Popple-Ox

I noticed this morning that my hands are covered in little blisters. This isn’t really a good thing – they’re annoying, painful and itchy, but when I saw them I had a moment of reflective thankfulness. A few years ago I had these blisters constantly. They’d go through cycles of appearing, then popping and bleeding, then just as they were starting to clear, new ones would appear. I had a couple of years where I couldn’t make fists, because every time I did my knuckles would split open and bleed some more.

It’s been a while since I’ve had this problem. In the last few years, they’ve appeared a few times when I’ve had particularly bad systemic flares, but it’s been a long time since they’ve been an everyday problem. So much so that when I first felt them on my hand this morning, it took me a while to recognise what they were. I realised I haven’t had them once in the time since my Raynaud’s first appeared, as I couldn’t work out whether wearing gloves would be helpful or harmful to them (my hands were cold so I decided to risk it.)

I’m hoping this flare up will pass soon as I’m not enjoying my hands being itchy and gross, but I’m so thankful that I don’t deal with this everyday anymore, I can deal with it for a few days.

I just looked up the proper name for this rash as I couldn’t remember it: pompholyx. I was thinking something that sounded like Popple-Ox. I don't think I was that far off, but I'm not sure my dermatologist would agree!

Thanks for reading!

Little Miss Autoimmune