Chilblains

Sooooooo, is it bad if they, ah, stop hurting then go purple?

Just asking.

googled the term before responding...
I'd think the answer is probably a yes, and that you should probably put blue toes in warm water, if not go see doc..

I agree with Freetha, you might want to think about getting to a doctor if you can. The treatments listed on wikipedia are as follows: keep area warm, avoid scratching and try using an anti-itch cream like Calamine lotion. Another quick Google search said that they typically last for 7-14 days and then usually just go away. If they hurt, trying taking a pain medication like Tylenol or Ibuprofen.

Hope you feel better soon!

Elinox Wrote:If they hurt, trying taking a pain medication like Tylenol or Ibuprofen.

This might be the funnist thing I've seen today - I'm on an average of 400mg of Tramadol (zydol) a day so I don't think over the counter pain medications will do much of anything <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

(They've gone squishy now)

As I am sure you're all on tenterhooks, here's the update.

I have always been prone to very cold hands and feet. This winter they're actually a little better than usual, but due to recent illness my entire system is probably a mess. I normally have the habit of sitting with my feet in a basin of hot water, or wrapping hot water bottles around my feet etc - but I've been good lately and haven't done any of that for months.

So anyway, my left foot was getting itchy and sore, and at some point (I have no idea when) I noticed that a) the nails were growing verrrry slowly and b) part of my big toe was red and inflamed. It got so painful that I couldn't even let the blanket in bed rest on it. Another toe followed, then bits of the right foot. As of a couple of days ago, some of my left foot was swollen and mishapen with some red inflamed areas, and my right foot was mostly okay. The big toe on my left foot was so inflammed it wouldn't bend, and the pain seemed to be coming from the bone rather than the surface.

Then all of a sudden the inflamed areas (on both feet) went purple and stopped hurting. The sudden stoppage of hurt actually worried me a bit more than the purple ness.

So anyway, just now I went to put on some of that calomine stuff (it looks like desert, mmmm) and noticed three strange things:

1 - My feet do not feel cold, but if I press them hard enough to make the skin go white, when I relieve pressure it takes a VERY long time for colour to return - as if there is very little blood flowing in the capilliaries.
2 - Some of the small, dot-like inflammed areas stay purple/red even when pressed (like the test for meningitis rash).
3 - Large areas of the backs and toes of both feet are purple/grey. It looks either like they're covered in bruises, or like they're covered in dirt.

At a guess, my immune system is on the fritz and is causing my naturally low-blood-flow feet to get even more oxygen deprived than usual. Awesome.

On the plus side, assuming they don't drop off at the ankle, the doc might give me some medication to widen the blood vessels. This could, in the future, double up as an excellent performance enhancing drug <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s -->

All in all, I'm still for the whole "go talk to doc" part.. just a couple of things I think "might" help

you might want to take some asprin because it thins the blood actually and might help your bloodflow a little
Omega-3 capsules can do the same job if asprin doesn't "go" with your current meds.
It sounds like obstructed bloodflow to me so having your feet raised to be levelled with most of the rest of your body might help the circulation a little (don't have to push it "up" again...)

Yeah...go to the doc, lol...Doctor's are usually the best bet when anything of the like occurs.

And if your immune system's the one on the fritz, we feel for you, lol. And know a treatment for that, lol, that works really well to lower the immune system (we get it every year or so to keep ours from being stupid).

--Gabriel

Freetha Wrote:It sounds like obstructed bloodflow to me so having your feet raised to be levelled with most of the rest of your body might help the circulation a little (don't have to push it "up" again...)

This might explain the poor circulation in our feet. More reason to sit in bed with our laptop and some yarn! XD

Though hopefully we'll also get a good new doctor soon, so that we don't have to rely solely on the wisdom of the hive.

-Cat