I tried to upload a picture of my hand I don't know if I was successful. My hands have been very dry and achy because of the dry skin lately. Now skin is peeling off between the third and fourth fingers on my left hand and also all around my fourth finger. This happened before, a few years ago, my hands were so dry and red I looked like I had red gloves on, it would also crack and bleed a little. You could literally see the line where the dry skin ended and normal skin began around my wrist. Then all the skin began peeling off. I thought it was because I was washing my hands too much then. After a couple of months the big patch on my hand appeared which was diagnosed as eczema but now I think/know was psoriasis.
So does this look to you like it could be mild psoriasis or pre-psoriasis of some kind? Or is it just the cold and dry weather? I moisturize my hands and it looks smooth for twenty minutes, then the skin starts peeling off again. And my hands look like I am 90 years old, so, so dry!
To me it just looks super dry. That said, if you are having a hard time treating it, you at want to get it checked out by the dermatologist. There have been some good threads here re super dry skin.
Hi ladylazarus. To me, it looks like really dry skin. My hands look like that, too, but I'm not good about using moisturizers. I usually only think about using hand lotions when I'm at work. Every once-in-awhile I'm introduced to someone and we shake hands. If I've forgotten to use lotion, I'm so embarrassed because my hands feel like coarse sand paper. I always think of that old TV commercial with the person shaking hands and the ad says, "did you ever shake hands with an alligator?" That's what mine must feel like!
It does look like there's a blister on the bottom of your pinky, though. Maybe you have pustular psoriasis starting?
Stoney, my dermatologist had given me a moisturizer called "Ürederm", and told me to use it after every bath and at least 20 times a day on my hands! I think it is definitely a Turkish brand. All its components are completely natural. Oil, water and 10% urea (sound disgusting, right?). So nothing that is not naturally found in the body itself. It helps a lot, but if I use any other moisturizer it makes my hands even more dryer!
It is a relief to know it's not psoriasis. I have a lot going on with my joints, psoriasis can wait a little while longer if possible!
By the way, my mother told me she has patches on her elbow which are definitely flaky. So I knew it! I knew I got it from my mother. I will urge her to see a dermatologist so we can confirm that it is psoriasis.
And Grandma J, lately I feel like a snake (the animal I hate the most!) with all the skin peeling off from my face and my hands constantly :) About the blister, it is literally invisible. I only noticed it when I took the picture. I think it became more visible because of the lighting and the angle. But I think it is just a little, deep blister. Maybe from holding books with my left hand all the time? I don't know.
Oh yes--flaky elbows certainly sounds like psoriasis. Elbows and knees are probably the most common place for psoriasis. In fact, my knees still have psoriasis and my elbows just a little bit, even though since taking Enbrel my scalp and other stubborn psoriasis has completely cleared (well, except those few little spots on my shins, which now seem more like dry skin than psoriasis).
Wow, you are gonna go through a lot of lotion applying it 20 x a day! I hope it's not too expensive.
ladylazarus said:
Stoney, my dermatologist had given me a moisturizer called "Ürederm", and told me to use it after every bath and at least 20 times a day on my hands! I think it is definitely a Turkish brand. All its components are completely natural. Oil, water and 10% urea (sound disgusting, right?). So nothing that is not naturally found in the body itself. It helps a lot, but if I use any other moisturizer it makes my hands even more dryer!
It is a relief to know it's not psoriasis. I have a lot going on with my joints, psoriasis can wait a little while longer if possible!
By the way, my mother told me she has patches on her elbow which are definitely flaky. So I knew it! I knew I got it from my mother. I will urge her to see a dermatologist so we can confirm that it is psoriasis.
And Grandma J, lately I feel like a snake (the animal I hate the most!) with all the skin peeling off from my face and my hands constantly :) About the blister, it is literally invisible. I only noticed it when I took the picture. I think it became more visible because of the lighting and the angle. But I think it is just a little, deep blister. Maybe from holding books with my left hand all the time? I don't know.
Super dry skin. Tell me about it. The insides of all of my dark clothes were coated in “snow”. My husband referred to my “serpent skin”. My hands were so dry, they hurt. My cuticles would bleed. Hand lotion would last less than an hour and I was itching again. Doctor’s advice was “use more, and more often”. Uremol (same kind of thing that you mention) was the best, although it would sometimes sting going on. Be careful though, I was “busted” at an airport once because the explosives detector (that swab thing) had picked up something significant. I was interviewed extensively before being allowed to board the plane. Much later I realized that urea is a key ingredient in fertilizers and explosives. LOL!
Once the rheum had diagnosed me with suspected PsA, I was referred to a dermatologist. All she fo on me was my very slightly pitted nails and the little scaly patch on my elbow. (The patch that I regarded as being just bad grooming.) She confirmed psoriasis on those two fairly minor signs. But wait! When I went on Enbrel, my super dry skin magically turned smooth. So the very dry skin was part of the psoriasis picture as well.
Glad you took a picture of your palm. Save that to show your doc 'cuz for sure, it will be gone when you have an appointment!
Super dry skin. Tell me about it. The insides of all of my dark clothes were coated in “snow”. My husband referred to my “serpent skin”. My hands were so dry, they hurt. My cuticles would bleed. Hand lotion would last less than an hour and I was itching again. Doctor’s advice was “use more, and more often”. Uremol (same kind of thing that you mention) was the best, although it would sometimes sting going on. Be careful though, I was “busted” at an airport once because the explosives detector (that swab thing) had picked up something significant. I was interviewed extensively (Had I handled firearms or worked on a farm?) before being allowed to board the plane. Much later I realized that urea is a key ingredient in fertilizers and explosives. LOL!
Once the rheum had diagnosed me with suspected PsA, I was referred to a dermatologist. All she found on me was my very slightly pitted nails and the little scaly patch on my elbow. (The patch that I regarded as being just bad grooming.) She confirmed psoriasis on those two fairly minor signs. But wait! When I went on Enbrel, my super dry skin magically turned smooth and the itching was gone. So the very dry skin was part of the psoriasis picture as well.
Glad you took a picture of your palm. Save that to show your doc 'cuz for sure, it will be gone when you have an appointment!
That's really, really interesting about urea, and I'm glad you told me because I fly a lot!
Yes my cuticles bleed too sometimes, and right now my knuckles look like they are about to crack and bleed, they hurt so bad! And the peeling skin is worse now. It's been like half an hour since I moisturized.This is so frustrating and it's only dry skin, not even psoriasis itself!
I actually had a picture of that patch I keep talking about when I went to a dermatologist but she said she didn't need to see it. Now I wish she would look at the picture. This time I won't leave anything to chance. I will tell everything and ask everything. But now everything has pretty much cleared up, except for the dry skin. So I'll wait until another patch appears. And I'm suspecting I have or will have psoriasis in my ear too, although I don't have scalp psoriasis. There are skin flakes in my ear as well. And some on the ear cartilage (?) next to my face (I think I couldn't explain it but this is the best that I can right now :). For a long time I was frustrated about how frequently I had to clean my ears and about a month before my big flare I realized most of it was skin, not wax! I had no idea about psoriasis or PsA then of course. Do you think I could have psoriasis in my ears without having it on my scalp? It itches and hurts a little too. Who should I see about it if/when it becomes more visible? An ear doctor or a dermatologist?
See the dermatologist about your ears. When I went to my dermatologist,she asked about my family history. I said that nobody had psoriasis, but my (deceased) mother had some skin issues. I told her about Mom’s itchy, greasy-looking flaky ear “eczema” (that’s what her family doc said it was). Dermatologist said “your mother had psoriasis, an itchy flaky ear rash is psoriasis every time”. I was gobsmacked. She also said some unflattering things about family doctors who are cavalier about skin issues, but that’s another story!
Well, Seenie, you probably had psoriasis all over but it looked like dry skin! And, LL, that "dry skin" on your hand just might be psoriasis! I didn't think it looked like ordinary psoriasis, but, like you said, maybe it's pre-psoriasis!
I used to get really itchy spots that didn't flake or anything at first. Just drive me nuts itching! Finally, after a couple months, either they'd vanish or psoriasis would break out. So, there are many different ways psoriasis manifests itself.
I've had the same dry skin thing happen on my hands- ending like a glove at my wrist. It's happened some, but not all, winters for the past few years. This year it started but it's better now- I have been applying shea butter religiously and wearing gloves on top of that to lock in as much moisture as possible.
Looks like dry skin. Assuming your talking about plaque. With amount skin there would almost certainly be some inflammation visible. My hands are that way too. I use moisturizer every 15 minutes or so. Overkill but hey…
I don't like wearing gloves after I put on lotion, but I look like I just washed my hands with moisturizer :)
rosen said:
I've had the same dry skin thing happen on my hands- ending like a glove at my wrist. It's happened some, but not all, winters for the past few years. This year it started but it's better now- I have been applying shea butter religiously and wearing gloves on top of that to lock in as much moisture as possible.
Yes exactly, I figured I should have something other than dry skin, all the photos online are of red, inflamed hands with psoriasis. But I thought I should ask you guys anyway, because online photos are usually not a realistic comparison. Those photos are usually of the worst cases and it kinda freaks me out :)
mataribot said:
Looks like dry skin. Assuming your talking about plaque. With amount skin there would almost certainly be some inflammation visible. My hands are that way too. I use moisturizer every 15 minutes or so. Overkill but hey...
Sybil, I can see why you would ask that, because yes, I use gloves religiously while I do housework and when I don't it gets much worse. But now that I think of it, a couple of days ago I washed two glasses without putting the gloves on. Maybe that's why my hands promoted from dry to super dry :)
sybil said:
Just a thought - do you wear marigolds when you're washing up, using hot water for cleaning etc.?
Apologies if this is a bit obvious, but it's not obvious enough for me to always remember to do this. My skin isn't particularly dry, but putting my bare hands into hot, soapy water several times a day and even using wet cloths rapidly makes the skin dry out and crack in places. By contrast, if I wear rubber gloves for every single task, the skin's fine. I'd imagine that with psoriasis such precautions are even more important.
All the mentions of urea don't gross me out at all .... I've often heard it said that pee is good for just about any skin problem! And I really enjoyed finding out about Seenie's dark side.
