Just wondering, along with the flares has anyone have a problem with their feet feeling like they are blistered and raw and also the skin is raw and some of it is peeling
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Hi,
I am wondering if you have athletes foot? I get this. With the hot feet, and moisture, perfect breeding ground of fungus…
My toes have done this from time to time. I treated it as athletes foot. Sometimes I get very dry, sore and peeling skin on feet and hands and have to use a mild steroid cream and moisturising creams. It doesn’t seem surprising that our skin suffers when we are going from one extreme to the other heat-wise, particularly those of us with Raynaud’s.
I think it is important to act quickly to stop it spreading, whatever it is. Good luck.
I'm having the exact problem now. Feels like the skin has been rubbed off in between my toes. The tops and tips had red marks and are itchy. Also the back of my heels toward achilles is red, splotchy and very itchy. This is the 2nd time in a month this has occurred. Never happened before. Its in conjunction with sharp pain in my heels like stepping on a tack. I'm trying Benadryl now and hopefully it will do something. Walking is a real pain.
The skin on my feet peels quite a bit. On two occasions, after my two worst flares, the entire upper layer of skin peeled off from my ankles down, tops and bottoms of my feet. It was the strangest thing! It was like the top layer of a blister peeling off, but it was all over my feet, coming off in huge strips and pieces. I think it had to do with the damage I did to my skin from icing them. Now, with just regular daily EM, I do get peeling, but only in areas where my skin gets really dry. It doesn't itch like athletes foot. It's almost like my skin has lost the ability to moisturize itself or to slough dead skin. Now I just try to moisturize and exfoliate as much as EM will allow.
I usually get this in winter. Big temperature changes many times per day. I use eucerin lotion and make sure there is not breakdown of the skin and use a bandaid to protect if there is cracking. I have been to the dermatologist several times about it and he said it is not fungus - he said probably unique to people with EM.
Hi, I too have very dry and cracked skin. I was given Flexitol from the doctors, but even using it 3 times a day they are still bad, including as you say my toes and my toe nails seem very brittle. I have had an ulcer at the back of my heel and that has taken since September to heal, but then the podiatrist found another one on my other foot my little toe, so now I am going every week for it to be dressed at podiatry. It is getting a bit smaller but it's been about 4 weeks now and there is still a hole. Before I changed GP I was told my first one wasn't an ulcer or infected and to look after it myself! My new GP made me an urgent appointment at podiatry.
Mine look worse- they are super dry, cracked, and peeling.
My skin looks just like that, sometimes worse when the skin die-off is deep. I have learned to moisturize my feet two or three times every day, to keep the dead skin on my feet longer. Then, when it finally does come off, the skin underneath is not so immature and raw.
I use a generic version of CeraVe cream. For me, it does not increase burning/flaring like all the other creams and oils I have tried.
I wonder if coconut oil would help? It has some amazing properties…
Yes - my Chiropodist thought, on mentioning Athletes Foot, that mine was not that - different symptoms -did not know what it was (or is). She suggested using folded tissues between toes to get rid perhaps of peeling skin.
jon, I have actually started using coconut oil mixed with some essential oils. Will post later as to how it works!
I have had the same problem with dry cracked skin and with my feet swelling up so much it actually busted the skin in a couple of places on mainly the right foot but also on the left one too .... - I was worried about them turning into ulcers which is where they were heading - but I constantly kept the ointments and clean dressings up to them and at least they have almost healed after about 3 - 4 months. I used Betadine in the tube and alternately MediHoney - and Please Be Careful with ANY Stick On Dressing as I left one on for 3 days and when trying to remove it I tore off some fresh skin causing more grief and healing time - so do take care with stick on dressing/s of any kind ....
Also after the healing had taken place and during in the uncovered areas I used some UDDERLY SMOOTH EXTRA CARE cream with the 10% Urea - Works like a charm and I am on my 4th tub of it and won't bother with anything else .
Take care out there -
Cheers to All -
Greg (frostbite)
COOMA NSW
Australia.
Hi frostbite, Thanks for the info. I took a fine top surface off the back of my heel in September and my GP at the time said it wasn't infected but it had yellow pus on. I ended up with a fever and had to call out of hours doctors one came and gave me a course of antibiotics, but it came back the infection. The GP said it wasn't an ulcer at the time. However, I changed GP and he immediately referred me to podiatry and they confirmed it was an ulcer, which has now healed. They found another one though and so I am still going every week, which is hard for me. Had I known about the way you treated yours I would be far better off doing that as I wouldn't have to travel every week. In fact, I may well tell them on Monday that I will look after it myself from now on and use your method. The first one took 4 months to heal.
I have used it on my skin, it is very soothing yes, let us know how it works!
Roach131 said:
jon, I have actually started using coconut oil mixed with some essential oils. Will post later as to how it works!
Roach.
I have feet that look like yours right now after a long very cold winter. The skin thickens in the dry heat indoors and then starts to crack and looks like alligator skin. The new skin below is so thin and tender that it begins to split open which leads to weeping sores that take weeks to heal. Having flares daily makes this worse. After some longer flares my skin peeled off completely and very large water blisters occurred. Because people with EM have very poor circulation (like diabetics) skin doesn't heal very quickly and any infection can result in ulcers. Recently, I have found that any new crack/sore also causes a localized flare that takes about a week to subside. These are very painful and cause massive swelling. Finally, when this happens I usually lose a toenail in the affected region because of the pressure coming from the flare and the peeling skin under the toenail.
The best cream I have found that isn't oily (oil tends to make EM flares worse as it can cause overheating) is Lipikar Baume by La Roche Posay suggested by my dermatologist.
I would be interested in what creams people are using as even the Lipikar used 3-4 times a day didn't do the trick this winter.
Best wishes--I hope your feet will heal very soon. I know how painful it can be.
Drgaica
Hi,
I have some peeling on my left smallest toe but it didn't cause blisters. I had a different kind of skin problem - it looked like I had a fine coating of white dust and the skin cracked at the ankles. Started using Lipikar's body lotion gel-fluide because I didn't want greasy products on my hot, flaring feet and the ankle sores look and feel much better. I didn't try the Lipikar baume. I have scabs at the base of the smaller toes on both feet and was advised to put Bepanthene plus and Cicalfate repair cream (Avene) (in the morning) and they finally are improving (could be occurring naturally but I think the creams are helping).
I also noticed that healing in the feet area is much slower (for instance, I still have scabs more than two months after a small toe injury but a doctor told me it was normal for that to happen to non-EM people) - it's nice to know that I'm not the only one thinking that.
Take care!
I experienced this a few years ago, and I found that the magic cure is to use Bag Balm (it's like a vaseline-type thing that was originally used for dry/cracked cow udders LOL). Also, something that's helped dramatically is to make sure not to put your feet in water too much that's really cold. If you use super cold water or ice water, it can make your feet TOO cold, then they just try to make up for it and they get really hot later (kind of like if you've ever gone out in the snow and your hands get really hot after you go back inside..idk maybe that's just me). Hope this helped!
Larson,
Has it really been 3 years since your last flare? If so, any reasons why?