freezing hands

[Godsgrl]

The other day, I took my niece over to a friend's house to show her their horse. I took a bowl of scraps for the chickens, and some munchies for the horse. Anyway, in the process of throwing out mac and cheese, sweet potato peelings, etc, my hands got wet. Add to that the fact that it was snowing, my hands were very quickly quite freezing.

By the time I had thrown out scratch, and done some odds and ends, my hands were hurting like crazy, and I couldn't use them. My husband said to run them under really cold water. I chose warm water instead, as they were desperately wanting heat. But which is right? I know you have to be careful, as you can burn your hands because you can't feel heat as well when your hands are that frozen. What would you use? Thanks!!

 

[Mattemma]

I start out with the cold to warm to thaw out my hands.

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Seems like I read somewhere that you are supposed to use cool water until the freezing/pain goes away... You know, sort of warm them up slowly? Just like when a person gets hypothermia, they just use a type of thermal blanket to warm them up slowly.. Too fast and it could more harm than good.

 

[Junkmanme]

You might check with your Doctor to see if you have an affliction called "Raynaud's Phenomenon".

I have it. It is associated with some "Auto-Immune" diseases, such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, Myositis, Lupus, etc.

Smoking irritates it, also.

worth checking into.

-Junkmanme-

 

[sfw2]

I agree with the starting out with cool water, then warming up. I would also recommend a good pair of insulated gloves. Most places have them on sale, right now.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I just bought some water-proof winter gloves for my husband for Christmas. It was the one thing he asked for. Sometimes, I've worn latex gloves under my gardening or cloth working gloves, to keep my hands dry when doing some job where my hands would get wet, when it was cold out. It seemed to help.

 

[Godsgrl]

Quote:
That is interesting. I don't think it is that, I think it's mostly that I haven't gotten acclimated to the cold weather yet. Kinda hard to do when it's 65 for days, then drops to 30's, then back up to 65. I should have worn gloves, just didn't think about it. Thank you!

 

[Godsgrl]

Thanks everyone, I guess my dh was right after all. I am going to start wearing gloves when I work outside in the cold now too. Freezing hands is not something I want to repeat.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I've had it happen to me a couple of times when I was younger. It's really painful!

 

[SallyF]

I've discovered in my 60+ years, that gloves are a good thing. I play a woodwind instrument, so I've started using leather gloves for gardening and outdoor work. I have insulated gloves for winter, and plastic gloves for housework. I stop just short of wearing white gloves to church, but I do wear gloves almost everywhere else. They help!!