Allergic Reaction?

So I'm having some weird reaction on my hands i think. I lifted my xj about a month ago, and for the most part did it w/o gloves. I usually wear them for everything, but on the lift i started w/o them and just never got around to putting them on. at some point i did put them on and ended up getting grease/oil/dirt inside, but didn't care much. After finishing the work, the next day my hands were really red and burning. It hurt to touch things, and my hands felt swollen. all of this was on the palm side of my hand, and a little around the knuckles on top.

the gloves had been sitting in the garage until yesterday when i washed them and used them to do a side job that i lined up for some extra cash. I got some new gloves but didn't want to use em so i used the old Mechanix ones.

So now today i got the same reaction on my hands. Just wondering if anyone has ever experienced something like this from any kind of grease or oil from the car. While doing the lift, i also did the diffs with regular GL-5, not synthetic. I think i did get some of the old diff fluid on my hands, maybe thats it? other than that the only things that got on my hands was lithium grease from the zerks, and dirt from teh undercarriage.

any ideas what this may be? anything in the dirt from the road that may have caused it?

Just grab your hot tailpipe every time you get out of your car, it makes your hands nice and tough.

Could also be contact dermatitis, from something that has become an irritant. We get that when we wash clothes in Tide (but not too badly - I can use it to clean driveways and wash cars without getting a reaction.)

Contact dermatitis is usually caused by a chemical irritant (like harsh soaps,) but can also be a reaction to a physical irritant (like fine dust or salt getting into your pores.) Got any fine dust around there?

5-90 said:

Could also be contact dermatitis, from something that has become an irritant. We get that when we wash clothes in Tide (but not too badly - I can use it to clean driveways and wash cars without getting a reaction.)

Contact dermatitis is usually caused by a chemical irritant (like harsh soaps,) but can also be a reaction to a physical irritant (like fine dust or salt getting into your pores.) Got any fine dust around there?

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not really, but there was of course the dirt underneath, and it has been in some mud a while back. nothing like silt or anything though.

Yep..

It's kind of weird that you bring this up... From all the years I've been wrenching, I never had a reaction until a couple of weeks ago when I was working on my '55 Chevy. I almost went to urgent care because it started getting worst over the couple days. My hands were swallon, only itched some of time, it looked like a weird rash and started spreading. It hurt too.

But it went away after putting a ton of Benadryl on it.

It sounds like you need to throw away those gloves. I'm not a doctor, but I'm guessing it's a reaction to the fluids and maybe you scratched your skin for the chemicals to do that..

E

yea the gloves are goin in the trash. I got some new ones already but i wanted to break em in working on my jeep, not doing other work, so i wore the old ones. I had completely forgot about what happened the last time i wore them.

I am a doctor (not a dermatologist though)...what were those gloves made of? Is the reaction/rash the same as the last time you noticed it after wearing the gloves? How long did it last, and how long has it been this time? Pain? Itching? Both? I just re-read that the reaction is the same...Anyway, like someone mentioned, benadryl should help, you can take it orally as well, and/or some 1% cortisone cream would help as well.

Im a doctor Jim, not a short order cook!

Maybe you should also try using latex or Nitrile disposable gloves. Unless your sensative to latex also. At least you can just throw them away and put on a fresh pair as needed.

I had the same issue with the mechanix gloves a while back (had the pair for about a year of every day use)found out it was cuz they dont breath to well and fungus can grow in the warm moist enviroment. my cousin is a dermatoligist and actually tested the gloves. Now i change gloves every month and have no issues

GauchoMD said:

I am a doctor (not a dermatologist though)...what were those gloves made of? Is the reaction/rash the same as the last time you noticed it after wearing the gloves? How long did it last, and how long has it been this time? Pain? Itching? Both? I just re-read that the reaction is the same...Anyway, like someone mentioned, benadryl should help, you can take it orally as well, and/or some 1% cortisone cream would help as well.

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"I'm no doctor, but this man is dead." For some reason, my wife always gets a charge out of it when I say that...

Gerr said:

)found out it was cuz they dont breath to well and fungus can grow in the warm moist enviroment.

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bingo. same thing happened to me. now i wash em every time i use them enough to get them dirty. smell the inside of your gloves, if they stink buy new ones. believe it or not your hands sweat quite a bit while working - thats like taking off your gym socks and putting them back on next time you want to work out. :confused1 think about it, thats the same way your feet feel when you get athletes foot.

I get that same kind of reaction any time i get brake fluid or carb cleaner on my hands. Usually lasts for 2-3 days and then starts clearing up in patches.

As I get brake fluid on my hands at least twice a month, its pretty lousy.

brake fluid is hygroscopic, it absorbs moisture. it intensly dries your skin if left there for any length of time. and carb cleaner is a solvent, does pretty much the same thing, overdries the skin. pretty much every fluid in your vehicle is bad for you in some way, so you should wear gloves when working anywhere near any of them.

dont get me wrong, i hate wearing gloves when i work on stuff.... i just deal with it. which is why you will almost always see me with oil stained hands... after awhile it just doesnt wash out anymore

GrimmJeeper said:

dont get me wrong, i hate wearing gloves when i work on stuff.... i just deal with it. which is why you will almost always see me with oil stained hands... after awhile it just doesnt wash out anymore

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use the right solvent and your hands will always get clean :spin1:

GrimmJeeper said:

brake fluid is hygroscopic, it absorbs moisture. it intensly dries your skin if left there for any length of time. and carb cleaner is a solvent, does pretty much the same thing, overdries the skin. pretty much every fluid in your vehicle is bad for you in some way, so you should wear gloves when working anywhere near any of them.

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While I'm very aware of all that; I've been wrenching non stop since the 4th grade and have only in the last year started seeing this happen.

thanks for the info. as for the gloves, they are old. like 5 years old, they have holes in the fingertips, and all. I have washed them regularly, but just saw this problem for the first time when i did the lift. so its only happened twice. They are definitely going in the trash. I just hate having to break in new gloves, those old ones wer great because they were so comfortable.

as for the rash, its gone for the most part now. I didn't feel like going to walmart and getting benadryl so i just dealt w/ it.

01_XJ said:

thanks for the info. as for the gloves, they are old. like 5 years old, they have holes in the fingertips, and all. I have washed them regularly, but just saw this problem for the first time when i did the lift. so its only happened twice. They are definitely going in the trash. I just hate having to break in new gloves, those old ones wer great because they were so comfortable.

as for the rash, its gone for the most part now. I didn't feel like going to walmart and getting benadryl so i just dealt w/ it.

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I use gloves almost all the time I'm working in the garage.
The best way to break in a new set is to wear them while driving. If they start to get uncomfortable you take them off for a while then try them later.
Normally I have three pairs in rotation.
The first set are the ones that the fingers are worn off so I just cut them off anyway and use them when working on the bender or grinding.
The second set are the ones that the fingers are still intact. Using them around hot items and general garage work.
The third set are the new ones, only used when I wear a hole in set #2.

My hands are thrashed from years of service. What I do is use lotion and sometimes wear latex gloves under my shop gloves, making sure to air out the hands constantly.

Keep em' clean....

Rick

if the gloves were old... and were damp / sweaty sitting a while, there could be any number of things that "grew" in there.