Dystrodic eczema! Please help!

[Melissa984]

I NEED HELP! this is my second time ever having an outbreak of dystrotic eczema on my hands & feet! It's so painful & itchy. It is awfully irritated by sweating & purell & handwashing with the soap at work. I need any advice & suggestions regarding soaps to try. Or gloves to protect my hands under the vinyl gloves? Where to purchase these supplies. Anything to make me comfortable so I can sleep! Only thing I'd say works at this point are ice packs.

Need to return to work Thursday because I found out I'm pregnant! I want my time off for maternity leave and I need suggestions on how to get through working under these conditions! Cannot possibly take time off everytime I have an outbreak. Need to hear from some nurses. Only so much advice you can get from the specialists!

Please help!

[simvee]

hey, if your condition is anything like the pictures here

(dyshidrotic eczema http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1122527-overview) then i think i have this problem too. it's being caused (i'm pretty certain) by the steris triclosan 0.5% soap we're using at the hospital. i work at another hospital with different soap that doesn't irritate as much. it's like a rash, sometimes with tiny pustules, on my hands, just like the pictures.

i had the residents here take a look at it and they initially prescribed triamcinolone 0.01%. that helped but it never went away, so they upped it to 0.05% and recommended i stop using the hand soap at work, and instead buy dove or some kind of pure or natural soap and keep it at the desk. that's not the easiest thing to do the icu, but i'm trying. i bought a dove sensitive skin unscented body wash (that's the only dove liquid soap i could find!) and a bar of ivory. the ivory bar really, really helps, but it's harder to tote that around at work.

chris

[simvee]

Forgot to mention that the residents just diagnosed this as contact dermatitis, which seems to be the general heading over this particular skin condition.

[1987-RN]

I had the same problem with red patches on my hands, peeling skin, fissures, and incredible itching. I went to the doctor and she said put super glue in the fissures to keep them from tearing or getting bigger. also got a script for clobetasol diproprionate. its a thick steriod cream u rub on twice a day and it worked miracles. that was two years ago. all the handwashing makes it worse she said. i still get pinhead sized dry itchy areas but they usually clear up on their own after three days or so. ask for the clobetasol!!!