u/Fusiondk

F**king suck. I’m a little older (43), with thinner forearms and wrists and as you can imagine, a bit tougher skin after years of wear. I had the opportunity of getting an amazing piece done earlier this week, was able to keep Saniderm on for 2 days but kept springing leaks so took off and rotated to traditional healing. Nothing prepared me for the constant cracking/stretching that skin endures….its been a pain in my ass. Now I had to return to work and it’s just getting dragged through the grinder no matter how careful I try to be with movement.

Any tricks to reduce stretching/fissures? I’m a nurse in a long term care facility/rehab center…as you can imagine anything under 84 degrees and the common complaint is “It’s too cold”, so I have to wash a couple extra times per shift for infection control, but typically I was twice a day and moisturize after a washes and when I feel tightest come in. Swelling was a huge hurdle until last night/ this morning - this hand was almost double the size of my other and that was ON 600 mg Ibuprofen. Now even outside of Ibuprofen swelling has reduced quite a bit, although at work I can tell the heat draws more blood. A lot of fissures started from lymph weeping from swelling originally Friday afternoon/evening.

I’m not worried about infection nearly as much as trying to preserve art integrity/prevent poor healing…but literally any movement of my hand has my skin stretching fissures. I’m going into Day 5 for reference.

*First pic is now, all the rest are after completion*