Painful Peeling Hands and Feet After Diving

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Maybe the boots are the problem. You use your hands to put them on your feet. If you put on dress socks then only your hands will have touched the boots. If for some strange reason your feet are ok and your hands aren’t then it should be the boots. Good luck. Repost when you have tried this

 

[Jack56]

Maybe the boots are the problem. You use your hands to put them on your feet. If you put on dress socks then only your hands will have touched the boots. If for some strange reason your feet are ok and your hands aren’t then it should be the boots. Good luck. Repost when you have tried this

I will try this, but I have been wearing the same form of dive booties since I became a diver. I’m really thinking it has something to do with saturation, humidity, and prolonged exposure to water. Maybe the pores on my hands and feet are holding onto the water and causing my skin to detach? I can’t seem to find any articles other than one from 1990 titled “Diver’s Hands” which describes skin irritation from saturation diving over a period of 16 days. Those divers lost their license because there isn’t a cure or any preventive measure.

Or maybe it is the limestone in the caves? I may touch it periodically while reeling lines, but not with every finger or the palm of my hand (or feet!) I did my deco course in Mexico’s cenotes in august 2017 where I was underwater double time and did not have this reaction.

 

[uncfnp]

Do you perhaps have circulation issues, especially with cold temps?

Another thought..

Dyshidrosis - Symptoms and causes

 

[JohnnyC]

The water in Mexican caves isn't great. And it's all connected. It's possible that you were exposed to something that made its way into the cave. Carwash is so-named because the taxistas used it as a car wash.

You can certainly wear gloves in the caves in Mexico, I do all the time. You could even use dry gloves if you wanted, although I'd recommend lots of practice doing no-viz exercises as they are definitely a barrier to following a line.

My hands get pruny, but I've never had peeling like that. I tend to spend 4-6 hours in the water per day when I'm down there. It's all very strange. I hope you figure it out!

 

[Jack56]

The water in Mexican caves isn't great. And it's all connected. It's possible that you were exposed to something that made its way into the cave. Carwash is so-named because the taxistas used it as a car wash.

You can certainly wear gloves in the caves in Mexico, I do all the time. You could even use dry gloves if you wanted, although I'd recommend lots of practice doing no-viz exercises as they are definitely a barrier to following a line.

My hands get pruny, but I've never had peeling like that. I tend to spend 4-6 hours in the water per day when I'm down there. It's all very strange. I hope you figure it out!

Good to know! Thank you so much for your reply, I will look into this.

 

[Jack56]

Do you perhaps have circulation issues, especially with cold temps?

Another thought..

Dyshidrosis - Symptoms and causes

Possibly, I’ve had blood work to rule out everything else. But, I do have cold hands and feet all the time, poor circulation did cross my mind. Thank you so much for your consistent replies and helpful info!

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Sorry in advance if this isn’t the place to post this.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced skin peeling on their hands and/or feet after extensive diving. I have been diving for many years and recently experienced severe peeling on my fingertips after my last two trips to Mexico this year. I was doing my intro to cave course in March and when I returned to the states on the East Coast it was snowing. The peeling and painful cracking began then, some bleeding occurred. I thought it was the temperature change.
My dermatologist told me it was Contact Dermatitis... maybe I touched a chemical somewhere, but I don’t think this is the case because I recently returned to Mexico this August for experience dives and after the very first dive my fingertips were inflamed and red. The peeling and cracking began during my trip and I had to wrap my fingers each day. They become very pruned underwater and the skin literally rips when I touch my gear. My feet are peeling, but they are not painful.

I’m considering contacting DAN, but want to hear if anyone has experienced this or has medical insite. I believe I need a dermatologist that deals with athletes as I had this problem on my feet as a synchronized swimmer growing up. Doctors had no idea what it was, I’m hoping there’s more studies/information out there now.

Hi Jack56,

Thanks for attaching the photos. This is an interesting phenomenon. It could be contaminant exposure as @JohnnyC mentioned, but if it happened while you were synchronized swimming (presumably not in a Mexican cenote) I might look at other alternatives first. I wonder if it's more a function of the duration of exposure to water. Were your dives in the cenotes longer than your normal dives?

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Jack56]

Hi Jack56,

Thanks for attaching the photos. This is an interesting phenomenon. It could be contaminant exposure as @JohnnyC mentioned, but if it happened while you were synchronized swimming (presumably not in a Mexican cenote) I might look at other alternatives first. I wonder if it's more a function of the duration of exposure to water. Were your dives in the cenotes longer than your normal dives?

Best regards,
DDM

Hello and thank you so much for your time. Something very similar happened to my feet as a synchronized swimmer 15-18 yrs ago. I was in chlorinated water 3-4 days a week for a few hours at a time, my feet didn’t have this reaction until about 2 years into my career. Doctors assumed it was from the chlorine, once I quit swimming it subsided and I didn’t see it again until this year. (I worked on and in the ocean in 2011 and take dive trips often)

The dives in the cenotes this year were only 10-20 min longer than my deco dives last year which were also in the cenotes. The cenotes are a mix between fresh and salt water which you probably know.

I am going to see a dermatologist at Upenn, but I’m afraid they don’t see many divers.

I do seem to be special when it comes to weird things like this! Thank you again for your time. I will definitely update this post if I find out what it is.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Avocados, mango, bananas, are related to latex?

Plus several other of my favorite things to eat. However, it appears that there is "allergy" and "negative reactions" or something like that. I still eat avacados, mangos, and bananas but don't touch latex. What they tell me I have is a "mild" reaction which seems rather severe when half my body is covered in a rash.

 

[scubarushu]

How's your hydration prior to these dives? Independently of diving, I've found that my fingers prune a lot more when I'm dehydrated. Google suggests "dehydration pruney fingers" and results claim dehydration contributes to pruning. Maybe it's related to the subsequent dryness as well. See also Salty fingers?