itchy toe blisters

[gr99]

I have blisters on several of my toes (on both feet) and it's not from athlete's foot or poor shoes. The blisters are extremely itchy/sore and are the size of a pea. I have one on each of the first 3 toes starting with my big toe. They are mostly on top of my toe between the last knuckle and my toenail, but one is on the side/tip of one toe. They are not true blisters in that there is no fluid sack. It is simply a very swollen and red hive. It seems like really firm and inflamed tissue. There's no scaling or flaking skin, in fact, it's shiny and taught from the inflammation. The itching and soreness is so bad that it has woken me up in the middle of the night. The itching is mostly at night, but I can still feel them during the day. I put OTC hydrocortisone and/or benadryl cream on them at night but it helps little.

The same blisters last about 2 weeks and then the healing process begins and they slowly disappear. I had at least 3 separate bouts of these blisters last winter that ended in March. I did not get a single blister after that until they returned last week (Dec. 6) which is around the same time it started last year. It is independent of the shoes I wear. For example, the blisters appeared last week and I've been wearing those sneakers for over a year. I ski often in winter, but I haven't put my boots on yet this year. My diet hasn't changed. My address and work haven't changed. The only pattern I can see (if there is one) is that it happens in winter months.

I have no other symptoms or allergies. I eat healthy, stay active and just got a clean bill of health from my physician after an annual physical. I am straight and not currently sexually active. I don't have diabetes and have never been diagnosed with any other disease.

I have not seen a doctor yet for this one, but I will call tomorrow. I found an old post on this website that also sounds like my condition.

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Dermatology/messages/31698.html

Any advice?

White Male 33yrs old. 5'5" 135lbs.

[Reslic]

Your dermatologist may be wrong.  I live in a warm house, wear thick toasty socks and had not been outside for three days, but I got chilblains.  Finally worked out how it happened:  in the shower.  I think the hot water heated my toes up too fast, so I got chilblains.

[mipeja]

by mi.
Wow. This thread has a wealth of info for chilblain folks. Something I noticed was that a number of folks describe symptoms just like most everyone else here and seem not to have any idea what was going on even though causes and many potential suggestions had already been posted. For folks with swollen, madly itchy toes who have read part of this thread and found no helpful info, I'd recommend reading all of it.

So here's a detailed summary of my experiences so far:
About a year or more ago I first noticed symptoms that were similar to the chilblains (it seems) that I now have. I don't remember if I had any extreme or quick temperature changes. I do remember being quite warm actually. I was sedentary most of the day in a warmed room with slippers on. My feet were quite warm. Toward the end of that day (I think) a number of my toes got very swollen and eventually even bruised looking. I think they itched, but certainly not as much as most people describe here or as much as my toes itch now. They healed decently enough after a while.

A few months ago I had a potentially related issue (potentially unrelated too). I got a bee sting between my toes. A week later two of my toes swelled up (the ones where the bee sting was) and itched a lot. Lasted for a few days or a week. I only mention it because it was on my toes and felt quite similar to what i have now.

   Two weeks ago my feet were really cold for the morning. I was barefoot (I've been going mostly barefoot for about a year now) and the temp might have been 35-40 ˚F, 5-15 ˚C. Once the day warmed up, my feet were fine. Five hours later my girlfriend and I rode our bikes and bus home on a long commute through the rain. I was wearing some vibram five-finger-shoe-things on the ride and noticed my toes feeling swollen. Don't know if the shoes had anything to do with this or if the swelling just occurred at this time on its own.
   Since then, my toes have been somewhat to quite swollen. Less than a week ago is when they started itching - after they were warmed up under a blanket for a while. I was asleep. When I woke up an hour or few later, my toes ached a bunch. Now any time they've gotten a little too warm, they itch like mad for a couple hours. Cold temps stop the itch after about 10min. I've scratched them gently alot to relieve the itch. They don't seem to need hard scratching. I just researched found and researched chilblains tonight so have not tried any remedies yet.
  A note: I think my mom had reynauds. I'm not sure if i do. Besides what i've described so far, I've never had what reynauds folks have described.

   One difference (at least as far as I can tell) with my case compared to others is that I'm generally barefoot all the time. I'm in the SF bay area of california so temperatures here only get a little below freezing during the winter. I also tend to push my edges of cold comfort and am generally comfortable or as comfortable as most people around me even if they have much warmer clothes on. This is my first winter being always barefoot and I've noticed my feet getting more and more comfortable with colder temperatures, so I'm reluctant to go shod in relatively cumbersome hiking shoes and thick socks all winter as a remedy.
   I'm hoping that that one incident when my feet were really cold is the cause of this itch. I don't mind avoiding extremes with the help of some shoes. Does anyone have any recommendations for avoiding/reducing chilblains in winter besides wearing warm shoes all winter. I'm going to try exercise when I'm cold, avoiding extreme cold, and perhaps some creams/acupuncture/whatnot for now. Any other suggestions for someone who would only go in shoes all winter as a last resort.

thank you thank you thank you

[mezzomom]

I' ve been having some toe issues every winter for years...I get a little red spot under the skin of my big toes, which hurts to touch and throbs when my feet are cold. There's no itching and it takes a month or longer for them to sort of come to the surface and they eventually turn into a sort of callous and dry up and peel away. I don't know why they come only in the winter and they're very painful to walk on. It's been happening for about 7 years now...any help on this? Right now three of them cropped up at the same time when it got cold here...thanks!

[jc244]

Thank you everyone for the helpful comments, especially the original poster of this thread.  I have been searching everywhere and finally found some good answers about chilblains.  I thought I originally had athlete's foot or something.  

One thing I would like to add about reducing the itching.  Never scratch your toes.  Instead, GENTLY massage them, the idea is to get the blood flowing normally back into your toes again.  It has greatly reduced the itching in my toes for days now, but hasn't reduced the redness yet.  

[Coldfeet123]

I have the red, swollen, taut toes every winter. They do get itchy - what really helps the itchiness is Eucerin original cream. I use some of the other Eucerin lotions all year on my feet but in winter it has to be the thick original.

[frank180]

Be warned!!!
Here's my lil story.
I developed the same thing this past month.  Itchy blistery swollen toes.  Started about two weeks ago.  I thought it was athlete's foot, something that bothered me once, fifteen years ago.  BUT! It looks and feels VERY different.  NOT the flaking off, but swelling, not the holes between your toes but blistering.  
Not wanting to pay for a doctor visit i got some internet advice and bought clotrimazole to "fix" it.  After just a few hours of slathering it on, the toes got SO much worse.  It seemed to relieve them at first, but over time they got SO much itchier and painful and swollen and what started as two or three problem toes became ten, until i was seriously considering "how many toes have to remain before i look stupid at the beach, because i'm smashing off the rest" and was in tears.  
THEN! i found this very website, and all of you with the same symptoms as me, and conclusive evidence.  I live in swampy, dank Florida, humid town- and the past weeks we've had a handful of days below freezing and i don't have heat, just a space heater that i stick my feet directly on as soon as i'm too cold.  aha!
so i never heard of this "chillbrains" until i found you people here, and amazingly everything sounds the same!  

So what happened?  the discovery that it's not a fungus led me to wipe off the precious $20 antifungal cream that was coating the little devils.  Within fifteen minutes, the swelling stopped and i could walk again.  a christmas miracle.  so what i think i've discovered is, yes, the warming up helps, but the moisture and lotion to relieve itching actually makes it worse.  dry!  dry!  dry!!!
i wish i took some "before" pictures.
  
thanks thanks thanks, free doctors! god bless us, every one!!!