Crops of small, deep blisters on the hands--rubric help, please!

[Celia M. Malm]

Has anyone seen this symptom, and if so, what rubric did/would you use to describe it?
The "blisters" are tiny, about the size of the tiniest pillules. They are also deeper under the surface of the skin than a "normal" blister. And there is no clear cause--they appear seemingly at random, sometimes singly, sometimes in crops. Usually they're located on the side of a finger, but when there's a crop, they will sometimes spread to the top of the finger; they sometimes appear on the inner surface of the finger or, more rarely, even on the palm. They're filled with a clear fluid, but lancing them doesn't seem to help them heal. They can be painful and/or intensely itchy, but this seems to occur mainly when they've had even light pressure applied to them. They tend to heal up and disappear (slowly) as mysteriously as they appeared.
The "technical" name of this condition, apparently, is "dyshidrosis" or "pompholyx eczema," but neither of those terms appears in my reps (Boericke and Kent), and this looks so different from anything I would normally describe as eczema, I'm hesitant to repetorize it merely as "eczema." I see words in my reps like "vesicles," but I'm not sure whether that's an accurate term for these blisters or not.
Any clue what to call this, to repertorize it?
Thanks,
Cee

[Shannon Nelson]

Hi Cee,

This *sounds* exactly what I used to sometimes get after being in the
sun too much, and I never did find out anything about it. It hasn't
happened in a long time, but I've no idea why. I assume that "vesicle"
is the right term, tho it seems to me to come from deeper than what I'd
usually think of for a vesicle??

Here are some rubrics that might apply:

Skin; ERUPTIONS; ECZEMA; Vesicular (VESICLES)(p, 4, 0) (4) : chel.,
pic-ac., rhus-t., sulph.

Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Warmth of sun, from (SUN, from)(m, 1, 0) (1)
: clem.

Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Deep seated, after scratching (SCRATCHING,
after)(l, 1, 0) (1) : Lach.

*** Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Subcutaneous (l, 2, 0) (2) : both-l.,
phyt.
such a small rubric, gotta be incomplete...]]

Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Confluent (CONFLUENT)(p, 10, 0) (10) :
alum., Cic., croto-t., cypr., petr., phel., rhus-t., rhus-v., Sulph.,
urt-u.
stage of this is described as confluent, and a generally nastier
picture. *Possibly* those remedies might apply even at the earlier
stage?]]

Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Exfoliating (p, 3, 0) (3) : Bry., puls.,
rhus-t.

Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Fine (FINE)(p, 9, 0) (9) : acro-c-f., arn.,
ars., chlor., Lach., merc., nat-m., rhus-t., tab.

Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Itching (p, 95, 8-8) (95) : acan-pl.,
aego-p., aeth., alco-s., am-c., am-m., Anac., ant-c., ant-t., apis,
arn., Ars., ars-h., aster., bacch-a., bry., bufo, CALC., calc-p.,
calth., cand-a., cand-p., Canth., CARB-AC., carb-v., caust., chel.,
cic., clem., con., cortiso., croto-t., daph., dulc., ferr-ma., Fl-ac.,
Gast., GRAPH., guare., Hep., herin., ignis, Jug-r., Kali-c., kali-chl.,
kali-i., kola., Lach., lap-be-e., lob., m-art., mag-c., mang-acet.,
med., MEZ., naja, Nat-c., nat-m., nat-s., NIT-AC., nux-v., Ozone,
ph-ac., Phos., pitu-a., plan., plb., por-m., posit., psil., Psor.,
pyrus-c., Ran-b., raph., Rhus-t., rhus-v., Rumx., sabad., sal-ac.,
saroth., sars., sel., Sep., sil., SULPH., syc-co., tab., tarax.,
tarent., tarent-c., tell., term-c., thuj., tub., unc-t.
Skin; ERUPTIONS; VESICLES; Small (p, 30, 2-3) (30) : acro-c-f., ail.,
alum., am-m., apis, aur-m-n., cann-s., Canth., carbn-o., chel.,
Crot-c., croto-t., fl-ac., graph., hell., iris, LACH., leon., Manc.,
mang., Merc., naja, nat-c., Nat-m., nit-ac., Rhus-t., sec., Sil.,
thuj., urt-u.

(Oops, sorry, I left out rubrics re painful and/or itchy and/or
pressure agg.)

My thought would be that, if there are clear modalities and/or any
changes around the time this began, you could build a case around that.
But if (as in my case) it's more of a blip in "the rest of the case",
then I'd just go with the rest of the case and see if that stops the
recurrence?

I'll be interested to hear if you learn or find anything more
enlightening about it--good luck!

Shannon

[Celia M. Malm]

Thanks, Shannon!
This came up on the fibromyalgia forum I belong to. Someone mentioned these "weird blisters," and suddenly *everyone* was saying that they'd had them too. I googled "blisters deep in the skin" and finally found out the technical term for the condition.
Interestingly, according to the info I've uncovered, this condition seems to be cocommittent, in some people, with...*zing*...our old friend IBS, which is another common symptom in people with fibro (although none of the sites mentioned fibro.)
Cee

[Jason & Amity]

thanks for writing about this as I have had this for years..only in the summer and really when it is really humid out..they itch and if left alone do disappear..now I feel like I am not alone out there

[Tanya Marquette]

i just tuned into this topic. interesting. i had a similar
condition for years. it came out mainly on the bottom of my
feet and drove me crazy. there were times i had it on the fingers
or palms. the itching was intense and i would scratch till they
popped. it was never dx altho at one point i was told it was a
fungus and another time, that it wasn't. the condition pretty much
disappeared with constitutional work. stress in the area of the
outbreaks seemed to aggravate the condition. so shoes that weren't
correct became a problem. it is rare that i get a minute outbreak
these years--what a relief. so keep working with your homeopath and
hopefully success will come soon.
tanya

[Joy Lucas]

yes 'vesicles' will do nicely - often associated with heat and perspiration

Joy

http://www.joylucashomeopathy.com
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/homeopathystudy/

[Celia M. Malm]

Thanks, Joy!
Cee

[McPhee Family]

I had a case with this. The remedies for her were Med, Thuja, and Nitricum Acidum. I found the MM description of better help than the rubrics. I searched on both vesicles and blisters. There are *many* rubrics for each finger, etc. regarding vesicles.
She gets them on the palm of her hand and her fingers - usually more on the ring finger. Itches, burns, weeps a watery fluid. Usually prompted by touching raw vegetables or washing her hands. Definitely agg from water.
HIH!
Truly,
Erica