Raynaud’s Phenomenon
Raynaud’s Phenomenon, pronounced (ray-NOSE), is a disorder where spasms in your blood vessels can restrict blood flow to your extremities, usually your hands. This manifests itself with discoloration of the hands and fingers, with severe cases causing a bluing of the fingertips. This lack of blood flow makes your extremities feel painfully cold.
Raynaud’s can be an early indicator of a number of connective tissue illnesses, including lupus. My wife has Raynaud’s and so does another member of her family. Strangely enough, I think I have it as well, to a lesser degree.
Those with Raynaud’s Phenomenon should avoid smoking, cold temperatures, intense vibrations, and emotional stress, so don’t argue with someone on a Winter train ride in France.
In our house, we make sure we have warm socks, and if it gets really bad, we just soak our hands or feet in some warm water. We also bought one of those parafin wax skin treatment machines. My wife likes it a lot, and she says it does help, but it’s a bit of a pain to use it.
Hi Jeff, What a coincidence, I was told I have this and have been on Trental and Clonidine for some time for it, but it was just this morning that I first experienced the dark purple fingers. I wasn’t cold or stressed either. It just happened out of the blue (so to speak). Till today the only symptom was frequently icy fingers, especially at Dr. appts.
I got a laugh out of your comment on France. As for me, ‘j’adore la France’, and would love to be over there train riding right now. ‘J’adore’ the French too, though it’s true that “debate” is a common, friendly sport. If you’re not used to it, it could indeed induce stress! (Have you had a bad experience there?)
Stay warm.
I have Reynaud’s too. I never noticed it until right before I was diagnosed with Lupus in the hospital. It got progressively worse. A few months ago, my blood pressure increased out of the blue. My rheumatologist had to put me on blood pressure medication…a calcium channel blocker. This actually helped with my reynaud’s A LOT. He also told me that he has had to issue handicapped parking permits to his patients with reynauds because some of them could be severe. I still make sure my hands and feets are covered and warm but my fingers don’t turn blue/purple/white as easily as it did before. I used to have it where my fingers would turn color even when it was 65 degrees outside.