it gets out of control. it’s as if a balance tips and instead of being able to ‘get on with it’, it becomes too uncomfortable to manage.
These days, it’s really only my hands with which I have a problem. Years back, it was all over – including my face, which I can tell you, is incredibly hard to handle – but sometime in my mid-forties, the eczema on the face and body cleared away.
But hands are tricky things, especially when you have to wash them frequently – and for the last three weeks, the skin on my hands has been suffering. I do my best to keep them moisturised, but have you ever noticed how often you wash your hands during a day? I now have seven out of ten fingers/thumbs which hurt like hell and are in a bad way.
It will clear up eventually, I’ve been in this situation lots of times before, but right now, it’s a giant pain in the proverbial. There’s a lot I want to get done, but you’d be amazed how restricting it is when your hands are covered in greasy stuff so they don’t crack. I’ve even had to wipe a bit of the stuff off so I can type without transferring goo to the keyboard. The poor mouse is already slimy.
I can’t write the Christmas cards because I’ll get greasy marks on everything. I can’t make sausage rolls because the extra hand washing is devastating, but worst of all – I can’t sew – it just hurts and little wounds keep opening up and then bleeding – definitely not what you want on your wools and silks. I bled on one of the bell ropes at the weekend – very unsavoury indeed.
So, for the moment, I’m stuck here, feeling miserable. Yuck.
Dreaming In Stitches 
Likewise – I have the same problem and know how miserable and downright painful it can be. Have you tried eliminating various foods to see if it makes any difference…? I notice my eczema is much improved when I don’t eat nightshade-related vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, potatoes) – these can cause skin flare-ups in sensitive people. I’m sure you’ll have already tried all this stuff. Hoping you feel better very soon.
Thank you – that’s interesting information about the nightshade family. Tomatoes are my thing, but probably not the others. I eat very little dairy product these days and I’m pretty sure that’s been beneficial – cheese in particular was quite bad, but perhaps I’ll ease off the tomatoes and see how that goes.
I’ve always been allergic to tomatoes so never eat them, but I figure that if that’s the case then I might also be allergic to/intolerant of their relatives – so this might not work for you, given that you already like tomatoes. Good luck, anyway…
oh hon this is terrible.
big hugs and lots of love.
Thank you for your hugs – much appreciated! Hope things are well with you.
I sympathise. I too have a tricky skin condition which nobody seems to be able to properly diagnose. I often have sore hacks in my fingers which is not good if like me you do a lot of felting. I find Neutogena helps. I expect you have tried that.Could you do your writing etc with those thin cotton gloves on from Boots etc?
I really feel for you. Hope it is better soon.
Penny
Hello, sorry to be so long replying, thanks for your comments. I have resorted to gloves quite a lot over Christmas – it’s definitely not the best time of year to have your fingers out of action. Things are getting better, but they’re still delicate, so I’m trying to limit what I do until the skin is toughened up a bit more. Happy New Year to you.