BLISTERS ON HANDS

flaminpanda

I have severe blisters, itching and swelling located around arthritis affected joints. Has anyone else got this problem, if so, can anyone help, advise or point me in some direction? Many thanks

barbara12

Hello and welcome to the forum, sorry I cant help, but we do have a search button at the top of the forum,its is a little quiet at the min but hopefully someone will be along that can help..

flaminpanda

Many thanks Barbara

I will wait and see, I have had this problem for a long time now, so a bit more of a wait is not a problem....

dreamdaisy

I think a visit to your GP may be in order, it sounds very unusual to me (I have OA all over the shop and pustular psoriasis on my palms but no blisters) and I don't recall reading about anyone on here with a similar problem. I wish you well and I hope it can be sorted because it must be very uncomfortable. DD

flaminpanda

Um, my gp, there is the problem, I live in the Azores, don't have a gp, but go to the hospital for all treatment/problems. What happens is that the skin is so itchy, so I scratch, scratch, scratch, big blisters come up, which when popped stop the insane itching and pain. The skin then goes red raw, then no skin pain, then very hard thick skin when healing. I have arthritic hands so this doesn't help!! But am back off to the hospital in a day or so, great service, no waiting times, but no specialists!! Oh well can't have it all! :?

stickywicket

No specialists :shock: I know you said in your first post that you have RA. Who prescribes the medication, then? Indeed, which medication? That could be the culprit.

flaminpanda

My hospital doc prescribes my meds (basically I say what I want and they write the prescription!) , I suppose you could say it's like seeing a gp, just luck of the draw who I get. We do get visiting specialists, once every two months or so for all the different branches of medicine... if it looks like you might just fall off your perch you get sent to another island or to the mainland. Mind you we are the island with the oncology department - so people from other islands come here... So that's one consolation. Oh well, I will see in a day or so if the docs up at the hospital come up with something other than a referal to the dermatologist (he is visiting next month - but I am on the list)... I have reynauds (since 13 years old as well), and wonder if it's scleroderma, which I hope not as that opens up all sorts of things to go wrong as well. Perhaps being a bit more forcefull with the hospital might help... will keep you posted :roll:

dreamdaisy

Thank you for the useful information that you don't have a GP as such (my crystal ball was mal-functioning, I had no idea that you live in such a beautiful part of the world) but from my experience of chronic eczema, the scratching is contributing towards this vicious cycle. Keep your hands very moisturised, steering clear of products that contain lanolin (a well-known skin-irritant). Soak your hands twice-daily in a solution of saline water, this will reduce the itching and aid healing. Check your side-effects leaflets from your drugs of choice (what a staggering concept that is, telling the doc what you want rather than being told what's on offer!) to see if skin irritations are a listed effect, if so it may be time to alter your prescription. I remember my Ma bathing me in emollient, then bandaging my entire body, topping me off with mittens tied on so I couldn't - no matter how hard I tried (and I tried) scratch myself raw. DD

flaminpanda

Yup, the salt water solution, three times a day, does seem to help, something I do myself, not advised to do by doctors. I find that most creams hurt like billio, but olive oil seems to be benign. One doctor suggested Nivea, ouch, that one hurt, and all baby products are like pouring acid over the area, (I find it amazing that they can cram so many ingredients into such a small tube!).

I take exxiv and dul u ron for my RA, dul u ron is paracetamol and codeine, exxiv is a cox2 inhibitor. I am off to ask the docs for some proper ideas, but sometimes it is a balance of not annoying them too much as this is a small island and I really don't want them to think I am a malingerer... Most meds you can buy over the counter anyway without a prescription, (can you imagine your local chemist giving you codeine just because you ask for it in the UK!), but with a prescription you get 50% reduction in cost, so it's worth getting the script, and the longest I have ever had to wait was 10mins, and that is without an appointment.

You are right in that it is a beautiful part of the world, and the warmth helps, the problem is that it is also very wet, but then I don't have the cold of the UK (one doc I had in the UK when I was about 19 told me to move to a warm country!)

I will update you as to what happens next, just don't hold your breath....

There is however one upside to this, my husband is chief washer upper now!

stickywicket

Two things come to mind.

1. If you have an auto-immune arthritis such as RA you need proper disease modifying meds (DMARDS). Anti-inflammatories and pain relief won't hold it back.

2. Who diagnosed you with RA? I'm wondering if the rash could be psoriasis ie if you actually have PsA not RA. Either way, the meds are more or less the same and you do need them. How do you get to see a rheumatologist where you are? That's who you need and, if the docs haven't said so, they really should have done.

flaminpanda

Hi
The RA was diagnosed when I was about 13/14 years old, and for a good few years in the UK I saw a rheumatologist (but as I was young and stupid and obviously knew it all!! I ignored, as I didn't want to believe there could ever be anything wrong with me), but as life went on, kids etc... you just sort of accept things and carry on . As I have spent many years living all over the place I have been a bit negligent with medical things, it has tended to be, ouch, that hurts, where's the codeine. Which looking back has been rather stupid as all it does it stop pain, not help the underlying problem. My hands were xrayed last week, and low and behold there is arthritis in my hands (I could have told them that - a 2 year old could have diagnosed it from looking at them), but the doc said that the severe blisters were a coincidence (um), at the same time as all of this was going on I also dislocated my thumb joint by simply turning over in bed, dangerous sport - sleeping!

Thanks for the meds advice, I also think I need to be more proactive and take more control over my medical care. Time to stop being such a doc phobic and understand that bloody mindedness and mind over matter doesn't always work, and to accept that I am no longer 25.

Will keep you updated.
x :?

stickywicket

If you've gone so long without 'proper' meds, and even had kids, you've done very well. Many of us flare after childbirth - or during pregnancy. However, if x-rays show arthritis it is osteo, probably brought on by the RA not being under control - this is how my OA arrived. I think you should see a rheumatologist. It's possible that the blisters could be part of the problem but who knows?

dreamdaisy

Doctors do not have all the answers and there are many things that we can do to help ourselves. It sounds as though your skin is very sensitive indeed so steer clear of anything that is perfumed (like baby products) or rammed full of chemicals; it may also be wise to change your washing powder / liquid too. My skin cannot tolerate biological products or E45 - that ghastly stuff is guaranteed to bring me out in a rash! I always wear gloves when doing housework or washing up, gardening too as I don't want to get an infection through a scratch.

I went to our GPs surgery today for an appointment with the nurse and without thinking rubbed the hygiene gel into my hands, including the raw psoriasis on my left palm. That stung. DD

Boomer13

Hello!

I have PsA, so skin problems are assumed. I do get clear blisters, and I have ever since I developed severe joint problems in about 2009. The blisters usually signal a joint flare for me, but I believe I am unusual in having them and no one seems to know if they are the result of psoriatic skin or a different inflammatory skin problem. I usually get them on my torso or thickly along my spine if that is going to flare. I've had them all down my arms and on my wrists and hands. I've only ever used cortisone cream to calm the itching.

I hope a good dermatologist can give you some answers. Take care.

flaminpanda

Argh... just wrote a full reply and the computer dumped it for me - so here goes again....

Many many thanks to all of you, though I'd like to say it is nice not to be alone, I would wish any kind of problem or illness on anyone.

Boomer, your blisters, when you say clear, do you mean not infected? The fluid inside my blisters is always clear and slightly sticky, once the fluid is removed then the really bad itching goes away. After that the skin just falls off leaving open flesh, which oddly does not hurt for about a day, but then it makes up for it after that and I feel as if a thousands knives are stabbing me. Obviously the nerve endings are starting to come back to life.

I also believe there is a link between the arthritis and the blisters, odd that my hands 'blow up' swollen to the point of looking like balloons, the arthritis gets impossible, virtually no movement, and severe pain, then wallop the itching and blisters. I have some great x-rays from the hospital (they give you your x-rays on a cd - complete with the programme to view them in different ways!), and I am shocked at how large my hands were at the time of the last flare up (you can see not just the bones, but also the wrinkles in skin etc). Now I just have to convince the docs that it's not coincidence... baby steps there I think!

As this is an ongoing problem (2 years now) I have discovered, through experimenting on myself with all and any quite nasty and everyday chemicals and substances and spending months removing certain food groups etc that the problem is not environmental. It is also not linked to cold weather (the worst flare up I had was in the tropics). So, that leaves something inside me, or stress....

So, I will now be more forthright with the docs, and try at last to get to the bottom of it... But thanks to all your thoughts, hope you all have a good day.... :P

Boomer13

Yes, mine have clear fluid so are blisters rather than pustules. They don't get itchy until they start to break, then the skin is red and drives me crazy with itching. I don't think mine are at all close to yours in severity. The skin where the blisters were is red and inflamed but I wouldn't say the lesions are very deep. They just annoy me in a minor way (and tell me my joints are about to flare).

petals

flaminpanda wrote:

I have severe blisters, itching and swelling located around arthritis affected joints. Has anyone else got this problem, if so, can anyone help, advise or point me in some direction? Many thanks

Hi Panda,

Sorry to hear about your skin problems.

I experienced blisters on my hands (mainly knuckles) also on elbows which spread to my upper arms and some more on my hip. GP was confused and thought it was eczema, then ring worm.

Finally showed it to the rheumatologist who correctly diagnosed it as 'Granuloma annulare' which is connected to the arthritis (RA)

Treatment was very simple and worked quickly. I was prescribed Dermovate cream.

See here

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/granuloma-annulare/Pages/Introduction.aspx

I have the occasional recurrence but if treated with the cream immediately, then it clears it up within a couple of days.

Hope you get to the bottom of this.

Best wishes Petals x