Chillblains...

OK people, today we are going to talk about Chillblains. What is that you asked? Yes, before moving to UK, I too have never heard of this word before. Why am I talking about this? It's because I have them :(

My version of chillblains is pretty bad. It started of with my right hand's ring finger and small finger swelling a little and reddish when i woke up one morning. I normally just dismiss these small abnormalities as I am prone to having mysterious cuts on my hands from time to time. I thought i might have been bitten by some insect or have something pricked into my fingers as I saw 2 tiny red dots on the fingers. I scanned my fingers under a microscope (in the office) but couldn't find anything suspicious. So i thought i'll just let my antibody fight it and let it heal naturally.

As i left them to be, they got worse... both fingers swelled bigger and the skins started cracking. It hurts when I try to bend my fingers (very tight and the cracked skins wound). Finally sensing something is not right (after almost 2 weeks later?) I went to a walk-in clinic in Swindon town. The clinic is run by experienced nurses. Why don't I just go to a clinic with actual doctors? Well, it's a different system they have here in UK as opposed to what we have in MY / SG. I shall talk about it in another post. The lady nurse attending to me was also puzzled by the mysterious condition of my fingers as I didn't injure my fingers, don't recall having them bitten by insect (when I am awake), haven't been in contact with industrial chemicals... She called in another male nurse in to consult who also didn't know what is the cause. Finally, they decided that it might be some kind of virus infection and put me on antibiotics for a week.

After another week, my fingers is still no better. Still big red swelling fingers and now with blisters. So I went to the hospital this time to the A&E dept, which then sent me off to the walk in clinic in the hospital (yes, also run by nurses) because I didn't injure my fingers. After looking at my fingers, she told me that most probably I have chillblains. Together, we looked up the internet and she read the symptoms to me and i felt yeap that's what i had. So there it is, the answer to my mysterious illness on my fingers. There is no treatment for chillblains so she gave my blister wound a dressing and sent me off. Oya, she also gave me a good scolding for not seeking treatment earlier and not registering to a GP :p

Later, I went to the pharmacy to buy some cream to sooth my chillblains and got the Chillblain cream from Boots. The cream helps and my fingers's swelling went away and the blisters healed. But til now, that 2 little fingers of mine is still pretty much in dark-red / purple-ish in color and the index and middle fingers also are trying to join in the 'fun' but just as they start swelling, i quickly apply the creams and control the situation. I guess I'll be stuck with chillblains unless i go back to MY / SG where the weather is hot all the time.

So, to educate those from the tropics so that you can identify/prevent them should you move to a cold country next time, here's some info for you.

Chilblains (sometimes called pernio) are small, itchy, painful, red swellings on the skin. Chilblains are thought to be caused by an abnormal skin reaction to cold. They tend to occur on the 'extremities' that more easily become cold. That is, the toes, fingers, nose, and earlobes.

Chilblains are common. It is thought that about 1 in 10 people in the UK get chilblains at some stage in their life. It is not clear why some people get chilblains when their skin gets cold. It is probably due to 'poor circulation' in the extremities (toes, fingers, etc). The tiny blood vessels under the skin narrow (constrict) when the skin becomes cold. The blood supply to areas of skin may then become very slow. As the skin re-warms there is some leakage of fluid from the blood vessels into the tissues. In some way this causes areas of inflammation and swelling leading to chilblains. The speed (rate) of temperature change may play a part. Some people get chilblains if they warm up cold skin too quickly.

Some people with poor circulation and with other problems of their blood vessels are more prone to developing chilblains. However, most chilblains occur in people who are otherwise healthy.

Symptoms of chillblains:
* Chilblains are very itchy. A burning sensation is also typical.
* They are usually red to start with but may become purple.
* Pain and tenderness over the chilblains often develops.
* In some cases the skin over a chilblain may blister which may delay healing.
* Sometimes the skin breaks down to leave a small ulcer which is prone to infection.

For further info on how to prevent and treat chillblains, please visit this link: http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23069145/ or do your own google search ;p