On and Off Peeling Skin

[iroqsox]

I am a 21 year old female... 3 years ago during the summer the skin around the nail of my right thumb began to harden and thicken, until it looked liked just dead skin and i my thumb in that area was unable to feel anything it touched because of the thickened skin... The skin then began to peel, and the tip of my nail which is usually white began to become a more creamish color that was much more evident... Soon after my other thumb began to do this... This lasted for around two weeks during which time this happened to around 2-3 layers of skin where one layer had peeled partly and a portion of the exposed layer of skin under it would also began to crack and peel. This stopped after two weeks and  my skin went completely back to normal... A few months down the line it began to do it again... This time a few of my other fingers also began to have the same symptoms... and the skin on my thumb would crack and bleed... This has been an ongoing on and off process for the last 3 years... I went to my family physician but unfortunately by the time i got an appointment my thumbs were already back to normal, and when I explained a few of my other symptoms my doctor told me that I had very mild case of  Reynaud's Phenomenon... He also ran a blood test and a few special skin tests to rule out the posibilities of sceondary reynauds or other another illness... all the skin tests came back negative, and the blood test came back perfectly healthy... I took his word for it at the time, but after reading up on reynaud's and meeting an individual who had reynauds I feel as if reynauds is not the reason my skin is peeling in such a manner. I'd greatly appreciate if someone could help me understand what it may be the cause of the peeling. I put in a photo i was able to take with my camera phone when it happened again this past week the quality is not the best however i hope it suffices.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
The symptoms are suggestive of fungal infection of the finger as well as nail. In onychomycosis(nail fungal infection) nail plate can have a thickened, yellow, or cloudy appearance. The nails can become rough and crumbly, or can separate from the nail bed. There is usually no pain or other bodily symptoms, unless the disease is severe. To prevent it wear gloves while working on people having fungal nail infections and do not share hand towels with them.

In addition, topical and oral antifungals are needed which are available under prescription. My sincere advice would be to consult a dermatologist and get a KOH examination of the nail and skin specimen done to confirm the diagnosis.

I hope it helps. Take care and please do keep me posted in case you have any additional doubts. Kind regards.