Strange feelings in my fingers.

[NotWorriedAtAll]

Over the last few months my hands have become very sensitive. It doesn't hurt but it is very irritating. The best way I can explain it is that I can feel the threads in materials and the sensation is the same as if you ran your fingers over a finely grooved surface like the surface of an LP and it sets my teeth on edge.

Even rubbing my fingers together is irritating as I can feel my fingerprints.

My blood sugar levels are always at a reasonable level when I check them.

I am hoping it is down to all the handwashing over the last year or so and that it will settle down but I am anxious because many years ago I remember a similar symptom being the harbinger of a diagnosis of MS for my first husband.

Do Type 2 diabetic get neuropathy even when they keep their sugar levels under good control?

My son thinks I may have some sort of chemical damage because of overdoing the Dettol spraying and wiping.

 

[Inka]

I was going to suggest dryness before I read the rest of your post @NotWorriedAtAll Do you use gloves as much as possible eg for doing dishes, handwashing laundry, when spraying the Dettol and doing general cleaning, etc? That can make a difference.

You could also change your soap. Liquid soaps are very drying, as are normal bar soaps. I use a natural bar soap and it’s made a huge difference. It’s by Faith In Nature. You could also get a barrier cream and try that as well as a good quality moisturiser.

I’d try all those things for a couple of weeks and see if they help.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear your hands have been suffering @NotWorriedAtAll

I’ve certainly had more issues with skin drying out and chapping since the pandemic started. OKeefes Working Hands is my new go-to. I think I prefer that to Neutrogena now.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

I was going to suggest dryness before I read the rest of your post @NotWorriedAtAll Do you use gloves as much as possible eg for doing dishes, handwashing laundry, when spraying the Dettol and doing general cleaning, etc? That can make a difference.

You could also change your soap. Liquid soaps are very drying, as are normal bar soaps. I use a natural bar soap and it’s made a huge difference. It’s by Faith In Nature. You could also get a barrier cream and try that as well as a good quality moisturiser.

I’d try all those things for a couple of weeks and see if they help.

Sorry to hear your hands have been suffering @NotWorriedAtAll

I’ve certainly had more issues with skin drying out and chapping since the pandemic started. OKeefes Working Hands is my new go-to. I think I prefer that to Neutrogena now.

I must admit I haven't been using gloves at all. I've not been moisturising either because my hands haven't been cracking or even looking very dry as I'm used to if I've had dry skin previously.

I slathered them with moisturiser last night and slapped a pair of gloves over them and they did feel a bit better this morning so I will keep on with that and wear the gloves too. It is silly because I bought a pack to use in craft and there are loads in the box but I shy away from using them as I am completely programmed now to avoid using disposable stuff and yet the stuff is there and not using it won't make it disappear and if I don't use them then there was no point buying them!! I pride myself on being a logic-driven person but sometimes I baffle myself! 😛

Again I have loads of good quality moisturising and barrier creams, I got given tons of it as freebies last year when I was reviewing products for the Amazon Vine program - I need to make myself use them. They are not ornaments for my shelves!!!

Fighting with myself at the moment because I have washed and tidied (Spring Cleaning bug kicked in) and put almost all my clothes and linens away and now I don't want to wear clean clothes because it will untidy my nice neat airing cupboard/ wardrobes and I'm enjoying having empty laundry bins - my husband spends a lot of time laughing at (with?) me and my 'foibles.'

 

[Inka]

Empty laundry bins - what are those? I haven’t seen the bottom of my laundry bin since I had children

Keep up with the gloves and moisturising and I hope you’ll see an improvement soon @NotWorriedAtAll

 

[Clifton]

We use Uriage creams. They're French - from a small spa town of the same name just outside Grenoble and are brilliant. Can't recommend them highly enough.

 

[AndBreathe]

@NotWorriedAtAll - If your hands are dry, or that could be the issue, the I suggest trying the last addition to the Lidl Cien handcream range. It's the "intensive" variant.

I have used their Q10 cream for ages - I develop cracks on my fingers if I handle bread or baked products (such are my issues with gluten), and it worked well, but they had run out recently and the Intensive is even better. It's not at all greasy and impressively effective for under £1 a tube.

As my OH also uses it, we have tubes around the house.

 

[mikeyB]

It’s no use lots of folk recommending creams, especially if you’ve tried others. We’re all different. I like Aveeno. So what.

For what it’s worth @NotWorriedAtAll is describing what has already been suggested. A reaction to all this flipping hand washing and sterilisation. You’re just washing out all the natural oils. So just put them back. Neutrogena is as good as anything for that.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

I have noticed an improvement when I remember to moisturise and wear gloves for household tasks. Now all I need is to improve my memory so I remember to moisturise and wear gloves for household tasks!! 😛

Thanks for the advice everyone. Much appreciated.

 

[pm133]

Empty laundry bins - what are those? I haven’t seen the bottom of my laundry bin since I had children

Ah the memories.
We had 3 kids and when they were babies there wasn't a day where we didn't have an obstacle course of 6 full airers continuously drying, a machine full of dirty clothes waiting for a space to hang them, 3 full bin bags of dirty washing, each with 3 smaller satellite plastic bags of other dirty washing. I don't know how we coped.

20 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. Believe it or not, I miss it now that they're all in their 20's.

 

[PattiEvans]

This may be off the wall, but close to diagnosis and when I started to lower BGs I started to notice the feeling in my fingertips. I hadn't noticed it had gone prior to that at the process is really slow. What I was getting was the nerves regenerating. Have you recently improved your control?

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

This may be off the wall, but close to diagnosis and when I started to lower BGs I started to notice the feeling in my fingertips. I hadn't noticed it had gone prior to that at the process is really slow. What I was getting was the nerves regenerating. Have you recently improved your control?

Not really. I has been pretty stable and well controlled for years although it has improved slightly this year from being in the 7s generally to being in the 6s. Not sure if that would be enough to cause that sort of effect. I am also wondering if it might be a side-effect from certain sweeteners. In particular sorbitol so I have eliminated that from my diet for now to see if that improves things at all.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

I just got back from the GP where I had three vials of blood taken for them to see if there is anything iffy going on like tumours or toxicity issues.
I think I may have worked out what has happened though.
I've been doing a huge amount of VR exercise using an Oculus Quest 2 headset and controllers.
The controllers have something called haptic feedback - this is basically a vibration that happens when something explodes or you punch stuff and also both hands have triggers.
Well I've had the vibration setting on full and been gripping hard while punching for hours at a time day after day since January.
I am pretty sure I've given myself hand arm vibration syndrome and vibration carpal tunnel damage.
I have been trying various home remedies to improve matters and I've bought a vertical mouse for my computer and most importantly I've turned the vibration setting on my controllers to as low as it can go and switched it off for the games I've been using to exercise.
I am hoping I have realised in time to be able to reverse the damage as this can be a permanent thing. But as long as I don't make it worse as it would be awful if I wasn't able to do my other hobbies that rely on me having good manual dexterity.