What does "Contact Dermatitis" look like?

This.

Those diseased looking things are my hands. I've been living with that giant red spot on my right hand for at least a year and a half now. The first time I ever experienced this was in the spring of 2010 while I was working as a supervisor at a liquor store. These extremely dry, red, ITCHY, oval-shaped spots showed up on my thumbs. I figured it was due to constantly handling cardboard boxes, and constantly dealing with dust. Maybe an allergic reaction? They were bright red, flakey, and cracking from being so dry. I put heavy duty cream on them and eventually they went away. But then they came back.

I soon noticed that I was developing this huge red spot on the top of my right hand after practices and games. This spot would flare up and go away repeatedly, once again it was dry and so itchy, but I didn't see a doctor about it until months later when I found out I was pregnant and was experiencing a particularly intense flare up. I figured it was possibly a fungal infection from my wrist guards, since they are the Triple 8 "Hired Hands" that I had started using within the last 6 months of this rash showing up. The Hired Hands are comparable to fingerless gloves, so lot's of hand coverage, and I was sure throwing them into the washing machine wasn't likely getting them as clean as I'd like to think. The doctor said it was definitely not fungal, but more of an eczema type thing with a small infection, and she prescribed me a yeast cream. I thought this was strange, as I have no history of eczema and it's rare to be seen in adults, but I was willing to try anything.

Triple 8 Hired Hand wristguards. These gloves are fantastic, but to my skin, an irritant.

The first few days this mildly helped, but fast started to sting when I'd apply it, and the reaction just kept coming back still as strong. I stopped using the cream and eventually the spot calmed down but never went away. I wasn't playing derby anymore, so I attributed it to insane pregnancy hormones. But then the spot came back with a fury, and I developed other patches on my hands while I was working in a tattoo shop as a counter girl. I'd spend much of my time in nitrile gloves while cleaning, and assembling sterilized tubes, which was a huge chunk of every work day.  Not to mention I was washing my hands constantly. My hands would sting after I took off the gloves, and would get extremely dry from washing, and although having hand cream at my desk helped that irritation, it did nothing to completely relieve me.

Elastik brand examination gloves. Powder free, and not latex, but still irritating to my skin.

By this time I knew the constant glove wearing and hand washing was the irritating factor with my hands, but there was nothing I could do for them as I couldn't just stop wearing gloves and washing my hands in a tattoo shop. By the time I went on maternity leave my hands found some relief and calmed down since they weren't in gloves anymore. But going back to Roller Derby practice two weeks after having my daughter, they flared all over again. It's been 3 months since then and as you can see I now have these patches all over my hands, the itch is so intense it keeps me up at night. 

I did some searching online along the lines of "roller derby wrist guard rash" and found a question posted on Yahoo by a fellow roller derby girl describing the exact same symptoms, who wore the exact same wrist guards. I bit the bullet and went to the doctor that same day. Immediately just by looking at my hands he knew right away it was contact dermatitis. I was prescribed a strong steroid cream, and told to wear wool gloves underneath my wrist guards when I wear them, anything to keep the material off of my skin. 

It's been a week and my hands are starting to heal. I have a light scar underneath that will never go away, but they're healing. I had no idea what was wrong for so long and didn't do much to be proactive about it, and I would have given anything to see something like this to give me an idea of what it could be.

 My right hand a week later

If you experience anything like this and think it may be related to your protective gear, try wearing thick gloves/arm-warmers underneath them when you practice and see if that helps. Keep the area clean at all times, and wash your gear after every practice. Something that didn't fix the problem, but helped soothe my skin in the meantime, was using an After Sun aloe spray and using unscented Aveeno cream. And lastly, don't wait to see a doctor, certainly not over a year like I did.

Try these for temporary relief.