Small lumps on fingers

Factual Questions
1

I’ve done a Google, but couldn’t come up with anything so here goes.

Every so often, I get small lumps on my fingers (and sometimes my toes). Usually they come up in a cluster. They are VERY small, and filled with a clear, sticky liquid. Regardless of whether I pop them or not, they usually dry up and form a small brown scab within a few days.

They don’t itch, and they don’t hurt. And I don’t get them anywhere except on my hands and occasionally my toes. After having them appear for a couple of weeks, then they disappear completely. As a matter of fact, I had just one on my thumb the other week; I didn’t find any others.

I’m just curious as to what they are, and if I’m the only one who gets them.

2

This sounds like it could be a Herpes outbreak. It usually starts with burning/tingling feeling in a certain spot, then a cluster of tiny painless blisters erupts at that spot. Search on keywords “Herpes Simplex” and look for actual medical sites.

3

uhh… no you’re not the only one and I’ve certainly been wondering what they where too - guess I know now. I get the exact same thing. I’ve never had blisters around my mouth which I thought where how that form of herpes manifested itself, so I never suspected that.

4

Definatly not herpes. I get them from time to time, and considering how paranoid my parents were about me and my siblings getting cold sores it would have been caught or at least pointed out if that’s what it was. I’ve always wondered what they were too, afaik they’re not contagious or I’d imagine they’d show up places other than my palms and fingers.

5

mmh… now I’m getting really courious about what they are, my mother gets cold sores, but she too has always been real paranoid about avoiding passing it on. The burning feeling bbeaty described isn’t there - atmost a little itching but that might just come from me focusing on them.

The do appear from time to time - last year I didn’t notice any but else they seem to come around once a year for a month or so.

I’d definately wouldn’t mind getting rid of them.

6

I get them as well and I’m fairly certain that I don’t have herpies. I actually went to the doctor several months ago and asked about them and he wouldn’t give me a clear answer to any of my questions. I asked if I should pop them or not and he said doesn’t matter. I asked if I should lotion the areas or try to keep them dry. No clear answer. Maybe he doesn’t know either.

I have an appointment at a dermatologist in August and I’m going to ask and see what that doctor has to say.

Btw, I’ve tried googling them before and all I could come up with is a slight reference to athlete’s foot.

P.P.S. The ones I get on my feet itch but the ones on my hands don’t. I wear dress shoes all day and I believe they are the result of foot sweat. I started wearing two socks and they went away.

7

Are they little blisters? I get them sometimes after working in the yard and thought them to be poison ivy.

8

It sounds like a form of eczma, possibly a mild form of pomphylox. Try www.dermnetnz.org/dna.eczema/info.html for some photos and advice

9

Definitely not herpes. Herpes is very painful and would probably manifest itself somewhere else. I occasionally get the same thing, but it happens when I’m in the sun. Sun allergy, I guess.

10

Sun spots?
Alien experimentation?

11

Mine doesn’t look like the eczema at all - there is no blushing of the skin. But the sun might have something to do with it, I do seem to get it around summer.

Could be alien experimentation too, though I’ve noticed no signs of anal probes :slight_smile:

12

I found this link ->http://www.fujisawausa.com/medinfo/faq/dys_eczema.htm

It sounds like Dyshidrotic Eczema is what we’ve been describing.

13

I had something similar that plagued me a couple of years ago, sounding verrry similar to what you’re describing.

My blisters, all very small as you described, showed up in clusters. Most were about the size of the periods in this message, with some occasionally as large as a small letter “o.”

They would start out clear, but darken, presumably as the result of other fluids leaking in–like blood.

It happened on my right hand only, at the tips of the the index and ring fingers, on the left side of the thumb, and the right side of the ring finger.

My dermatologist said just that it looked like some kind of irritation to the fingers was what was causing them, and gave me some creams to dry them up. But he also said that that didn’t get to the source of what was actually causing them.

I narrowed it down to two things: my mouse and some other skin creams. The places where the blisters occurred corresponded exactly to the places where my fingers dragged across the desk moving my mouse. When I bought a track-ball, they went away.

However, that also corresponds to a time when my GF was having an unrelated skin irritation of her own. When I applied the ointment in the places she couldn’t easily reach, the same areas of the fingers did the brunt of the contact. Her irritation finally ended about the same time as I bough the track-ball. I could have been allergic to the cream.

Another vote for the suspicion of the “cream allergy” theory is that is a year or so later it happened again–but this time only on the index finger. The only thing that had happened out of the ordinary was that just before those blisters showed up, I had had a cold sore outbreak, and for the first time tried Abreva to treat it. I used the index finger to apply the Abreva.

I’ve used the word “blister” pretty freely, which usually implies something large. But, as in the cases you’ve described, they were so small that they didn’t cause the skin to raise at all.

BTW, I vouch for my own results with Abreva. It shaved a good 3 or 4 days off the normal recovery time, and I never grew one of those thick, ugly scabs in the meantime.

14

See, I wouldn’t call them blisters, as there is no pain whatsoever. Which is why I don’t think its what scm1001 or Jdeforrest mentioned, although maybe I just have a very mild form?

I too have asked a doc before, and he didn’t know.

Maybe it IS aliens, and only a privileged few of us have been chosen…

15

Tsubaki, was that YOU I saw on the Mother Ship?

16

I get something like what was described in the OP, but mine don’t “form a small brown scab”. Older ones simply disappear, and new ones form. They appear on my hands and fingers. They are more plentiful during periods of stress and are so small they are barely noticeable. An MD once told me they are stress-related.

Maybe we could have a Derma-Dope sometime and compare our afflictions.

17

I get them too! On the tops of my feet and occasionally on the tops of my hands. They itch and when I scratch them they usually ::blech:: burst. It’s annoying as hell and I’m getting little gray scars. My doc said they were “probably allergy related” but I don’t know what would cause a reaction ONLY on the tops of my hands and feet.
Glad to know I’m not the only one.

18

Tsubaki, the Mother Ship called and left a message. :smiley:

This site is very informative. http://www.dermnetnz.org/
I tried looking for what you described, but the cases they picture seem very extreme. Occasionally I get a small blister on a finger or two, like a small pimple, only it’s not (does that make sense?). But there aren’t any clusters.

19

Same problem. Down the sides of some fingers and on the sides of the feet.

I found out I was allergic to Sodium Laureth Sulphate which is (one of) the main ingregdients in diswashing liquid and hair shampoo.

That was weird because I’d been using SLS products for 35 years without the problem, and then, pretty much bamo, allergy kicks in (maybe I hit puberty :smiley: ).

Basically SLS breaks the water surface tension and permits foaming.

I switched to a product without SLS and problem has basically gone away. Whenever I grab my SO’s hair shampoo by mistake, it doesn’t take for for the reaction to come on and then it takes a couple of weeks to clear up.

I also found that by 'softening’my hands with the SO’s hand cream also helps to reduce the outbreak.

Can’t hurt to give it a try.

20

So is this a real problem for most of you?

It doesn’t really bother me. Like I said, they aren’t painful, and its kind of fun to pop them (I hate popping pimples, so I guess this kinda fills the gap). And they aren’t bad enough to worry about what I need to do to heal them.

And is anyone else’s implant hurting at the moment? :smiley: