White Finger

[dinger]

Can anyone tell me anything about the ailment known as white finger. I have got very painful and swollen finger and my daughter-in -law suggested it may be this . I have never heard of it .

[keepersdaughter]

Hello Dinger, your post triggered an old memory of a painful, swollen finger I had as a child and I recall my parents calling it 'whitefinger'. It was like I had a small, infected white spot in my cuticle which was very tender and swollen. I think I had to bath it in cooled, boiled salt water and used Germoline on it. If that sounds similar, maybe some antibiotic cream would do the trick. I did a quick google search and it came up as a form of Raynaud's disease, associated with vibration caused by using power tools.
Have you been repairing roads using a pneumatic drill by any chance?. :D

[dinger]

Thank you for your reply Keepersdaughter but it's not really like you described.Your reply did me good though I had to laugh as I think i do just about everything else but have'nt got to drilling any roads yet .Who knows perhaps that is to come yet.

[sheddie]

One question I would like to ask Dinger where have you been putting said finger?

[franbee]

Dinger, do you think it might be infected? If so you might need an antibiotic or some drawing paste (mag sulph). Fran.

[dinger]

no it is'nt infected just half of my finger is swollen and the fingernail is white this is why my daughter-in-law suggested it may be that complaint .


By the way sheddie to reply to your question .I stuck me finger in me ear and sang ting a ling a loo .

[sheddie]

You made me laugh then dinger, I might have known it had been somewhere strange, like scratching your brain again maybe?

[Ivy]

You can get rainauds disease from typing or knitting too but if it's just one finger it may be all sorts of things from gout to an insect bite,allergy etc .if it continues see your doctor fingers are so important.

[Sandra]

Ah yes, Dinger, I reckon you have Reynaud's Disease. Not as frightening as it sounds by the way. You can google it for details. I have this in a mild form and, what happens is, in the winter particularly, when I touch something cold (say the steering wheel of the car), my finger(s) immediately drain of blood, they begin to tingle, feel numb, and look most peculiar. Normal sensation and colour returns after, say, 20/30 minutes. I can't do this artificially, say by holding under warm water, but sometimes shaking the offending hand in a manic sort of way does return things to normal fairly quickly. My right foot is also affected.

The only thing I don't recognise is the swelling symptom. If you have Reynauds, it's an idea to wear mittens, not gloves, as the latter separate one's fingers, and thus they are more likely to react to cold. I wear an extra sock on my right foot in the winter.

If you google Reynauds, the best site I have found is BBC Health.

Sandra

[Oola]

Yes my mum has reynaud's and I have a very mild form of it... really it's just bad circulation in my fingers. Often my thumbs will go blue but if I have gloves it's not such a problem :)