Reynaud's disease anyone? (white fingers in the cold) (spinal surgery, x-ray, back pain)

[stone-ground]

Gee, I sure feel for all of you.

I didn't realize that it can get that bad. My sister has it, but not to the extent that some of you have.

Great advice everyone! Very appreciated. Thanks!

[gemkeeper]

All great suggestions! Thanks for bringing me into the mix again, RH1.

Studedude, you are one terrific husband. When others do not have this disease they rarely empathize with the sufferer to the degree that you do with you wife. My next hug is for you!!

As you suggested, this disease can be very serious, not just uncomfortable and annoying. I am so sorry that your wife has already lost some tissue to the lack of circulation. I, too, am constantly treating infections of fingers and toes and lose pieces of skin from October through May!!

When the circulation starts to shut down in the fingers, toes, nose, earlobes, etc. the tissue first becomes painful and purple. Numbness, tingling and pain follow along with totally white, "dead white" flesh. One's fingers actually feel hard as though they are those of a corpse. At that point, a severe sufferer cannot touch any paper (paper cut would be so easy!), use a knife or fork, or even try to pick up a dime or pull on a zipper tab. In my case, the skin will split quite deeply and bleed off and on for days. I imagine this is the same situation for your wife, studedude.

I am definitely getting the rice socks, karen_s! Thanks so much for that source. I'm surprised that my rheumy has not mentioned them. The Gore-Tex gloves are wonderful! They prevent cold and dampness from entering in, and retain your body heat inside the glove.

Mittens are the best choice, though, if you do not need your digits - like on the computer! Yes, when it is chilly in the house I do use gloves on my computer. Lots of typos!! I, also, keep a heating pad on the floor where I usually sit in the evenings to rest my feet on. Feels great, works wonders. I warm the foot of the bed at night with another heating pad.

I hope that you all find some good aids for yourself or loved one to protect those cold digits.

[Dantosh]

Hi. My name is Dan and I just discovered that i have the syndrom yesterday and I am 18 years old. I was at the mall and my hand were completely fine but one of them when completely white and had no circulation and i kind of made a complaint about it when i was talking to my friends mom. She told me that i might have this reynauds thing. So I could recall in the past though when i have had really bad cases of this when all of my fingers on my left hand would go numb and i would have to run it under warm water for several minutes for it to go back to normal. I am very positive I have this reynauds disease and i think i am going to see a rhuemotologist or whatever that person said it was above. thank you.

[pic-chic]

I've had this for years and have found that flicking my fingers when it's just starting helps. Basically, just press your fingers against your thumb until they flick past and repeat a few times. This seems to stimulate the nerves to allow the blood flow. Running warm water helps if they're totally numb, but it takes awhile.

[cmacf1]

While I don't know if any of the previous posters are smokers, smoking brought on Reynaud's with me, but only in my toes. When a doctor said quitting smoking would stop my toes from going numb, I didn't believe him. Then many years later, I did quit. I have never had the numb toes since I quit. I did not have nearly the severity that many people here seem to have, but it was annoying to have numb toes every winter. Best of luck to all of you here!

[Psalms57_2]

One thing that isn't on the informative list above is that after dropping many glasses I have switched to drinking out of mugs. It is difficult to find the smaller ones though so they don't weigh a ton. Interesting to note that others have the finger cracking though. Oddly I have found that juicing a lime and adding it to my drinking water helps and tomato based products make it much worse.

[sunsprit]

I don't have Raynaud's, but I watched a close family member deal with it for over 50 years.

It started in her hands, which had the cracking/splitting of the soft tissue, and the susceptibility of an infection in the fingers. Often times, the bruise that started the infection came from little more than just touching an object, like trying to dial a telephone.

In her case, the doc's alleviated a lot of her symptoms by doing a "nerve block" up in her shoulder area for the nerves that control blood flow to the hands. So she had the maximal amount of blood flow possible at any given time to her hands. This helped a great deal, but did not totally eliminate the hardening of the tissues over time.

What many folks don't realize with this disease is that there's a similar hardening of the tissues internally, as well, which goes on over time as the disease progresses. A typical area is the esophagus, and swallowing may become difficult. A full blown advanced case may develop into CRES syndrome .... a combination of Cancer, Raynaud's, Esophagus failure, and Scleroderma. In the case of my family member, that's what developed in her 60's. It's a very insidious combination, because the treatment that alleviates Raynaud's (increased blow flow measures) is the treatment that promotes the hardening of the tissues (in the extremities, particularly) due to Scleroderma.

She survived several bouts of breast cancer treatment, but also developed cancer in her legs and feet which required a partial removal of one foot. In time, she had such an inability to swallow food that she had to have a permanent stomach tube inserted so that she could be fed with a liquid diet directly into her stomach; this for the last year of her life in a nursing home.

I'm not asserting that everyone with Raynaud's will progress to the CRES Syndrome level of problems, but it's such a common combination of developments associated with the initial disease symptoms as to be named. So it suggests aggressive management early on to minimize the progress and symptoms of the disease. I'd urge anyone with this diagnosis to be consulting with their rhemuatologist as well as a naturopath to eliminate as many triggers for attacks as possible. Accupuncture also seems to help for some. Moving to a warmer climate should be a serious consideration for long term health. Smoking, or any food intake which causes blood vessels to constrict, should be an absolute no-no.

My best to those of you with this auto-immune disease. It's a serious problem and not just a minor inconvenience.

[baker Freesia]

It has been interesting to read all post on Scleroderma; as I myself have it;the autoimmune-Raynaud's disease=Scleroderma. I have the more serious kind of Scleroderma, also known as "Diffuse Systemic Sclerosis" per according to my Rheumatologist. When I was first told I may have Raynaud's disease,, my first reaction was, what did you say? That came from my family dr. she said my hands change coloring. I've had this since my teens, & like other posters I held my very cold hands under warm water for awhile to warm them up. I had thought every persons hands changed coloring in cold weather, I thought nothing of it, it just was apart of me. I take Nifedipine, also take Lisinopril. I go once a year for pulmonary function test,Ct test, & I can't think of the other one, some kind of echo, but don't think it's echo cardiogram, but could be. I see my Rheumatologist about twice a year. I wear fuzzy gloves in stores through out winter, also while using the computer. I dress warm. I have arthritis in my spine, unknown whether it's related to having Scleroderma. I have to use a heating pad for my back, I take Cyclobenzaprine when the pain is extremely unbearable in my spine. I have a hard time swallowing. As other posters mentioned my finger tips also can look hard like a corpse or plastic doll. Scleroderma causes the skin to become tight. It is noticeable in my face & fingers. Thank you also to other posters mentioning of rice sock, sheep skin mitten, & not to eat food to cause the blood vessels to constrict, & the mentioning of nerve block.

[sherrenee]

I have never had positive diagnosis but I suspect I have this. My hands and feet are always freezing and often begin to feel numb when subjected to cold temps. My feet are my main issue they are most often ice cold and then occasionally flush and turn hot and feel as if they will crack open.

[baker Freesia]

If it is at all possible that you may have some kind of Raynaud's phenomenon sherrenee, it would be in your best interest to have it checked out with your family dr. in finding out,, Raynaud's indeed can be serious, if left unattended it can make life not so fun.