<p>Dry hands to this extent are not just dry hands. I’d get him to go to the doctor and find out if there’s something systemic going on. A dermatologist is looking at this as a skin problem, so you’re better off going to an internist who may be more willing to look for other causes.</p>
<p>I didn’t think to send him to his internist since he has a dermatologist, we just might do that. I agree that something isn’t right here and I am not thrilled with this dermatologist anyway-- he was already seeing them for laser treatments for warts and has now had at least five “last time, I promise” treatments… I don’t know enough about it to know if this many treatments is as excessive as it seems but he’s had open sores from the laser treatments since July now and every time they promise this is the last time, he’s had almost ten treatments. I wish his annual physical fell in the winter instead of in the fall, winter is always when he has problems and getting this man to the doctor is like trying to move heaven and earth.</p>
<p>The thyroid is an interesting thought. He was at one point VERY overweight, but all it took was reduction of calories (not even a healthy diet) and exercise for the weight to fall right off. He doesn’t have any other symptoms besides the dry skin, by all accounts he is a robustly healthy person. He’ll have to run that theory by the internist. We are pretty attuned to thyroid issues here since all the women on my side have them, it doesn’t seem likely to me since his only symptom is the dry skin but something is OBVIOUSLY not right here!</p>
<p>Just bumping to report it is amlactin at night with socks that finally did the trick. I think it’ll be a week to 10 days before his hands are “normal” but after a few days now they are vastly improved.</p>
<p>Is that a prescription or an over-the-counter??</p>
<p>Over the counter, he got it at Walgreens. The derm recommended it as a last ditch effort.</p>
<p>It’s not nasty stuff so he can put a little on in the morning with cotton gloves for the drive to work and its soaked in sufficiently by the time he gets to his office, and then do the socks at night.</p>
<p>ALBOLENE. Marketed as moisturizing cleanser for make-up removal. I can get it at CVS; ~$12 for a 12oz tub. Primary ingredient is mineral oil. It liquefies as it warms on your skin, and gets pretty greasy, but a lot soaks in and then you gently tissue off the excess. Winter I have to put it on morning and before bed or my skins cracks wide open at my fingertips and is really painful. When it first started a dermatologist thought I had a fungal infection because my hands were so red and crusty-dry (I had been working with my hands in very cold water and handling fish). Prescriptions did not work. A second (or third?) dermatologist suspected the skin was just crazy dried out and told me to try Albolene. It worked and I continue to require it every winter, some 25 years later…</p>