turning red

Before the heart attack I was almost always red.  If you touch me - the spot you touched would turn white and then fade back to red.  The girls where always fascinated by this although I could never figure out why.  Immediately after the heart attack I swore I was as white as a ghost!  Touching me the same way did nothing.  Now I've noticed the red complexion is coming back.  I don't know if this is of any significance or not, or even if it has any truth behind it but my palms where red with white spots.  after the heart attack they where pure white and now they are turning back again with the white spots.  I remember someone telling me some time ago that the white spotted palms where a sign of major heart problems.  Any truth to that statement?

  My BP is still relatively low, ~110/65, but will have to check at the right times to be sure.  A side note and probably unrelated; my BP in bed in the AM before pushing the covers off is 80/60 but does increase once sitting up to ~106/70.

[RadioAstronomyObserver]

   Immediately after the heart attack I swore I was as white as a ghost!
Let me rephrase that...
  After the  "Bypass"  I swore I was as white as a ghost!

[ed34]

Oh wow, you sure know how to pick a topic. I thought about your post and you know for years before my heart attack I had virtually the same thing with one exception. I didn't have white spots, they were more like large white blotches evenly spaced. I would say 3-4mm across and were not round, they were all different shapes. If I pressed down on the skin, the skin would become the same colour as the blotch. I can't remember if they were there all the time, but I do remember they were there on hot days and cold days, so temperature isn't related. Since my very first stent I've not seen the blotches.
Wow, you really have got me thinking now.

[kevk]

I have had the same thing all of my life. My face neck and shoulders will turn cherry red looks like a bad sun burn. All of my arteries are wide open never had a heart attack but have had chronic heart failure for years. I am really interested to see if this is cardiac related ?

[ed34]

If anyone has this strange condition, I would be happy with it. When my last stenting was performed and the redness went, I developed a new condition on my hands called pompholyx. A dermatologist has told me that the cause is unknown and there is no known cure. I now have normal hands for several weeks, then the skin between my fingers itches like crazy, so bad it wakes you up during the night. Tiny red blisters appear and eventually burst. The itching stops at this stage but a clear fluid then runs over the surrounding skin and hardens. After a couple of days this crust splits open along with the skin under it, making large bleeding lesions. After another three days it all seems to clear up and remains normal for a couple of weeks until the process repeats itself all over again.
Give me the red palms any day, but of course I don't know if the two are related or not.

[RadioAstronomyObserver]

No, I doubt very much that the blisters and itching is related to the red with white splotches I'm talking about.  The condition I have is more a constant state of blushing all over my body, and gets an extreme deep red when I'm angry or laughing hard.  The splotches are only on my palm and probably because of the uneven tightness of the skin through out the palm is why there are "splotches".

[ed34]

Ok, no, redness was only on my palms and nowhere else.
Did it look like the redness you see in people who drink lots of alcohol? Most heavy drinkers I see have very red faces.

[RadioAstronomyObserver]

I never noticed drinkers complexions, but then again I don't hang around any to notice.  This is not causing me any concern except for that it is slowly coming back so It would be nice to be able to point to the possible causes.

[RadioAstronomyObserver]

The best way to describe this; When someone laughs really really hard they turn red in the face.  I was red all over while relaxed and when I laughed hard I was super red!

[ed34]

Perhaps its a form of blushing. This is caused by the capillaries being expanded by the sympathetic nervous system. This widening of surface vessels causes the redness. Something is obviously causing your capillaries to fully dilate for the redness to appear.

[itdood]

Ed, you seem to be describing pustular psoriasis, which is autoimmune.

RAO, you might have a form of rosacea.   There are also other GI issues that can lead to red palms.  It can also be anxiety, hormone, or vagal.    Tough one from what you are describing.  IMHO I don't think there's a specific cardiac relationship but I could be wrong...

[ed34]

Isnt rosacea redness in the face? My face always looked normal, it was just my palms.
Can rosacea also affect the palms?

[ed34]

oh sorry, my bad, looking at wrong patient lol
sorry again