Prune fingers

Emily gets that sometimes. It’s really rare – I think she’s had it maybe 2-3 times in the 3 years since she’s been on IVIG. It’s usually after an infusion.

She also gets itchy finger tips sometimes after an infusion as well.

It’s strange stuff.

Kelly

I’ve had this off and on for the last five months or so and for me I think the IVIg makes my blood too thick. Your fingers prune up when there is more water outside your body than inside your body so your skin absorbs water to equalize the osmotic pressure. Since there isn’t much room in the tips of your fingers the skin tends to pucker and gain folds to deal with the increase in fluids. If the IVIg thickens up my blood (as I’ve seen in a test tube) then it makes sense that nearly everything has more water than I do so I wrinkle up pretty easily. In my case doubling my daily dose of baby aspirin seems to solve the problem, or at least helps a lot. If I forget a day then it seems like the blood has a hard time getting back out of my fingers again. They get red and puffy (when not in water) and feel like they are blistered – stinging and kinda itchy. I just figured this out so good timing on your part. I don’t know if the baby aspirin would help you but it’s made a big difference to me.

Gary, I would mention it to your dr. I did and it had something to do with something else going on with my body, another auto process. I go through those periods of prune hands and currently am in the swollen, red and itchy stuff. My blood is being tested this week again. I did notice when my hands were shriveled my blood was really thick, and dark red when they tried to get a tube to test it. This week it was bright red and ran really well(for me) and on the first stick! I can’t take aspirin to thin the blood out so I just have to wait it out and increase my salt intake alittle to thin it out. Increasing water intake is really helpful also. Just curious, do you experience any increase in symptoms of your cidp during these changes in your hands?

Dehydration.

Howdy,

About the prune finger thing. I had this happen during day two of my last infusion. I was downing lots of benadryl and the nurse was checking me out, saw the fingers and said, you better start drinking. So I increased and it seemed to be less.

I also noticed it randomly and unevenly on my two less affected fingers:confused:
Not sure but I just associated it with dehydration although there may be more to it.

I also got some eczema patches like Stacey and a few others. It just seems like the IVIG dries the heck out of you. And it lasts alot longer than just during the infusion. I am two weeks past infustion and the eczema appears either under control or much less noticeable. We’ll see next time what happens.–tim–

I suggest you web up the: Electronic Textbook of Dermatology put out from Stanford University.. On the left column, scroll down to ‘diabetes in skin disease’ and then click on into the Abstract AND the introduction…. You should read these first before going to anything else in the formats… It is good background for anyone who has skin issues with CIDP. Treating most issues is as treating for diabetics, the distinction being the causes. We have to watch our hands and feet and skin far more diligently than diabetics in many cases as we don’t always feel what’s happening.
The good part about this whole site is how some diabetes AND CIDP type issues affect/effect subtle autonomic lymph and vascular systems…causing issues such as the pruney fingers. It’s also in an understandable format, not total ‘tech speak’.
I apply lotions at least 10-20 times a day! I hate to wash my hands as I have to ‘lotion’ all over again. I’ve got non-latex gloves to wear for such occasions? When I had my onset? I had such dry skin that it was like I had body snow! Scalp, anywhere…flakes like from a bad sunburn were just coming off! Your skin, the largest organ in your body is not being told what to do correctly and passing what it needs on to the brain and the rest to keep your skin moist and healthy because of the ‘mixed signals’. Most neuro’s only/mainly focus on the pain aspects. This is right and proper, but an ounce of common sense on our part helps – lotion up!
CIDP? That ‘P’ Stands for POLYneuropathy. Meaning many nerves are affected. It is not uncommon for autonomic nerves to be affected in different ways, tho most commonly involve the abilities to breathe or swallow tho… It’s all part and parcel on what makes US lucky that we got a diagnosis? Even tho we each have different aspects to this whole thing, we’ve ‘GOT IT!’

I just came home from being in the cold all afternoon. I have Prune Fingers. I think it has to do with circulation which the cold made worse.

I also have noticed the “prune” fingers. I mentioned it to my neuro and didn’t get much of a response as the the cause or what exactly you would call it. I just had it last night and my fingers were cold at the time but the pruny feeling came first. Its just strange that it comes and goes. My hands are almost normal today. I didn’t noticed any other different sensations or I hadn’t been doing anything yesterday out of the ordinary. I just chalk it up to another weird phenomenon of this disease…..