Rough, itchy soles of feet

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Originally posted by Mary

Anyone else also have EXTREMELY dry skin on the soles of their feet? Mine gets so bad the itching about drives me nuts! It doesn't flake off or anything, but feels like it's a few inches thick at times! I have tried pumice, lotions, vaseline, foot scrubs... anybody out there with same problem with anything that has worked for them?

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Originally posted by kim r

oh no mary- go to your dermatologist. i hate to say this but it sounds like you have eczema. if you have KP, youare succeptable to also having eczema (related diseases). I also have your problem. My first derm blew it off and told me to [ut cream lotion on it. Since it was much more than 'dry skin' I went from regular eczema to chronic eczema and have been suffering from it for over a year. it got so bad they tried putting me on methotrexate which they use for cancer patients. needless to say i refused to take it.
ANYWAY, if it is really bad, your derm may have you do PUVA or UVB light box treatments with an aquacamphor compound. This type of treatment is expensive ($42 for a small thing of compound and $30-$75 here for each treatment, depending on how much your insurance covers) and it will take about 3xs a week for a month and then go less and less from there. This worked on one of my soles. The other one I still have eczema. On an eczema board they reccommended The Body Shop's hemp lotion for feet and it has helped a lot. If you have lichenification of the skin (thickening) like I do on the one still affected I soak in COOL (never soak in warm or hot water with eczema) for about 10-25 mins then apply the hemp lotion. The hemp lotion has hemp oil which has a lot of fatty acids good for your skin, urea, lanolin, glycolic acid. It is $12 a tube and the best foot moisturizer I have found out there and I have been searching for months. My eczema started with ALOT of stress, bad air conditions and an allergic reaction to carpet cleaner (chem dry). It seems like anything that has affected my KP affects my eczema. Let me know how it goes.

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Originally posted by Mary

Thanks for your comments, Kim. I will look into possible eczema. Never thought about it being anything more than irritatingly dry skin.