Developed Spreading Pompholyx/Hand Eczema :(

Hello, thankyou for the information, it's very interesting to me as my family have some history with overactive thyroids so I may just mention it when I go back to have my patch tests done. Since I've been using the Doublebase gel (Which I love because it absorbs instantly and doesn't leave you feeling oily) and only using hyromol ointment in the shower to wash with, my skin is 80% better. I'm not entirely convinced it is the creams that have made it better but they are maintaining it well. The doc told me to use the steroid cream for 2-3 weeks ans slowly come off but I've only used it twice since having it and I just don't feel the need for it right now so I'm not using it.

Hello, I have started to develop similiar symptoms in last december, it started as 1mm or less rash in my wrist to which i didnt pay much attention to, very slowly it started growing and growing, now it covers the inside part of my wrist and a smaller patch on top of my hand, on top of where the thumb joins with the carpal bones.

Other things i noticed is that my skin is a lot drier than it used to be, never had dry skin and suddenly am struggling with it, specially around the eyes (Do you also have that?)

Trying different creams but nothing can make it go away, at best just keep it hydrated, so rather interested in what creams you are using that are showing results, as to test them myself.

So far in my "testing" i can say with fairly good degree of confidence that sugar makes it worse, or at least when i intake more than usual it flares up, interestingly enough it doesnt seem to have the reverse effect, so guess it makes it worse but doesnt 'cause it'

In the past 10 days i started to see the same signs that i had before, but on my other wrist, now have a tiny patch of rough skin on my other wrist that is slowly growing. I thought ezcema wouldnt mirror effects, so im not entirely sure what in hell this is, autoimmune does seem to make more sense in that light.

On the other hand it seems odd to me that with no previous history or family history of autoimmunity suddenly it develops, im thinking environmental somehow, from either food or the house i moved into, its very humid and in some areas i see paint starting to peel off a wall, wonder if im breathing in particulates.

Sorry for the rambling, just sharing some information as what we have seems similiar (mine is restricted to the wrists though, nothing on the face (yet) aside from dry skin.

I will try to change what i was my clothes in as well, but any help/suggestions you can give that you see are helping with yours, let me know, as mine is starting to get worse for some reason.

Hya Narub, I'm still all very unsure to what caused/is causing mine but it has recently and what seems andomly become much better and I can actually use my hands properly with minimum/no pain which is an amazing feeling for what has been a very stressful half a year. I have read that these types of things can just clear up by themselves in a sense of "going into remission", similar to a child that has eczema and then it just goes away in the teens a lot of the time.

What I find makes mine worse is definitely stress and worry. It can be hard to avoid, especially when you feels there's no hope and that it wont stop spreading, and the rash seems to be growing everyday. These were the feels I had a few months ago.

Another thing that made mine worse was HOT water. I shower in warm water now and it does help not dry it out as much. Then follow up by moisturising the affected area straight away after. Pat your skin dry, don't rub.

I've found another factor that may have been a big contribution to mine getting better, and that is distraction and happiness. It may not even be linked to it, but since I've started taking motorcycle lessons, feeling excited, getting out more and not even thinking about the eczema, I feel that has played a part towards it getting better, especially in how I'm less focused on itching it.

As far as creams and ointments go, I was using the Balneum cream my doctor gave me for some time, it always felt stingy for 5 mins on really inflamed and sore areas and was a little annoying that everything I touched would then be greasy. The dermatologist at the hospital gave me Double Base Gel cream. I love the stuff! it absorbs very quickly, and it has a cooling effect on the skin which is soothing. She also have me a hard ointment that you scoop out and it melts in your hands. This is very oily on the skin but I only use it in the shower, Nothing else! (Other than shampoo and conditioner for my hair). Stopping using general shop bought soaps I think has made my skin a little less dry in general. SLS (Sodium Laurel Sulfate/Sodium Laureth Sulfate) in most products is actually a skin irritant and very drying on the skin. Sometimes I might put some ointment on at night too, but havent felt I've needed to recently. The ointment is called Hyrdromol and it's in a tub.

I think sugar does make skin problems worse because in general, even without the eczema, if I eat loads of sugary foods or drinks, my skin does get drier, spottier, blotchy. So definitely limit it. Also Sleep is important too, make sure your getting enough. Also drink Loooooads of water. I never used to drink water (Plain) only even diluted juice/squash and not enough of it it the day. Since increasing my water intake my skin has got clearer in general.

I noticed my face has become nice and smooth since moistursing it straight after a shower too.

If your skin is really bad, red, itchy, broken, Use a steroid cream to heal it quickly for a week or 2. Come off it slowly and gradually. I only use mine when my skin is feeling like it's flaring up a little now.

I hope the info was a little helpful, it's all very hard to know exactly what might make it better and what might be causing it. Eczema is to do with the immune system so it can be a nightmare to treat and can be a long or short term thing as far as I've read.

Keep in mind that mine got worse before it got better, so yours could take a similar turn. Keep on at your doctors and dermatologists. Get patch test, blood tests and as Minicoop said, even a thyroid test if you think nothing else is working.

For me so far, a mixture of happier lifestyle, getting out a little more, seeing more of the light of day, feeling calmer, changing to a different cream, not using shop bought washes, limiting sugar, moisturing in and after showers and drinking more water are all things I "Think" could have contributed to helping my eczema clear up a bit.

To the average person looking at me, they may not even notice I had eczema at all now. I know it's still there, I the skin get a little rough, or tight or mildly sore occasionally, but I'm glad it's not obvious any more and hope it stays that way and just gets even better, eventually going away all together!

P.S. You said about moving to a humid place, Mine all started appearing in the summer of last year, and the heat does make mine really come up. Try and keep as cool as possible, use fans and only wear light *Cotton* clothing. Stay away from synthetics as much as possible, and especially anything itchy/rough like wool.

Sheesh, my symptoms sound just like yours, both of you. I just got back from the dermatologist, my endocrinologist wanted me to confirm with a derm about starting thyroid medication for the rash. The derm took a scraping of one of my dry patches and said it was pruritis and that he thinks starting thyroid replacement medication would be ideal as that is what is causing my rashes. I have been to derms and allergy/immunology specialists before, tried topical and oral steroids which sometimes helped the rashes go away. This one is staying around because I think my thyroid has just been getting damaged. I know we are not all alike but I really encourage you both to get your thyroid tested. I mean a full panel with antibodies. If it's not thyroid it could be a number of autoimmune diseases. Dry skin and rash are definitely indicators for most so you might want to be safe. Sugar and gluten have been linked to autoimmune inflammation and reactions so, even without a disease, those should just be avoided for good skin and general health. Good luck to you both and God bless!

Hi folks, I feel like I am reading my story here. I have had problems since my daughter was born In 2003 with dry hands and also hitting premature menopause at 35 yrs old

I had the odd spot of eczema under my wedding ring and used hydrocortisone cream with success. However, about a year ago I noticed that sometimes in the shower after washing my hair I was getting these little bubbles under my skin on my hands/fingers. These got worse and worse over the months and I visited my gp a few times, mainly with them prescribing nothing, eumovate, trimovate and the like. Around November last year my hands got worse and worse. Nothing was helping them and the blisters were appearing really quickly on both palms and sides of my fingers.

I decided after visiting my GP and again not getting much help to open one of the "Simply Health" cash plans and go private to see a dermatologist. I had an appointment within a week with my chosen lady and spent £125 on the initial consultation. She diagnosed Pompholyx/Dyshydrosis/Hand Eczema . She also recommended patch testing (£200) and said to stop using all handcreams etc (I spent a fortune trying all sorts Aveeno/Dead Sea Minerals and the like). She said that as my hands were in such a state that most things would be irritating me. She sent me away to see my GP and advised be to use the Fucibet for a month reducing the dose, then she switched me to another ointment without the antibiotic and prescribed me Dermol and Cetraben for washing and moisturising.

I had patch testing done at the end of Jan and my results were quite amazing, strongly allergic to Quaternium 15 and methylchoroisothiazolinone/Kathon CG and mildy allergic to Caine Mix. The methyl.... is in loads of things, shampoos, conditioners, soaps, flash spray, the white company handwash, Liz Earle stuff and some of the natural products that I thought were better to use.. shocking. So I am having to scan the products that I buy. Fairy and some fabric conditioners have it in it as well. I have changed my washing stuff to Ecover as they would not use this preservative. I have binned loads of toiletries and beauty products, hairsprays (Elnett) etc. Its a nightmare. My hands are covered with cotton gloves, then vinyl gloves over them in the shower each morning and always when cleaning.

My hands are a good bit better, but not cured by any means. I have ointment to put on a couple of times a week to keep things in check until I see the dermatologist again in a few months.

In fact tonight Im going to put some ointment on them as they are burning slightly today and my finger tips are really dry and pitted.

I hope that I can get this under control, as it gets me really stressed, which is not good as it compounds the problem. I cant help but think that if my GP had prescribed me some meds before things progressed that I wouldn't be suffering so much at this stage now,

Good luck folks, keep me posted on your outcomes x

Hi everyone! *Waves*

Back for what will hopefully be my final update on my eczema problem!

Last Friday I went for my patch testing at the hospital. The put on the British Standard patches and also a set for skincare ingredients and a set of haircare ingredients. She said my back was small so she had to literally place them all over!

I had to have them on till Sunday, then take a picture of them and then take them off. I went back today (Tuesday) to get them assessed.

The results concluded that I am apparently pretty highly allergic to Nickel (What an annoying allergy! It's in soo much!)

She also said I had a slight reaction to Imidazolidinyl Urea & Diazolidinyl Urea which are preservatives that can be used in lotions, creams, shapoos & conditioners, deodorants and topical treatments.

Since stopping using the Balneum cream and going on to doublebase gel & Hydromol ointment, my eczema has cleared up so much. I looked at the ingredients in the Balneum cream and it says Urea 5%. I don't know if that is that same as the ones I'm allergic to, but would make sense why when I was using it my eczema wasn't getting any better.

So now it's a case of avoiding nickel as much as possible and checking labels on products.

To anyone else suffering with the same symptoms, I urge you to ask for patch testing and think about trying to avoid metals and swap products your using to see if there is any difference.

Thank you all very much for your feedback. Take Care x

P.S. Here is a picture of the all the patches on my back.

http://i1114.photobucket.com/albums/k539/bexyboo88/My%20Eczema%20Journey/patch004_zpsdad215c5.jpg

HI bex Im from India I seem to have developed the same symptoms recently... It's been 5months since changed two docs now after reading all tis I'm freaking out a little... So how z your allergy now are you completely out of yet.? Please let know I'm panicking! As far as I looked over it there seems to be no particular cause know or quick cure... Hope you're doing good now,let me know

It sounds like the original poster has found the problem with her rash. I also have had what I was told was eczema for a few years now. They started as dry round patches on my shins on both legs. Then my legs would have nothing but be very itchy and I can't use anything on them. Then I started to get the patches on the back of my hands, bilaterally. Then it changed to little clear-fluid filled bumps on the back of both hands and along the sides of my fingers. The blisters would pop or be so itchy I wake up scratching and pop them. Then it would start to group together and my skin would start cracking and/or peeling off showing very red irritated skin. Everything hurt it and hear made it worse. Steroids of any kind made it even more inflamed. I have Hashimoto's thyroid disease and went gluten free because of that and the rash eventually went away. When I am glutened on accident the rash comes back and it takes 3-4 months to clear up. I finally found a dermatologist who would allow me to try a Dapsone challenge. Which means take Dapsone for a few days and if it cleared up the rash it meant that I have something called DH, dermatitis herpetiformis, or Duhring Disease. Of you have DH you have Celiac disease. Well the rash cleared up in 4 days. I wanted to share because I saw many specialists and they all thought it was dishidrotic eczema and that it had nothing to do with gluten. I knew it did, though so I pressed my new derm. Turns out I have DH and CD. Hope this helps someone else. If you have any autoimmune disease, you should take gluten completely out of your diet as it triggers the immune system to attack your body or have a flare, as we call it.

I've used foderma serum my whole life. My hand eczema ("dish pan" hands) tends to flare up in the fall/winter. Foderma serum helps quickly relieve dryness and itching. Non-greasy.

Goodness, I thought I replied to this withan update but I guess not.

So for anyone still wondering, I had the patch testing and turns out I have a severe allergy to Nickel.. which considering I work in retail touch coins and keys alot is not ideal! XD

So my hands cleared up, I make sure I try and handle items with nickel in as little as possible and I wash my hands when I can If I have been at work. If I've had a lot of exposure I start getting the little bumps on my left hand middle finger, but it's not gotten out of control like before and they usually go down after a day or two.

I'm still getting patches of redness around my neck though, sometimes just a little, sometimes quite red and it's mostly on my left side of my neck as well. (weird it mostly hands on the left side?)

If it shows no sign of clearing up I use a bit of steroid cream to help keep it at bay.

I am using Hydromol ointment in the shower now instead of any other wash products, I put it on my face and body as a wash and use it when shaving etc. 

I then put doublebase gel just on my face straight after a shower to help with my dry skin, I really like that stuff because it feels like the skin absorbs it quickly and doesn't leave a greasy feeling. I put it on my neck dry/red patched too, but really that doesn't seem to have ever helped, only the steroid creams seem to temporarily. 

I do try not to touch my neck or face etc when I'm at work but I still seem to get it there, mostly my neck, but I don't know if it's solely down to my nickel allergy or if it could be other things causing reaction too, or making it worse, such as my work jacket collar rubbing a bit, wearing a scarf occasionally, product in my hair touch my neck (From shapoo/conditioner - although I do rinse thoroughly).