Hands like Death Valley…
February 29, 2004, 1:41 AM
Really and truly, if you look at the back of my hands, you’ll see. There is no difference between the back of my hands, particularly my left hand, and Death Valley. I am so dried out on the back of my hands that they have cracked, and are painful.
And only the back of my hands, too. The palms of both hands are fine. Perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with them.
During December, I’d run into the hands-like-death-valley situation once, and then in January my hands started to recover, and get towards normal, as I started using lotion at night to help things out a little. Then I started redecorating in here, specifically the painting phase. That did it, and sent me back downhill again towards dry, cracked skin. Why? With all the painting I was doing, I was constantly washing my hands to get the paint off. And the constant hand-washing took its toll on my hands. And that undid all that progress.
Now, the painting is finished. Good thing. Now I can try again with the lotion, and see if maybe I can get a recovery on the skin.
And yes, as I mentioned in a Fall 2002 quote, lotion does indeed make me feel uncomfortably greasy, but since I’m so dry, I must use it if I wish to recover. So here’s how I compromise. First of all, I lotion up. Then after I get it good and rubbed in, I wash only the palms of my hands to get the lotion off of that. Then I press the towel on my hands (press straight down, not rub) to get all the water off.
Obsessive? Probably. But that’s me for you.
Categories: Myself