Amateur Diagnosis

Some Serious Change Here

If the average price of a tube of dry-skin cream is $8.00, judging from the pile before me, I’ve spent some money on hand cream this past year, not counting two trips to a dermatologist trying to identify the reason some of my fingers and both palms have become an itchy mess. 

Since last fall, these digits, just the ones I have cut and burned in the last couple of years cooking, have itched, cracked, split and healed over, only to come apart again; my palms developed tiny blisters and erupted in scaly patches that came and went – sometimes twice a day. 

The professionals said it was just dry skin, exacerbated by too much hand washing. 

Hand washing is not a new habit with me! Had I just simply depleted the last bit of moisture in some of my fingers, but not all? The good doctor gave me a prescription for a steroid cream, the overuse of which thins skin! 

What afforded the most relief was slathering my hands in a thick OTC ointment at night and then slipping my hands into white cotton gloves. (Doug said he wanted a pair, to be Mickey to my new Minnie Mouse look.) For five months, I rotated ointments and lotions. 

Not wholly accepting this sudden and persistent annoyance was simply dry skin made worse by hand washing, I went sleuthing on the Internet – WebMD, Wikipedia, etc. 

Following a link from an article on eczema, I found an article that linked chocolate to skin disorders. 

Chocolate? Good grief – Come on!

I have only been an addict for the few years we’ve been in Texas – Doug’s mother and sisters introduced me dark chocolate and the simple delicious pleasure it is, especially dipped in steaming hot coffee – it’s not like I have had a life-long relationship with it! 

But I cut it out three weeks ago. 

Then I remembered an old time remedy – Bag Balm.  I have been using it for two weeks, and yes-siree, my hands look and feel almost normal. Here’s hoping I am not creating more problems by relying so heavily on a treatment meant for cows only. 

That article on the reasons for itchy hands also mentioned that stress contributes to the condition. Oh great . . . me worried about when I am going to start mooing, and all without a bite of chocolate!

Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are.  ~Chinese Proverb