Itchy hands and feet?: Re: itchy hands and feet causing loss of sleep!!!

» ppatt - Re: itchy hands and feet causing loss of sleep!!!

In response to Re: itchy hands and feet causing loss of sleep!!! posted by Bayougypsyqueen:
Me too. This is a general reply.

I had this consistently for a few weeks where I would start itching around dark and on some nights the torture would keep me awake. Kept velcro by the bed (the sandpaper-like component and used it to scratch, it did help but I was wary of rubbing away skin).

One day the swelling was so bad I went to the Dr. While I was in his office it spread from hands to feet and then to waistline where pants chafed a bit. Dr. gave me steroid injection, benadryl, and said it was an allergic reaction...sent me on my merry way.

One Dr. friend a plastic surgeon had similar symptoms, and we traded digital images over the Internet. In both our cases onset was preceded by red splotches, sometimes with almost perfect circular rings which made me suspect tinea. He said he'd been diagnosed with ehrythema multiforme. Mine had been misdignosed as granuloma annulare at one point. He said that the ehrythema multiforme was little consolation and only offered a name for something that was little understood.

Then I went to a dermatologist
s dermatologist who is associated with UCLA. He is often consulted by other dematolgists when they encounter esoteric conditions. He suggested several things...offshoot of herpes though I have never displayed herpes-like symptoms or hives.

All in all, a big fat zero.

Since a month of consistent daily struggles it comes and goes. Clothing that chafe badly around my waist will cause the same sort of swelling and itching. I trimmed bougavillea in my yard and got pricked many times on the hands and that started the swelling. This afternoon, I was playing with a cat which got a little too seriously into it and latched on with all 4 paws, claws bare, scratching and drawing a few drops of blood. Sure enough, after an hour that hand started swelling.

Sometimes after a bout of itchy feet the feet hurt the next day. It almost seems to have gotten into the muscles of the feet. Once my heel was misshapen for a day and a half afterwards, with a lump on it.

I surf and the water here in California ranges from 58 to 70. Almost without exception an hour or two in cold water gets me back to normal. The colder the water (ilel the winter temp of 58) the more effective it is in relieving symptoms.

That's it...still a mystery, rarely flaring up as bad as it had but always noticeable at a low level.

-- posted by ppatt