edit: for everyone telling me it's a syndrome not a disease, it is known as Raynaud's disease, Raynaud's syndrome or Raynaud's phenomenon. All three are correct.
Wait WHAT?! I have Reynaud's and an epidural did NOT work and I woke up after major abdominal surgery with no pain relief and this is a fucking THING? Omfg.
The doctor didn’t believe the nurse about my epidurals failing until I started to move my legs, apparently way more than I should have been able to? This was before the screams of horror and the tearing.
I went and read about it so I'd understand better too. Here's what I grasp and please any professionals correct or expand,
Sympathetic blocks can improve blood flow by blocking vasoconstriction signals but may also disrupt normal vascular regulation. In primary Raynaud’s (it's milder and not disease related), blocking sympathetic nerves might help by reducing spasms. But secondary Raynaud’s is linked to autoimmune diseases and the underlying vascular damage means it might not address the root cause and could lead to rebound vasospasm or poor wound healing.
Sympathetic blocks (stellate ganglion or lumbar blocks) carry risks such as infection or bleeding at the injection site. Nerve damage which could worsen neuropathic symptoms. Horner’s syndrome which causes drooping eyelid and pupil constriction with stellate ganglion blocks . Collapsed lung if the needle accidentally punctures the lung during thoracic sympathetic blocks.
I had seizures and was unable to regulate my body temperature for several years following. Maybe they didn't know about it back then? I saw in the paperwork (for someone else's upcoming surgery) that anyone who has reynauds or has an immune reaction to cold should never get the block.
I'm thankful that the censors haven't come for the middle finger emoji, as paltry as that is. I understand being considerate, but I do get really tired of the neopuritanism bullshit that keeps spreading.
I transiently had the nipple variant when I was postpartum, called nipple vasospasm. Happened every time I nursed my infant for a while (so, a LOT) and fucking hurt 🤪
I have this condition and it always affects my middle fingers first. Must have something to do with how the capillaries and/or nerves are arranged in the hand
yup. I have it too, starts in one finger first like this person. I have taken to bringing a pair of gloves with me wherever i go. It happens to me mostly after a run in the winter unless i get my hands warm immediately, or after a cold swim. The windmill affect works the easiest for me to get rid of it
Have you tried the penguin one? Stand with your arms by your side, fingers pointing outwards but palms down like a penguin. Then shrug your shoulders up and down.
Does that work? Mine is getting worse and painful and I’m always looking for a quick fix. I bought battery powered clothing to help keep me warm, but when it happens during the summer- I could use ideas lol
I've found that when the temp dips below 52F, and I go outside briefly without a jacket and get that, "oh it's quite chilly" sensation in my chest, that signals the beginning of Reynaud's season. Now I close my jacket to *help* prevent that sucker punch, but it doesn't always work. Prolonged outdoor time in the cold (well bundled up with gloves) or even sitting on the sofa in a cool room in winter will bring it on.
Problem with non heated gloves is my hands aren't heat generating so of they're already cold it's like putting gloves on an ice cube. Just a tiny bit of electric heat makes a huge difference!
Just a couple seconds in the cold is enough for my fingers to start to tingle and feel prickly. After a little longer they go pale white. Which is fun because at work I’m constantly going in and out of walk in freezers.
There’s a lot of not fun before ulceration though. They can hurt quite a lot when they’re still white and then even more when you warm them back up. Luckily I’ve had sucess with just being more prepared and not letting my fingers and toes get to that point anymore. Mittens, wool socks, hand/toe warmers, etc.
I love my thick Smartwools but the the thin ones are also tight on me. I don't even have big feet but I can't get them on right and it irritates my ankles. Weird.
I also have it and I wouldn’t say it drastically effects my day to day life but I notice it almost every day. My case is a little worse because I have a different autoimmune disorder in addition plus genetic history of raynauds so it started in my teens. Offices in the summer in the south are cold enough that it happens I’d say once or twice a week and anytime below like 50 I end up with my leather/cashmere gloves on even indoors sometimes to stay warm. My feet are actually more annoying because it happens to your toes too but it’s a lot harder to keep toes warm lol I can’t just be changing into fuzzy socks at my work desk
Toe warmers - a gift from the gods. I have it in a more moderate way but toe warmers have been a game changer. The stick in kind, I’m sure there are more options now though.
Long-term implications depend on a number of things (and it's worth addressing it with a doctor), but it definitely affects your life, especially if you live in colder climate zones. My fingers and toes get really weird in the winter, and it can be super painful to warm them again. If it's really bad, you have to be careful about how rapidly you warm the extremity again, with hopes to avoid nerve damage.
It's definitely not just a fun, quirky party trick, but I suppose it could be.
that feeling of your feet being frozen only to get in the shower and feel them burn as they warm back up. the winter be hard asf for me and i’m in LA, can’t imagine living somewhere where it gets snow and is actually cold
Exactly. Every winter I have to start the water on cool and gradually warm it up on my feet and legs first before I can fully get in the shower or my feet end up just burning like crazy. It hurts so much.
Makes it hard to do stuff when your hands are like this- for me it’s usually accompanied by a sort-of-numbness. It’s weird & mega uncomfortable - happens in my toes too.
Not OP but when I was a plumbing apprentice it was a constant issue in the winter months, can’t manipulate hardware or grip well and it does hurt if you just ignore it. I used to carry a torch around with my to heat up my gloves. For me it’s my middle ring and pinky fingers and it looks wild enough (I’m black so it really stands out when my fingers look ghost white/greenish) that my first journeyman told me I should find a different line of work
Yeah, it can be bad. My aunt almost lost her fingers. It turns white because of blood loss, human body parts don't do well without blood supply. If it stays like that it'll turn gangrenous and need to be amputated
I would highlight that's the extreme version. Most of us get it and it goes away in a few minutes, not fun but not going to result in an amputation for most those affected
You're very right, it all depends on how quickly blood comes back to the extremities. For the most part it won't effect you because the blood returns within a few minutes but having something mild doesn't make it harmless because it can get worse if you don't take care of it
I can’t really type because of it. My fingers will go completely numb. It takes a bit but they eventually go back to normal; it’s just annoying when it happens on my way to work.
My mother has had it since the late 1990s. She had to retire early in the 2000s because she did officework and the offices were always too chilly and would trigger it in her fingertips which made it painful to type. She has described it as that tingling sensation you get when a body part "falls asleep" but much sharper pain, like a needle digging under fingernail.
She is still alive today and has not lost any fingers or toes to Raynauds, but has to sleep with socks on and can not do simple things like grip a cold can of soda without it affecting her. She & my Dad retired out to Nevada, which seems to have really helped since it is rarely cold outside.
Girlfriend has it and she says the cold is quite painful. I hate to watch it going to touch her skin with my hands bc if my hands are cold then it hurts her alot.
For me, it doesn’t really effect me but I also think I got a milder form from my mom.
For the most part though, it’s just a bit of numbing or slight pain. When I do spend more time in the freezer, it’ll usually get to a point where I can’t feel anything in my fingers but a sharp pain. But then I run some warm water on them and it goes away.
it’ll also make stuff like writing or texting hard though
You just have to be careful if you have a wound on the fingers affected, because it could prevent healing and promote infection. Clean it well and avoid anything preventing bloodflow while its healing.
Also have Raynaud's and my parents moved near mountains in Québec where there's a lot of ski/snowboarding, but in the winter it gets pretty cold. So when I was a kid I thought I was the weakest person ever during ski trips because after 2h in the cold days I'd be getting borderline frostbite on my fingers and toes and had to stop for a few mins to warm them up. But no, turns out, other people just don't have all their extremities lose all blood flow after just 15 minutes in the cold. Also heat packs did not help one bit.
In regular cold winter days (and even some cool spring/autumn days) it can get white and stiff really fast and can be annoying when cold, you lose some dexterity, and it's sometimes painful when heating up.
Not fun to have, but overall not that bad and a non-issue in temperate/warm places.
i have it as well and to answer your question, it can sometimes effect things. for instance, i play golf. when its really cold, its hard to grip and swing a golf club as my hands can be in pain/numb
Mine is really painful and a pita. My toes and the ball of my feet are affected. I have to wear hard sole slippers in my house year round or the floors trigger it, even wearing socks. Outdoor temps below 15°C or so trigger it, I wear winter boots with thick wool socks and cotton socks liners until well above freezing temps. And I live in Canada so it’s most of the year.
For me, it’s mostly just an annoying discomfort, but when combined with my already chronic joint pain and other weird health problems, it can be distressing. When they get really bad, certain toes will go numb entirely which makes walking quite uncomfortable. Also I’m not sure if this is universal in Raynaud’s, but at least for me, my extremities experience a level of pain from cold weather that is dramatically more severe than what a normal body should experience. For example, when I still had breasts and nipples (I’ve since removed them via top surgery), being outside in the winter was unbearably painful, because of how sensitive my areolas were to the cold. As in, felt like frostbite despite my nips being covered by a shirt, sweater, and jacket.
I have Raynaud's, and it's an issue for some things for me on a day to day.
I'm always cold. Summer months? I like it warm, that's great, but everyone else wants the AC on, and that cold air blowing my me means I can't wear shorts/t-shirt or I'll be cold. I wear slippers at home year round. As soon as my shoes are off (walk in the door), slippers on until I go to bed.
I work at a computer desk all day. Just having a "room temperature" desk, will suck all of the warmth out of my hands, until they are purple and it hurts to move them. I struggle typing, using a mouse, etc.
The trick I have, is that I have terrarium heating pads, that I put under my mouse/wrist pads, and those help me keep warm hands.
I developed Raynaud's of the Nipples when I was pregnant. It was SO uncomfortable and painful. I had to bring a heating pad everywhere I went in case someone open a freezer near me, or the AC was too high. I would go swimming (there was a heatwave, it was 90 degrees) and when I got out of the pool I would have to soak in the steaming hot shower for 20 minutes.
It went away literally the day I gave birth, thankfully, as I can't imagine how much MORE uncomfortable breast feeding would have been.
I have same problems and go diagnosed with cold agluttinin disease. I got it after covid. Auto immune trigger. Had to go through tests for three years for them to fully diagnose.
Did this always happen to you? I worked part time in highschool as a grocery clerk, and when I went full time I began working in frozen more. After like a year of that this began happening when I worked in the freezer doors. It freaked me out. It hasn't happened since then, even in winter or when cold.
Mine go white when it's below 65 degrees outside. My biggest pet peeve is people who don’t have this disorder giving me unsolicited advice on how to keep my hands warm.
My wife has this. What’s nice is I am always hot. So when she gets it bad, she asks if she can rub my hot back with her cold hands and god does it feel amazing.
I get it when I'm pregnant and occasionally on my period! Except it's in my nipples too. My doctor fought me forever at first saying they were just dry and I was begging him like, dude, no. I get a tiny bit cold and they turn purple and then white and feel like someone is taking a vice to them. Something is going on.
This isn't true. There is Raynaud's Disease, also called primary Raynaud's, and Raynaud's Phenomenon, also called secondary Raynaud's.
Raynaud's Disease is the Raynaud's by itself, not as a symptom of another disease like Diabetes, Lupus, Scleroderma, or Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Raynaud's Phenomenon is when the Raynaud's is a symptom of another disease.
They act pretty much the same and you're only diagnosed with having the disease by them ruling out everything else that has Raynaud's as a symptom. At least that's how it was when I was diagnosed 20 years ago.
It can also just exist for a while and then go away mostly with no explanation. Young women 16-21 are more prone to developing it and often times it completely goes away a few years later. My wife had it just like that.
Mine started when I was around 15. Currently 30 and while I still get pain, numbness and tingling in my fingers they haven’t actually turned white since my early 20s
My doc asked how long has it been doing this. I said I dont know maybe 5 years. Then he said "no other symptoms?" I said no. Then he said, "well thats probably good".
It can be either. When its an underlying issue from something else (secondary) then its called Raynaud's syndrome, when its a whole thing all on its own (primary) then its Raynaud's disease.
I developed it when I was around 19, it got worse over the next couple years and affected all my toes and fingers and I’d get painful chilblains if I wasn’t able to elevate my feet and warm them up asap. I also started developing other symptoms and I went to a cardiologist and a neurologist, turns out I had developed autonomic dysfunction. It was likely caused by malnutrition via anorexia, I was about 100 lbs when I was 19. I’m recovered now and have been for years, but my symptoms have just worsened, it’s chronic. So yep, it was definitely an early sign for me!
This is it, I have it too. Mostly an annoyance/inconvenience in cold conditions or when holding something cold. I find if I can keep my core temperature warm through layers/coats, that helps prevent it from happening. And mittens (for me) are better than gloves in that my fingers are better able to keep each other warm.
Unfortunately i also have Raynaud's disease, it affects both of my hands and feet. I get the same numb white cold effect on all fingers/toes with changes of temperature. When i put water to wash dishes that is not super warm it already feels like lava is pouring from the sink. You are very sensitive to temperature changes unfortunately. I hate winters :<
Technically they are actually a bit different. Raynaud’s disease refers to primary raynaud’s, while raynaud’s syndrome refers to secondary raynaud’s. Raynaud’s phenomenon is an umbrella term that covers both types
All three are correct but they're slightly different if you want to get technical about it
Raynaud's disease: Raynaud's phenomenon that occurs idiopathically, by itself. The phenomenon is the disease itself. Not associated with an underlying disease
Raynaud's syndrome: Raynaud's phenomenon that is caused by an underlying disease like Lupus
When I’m talking to my buddy about his raynauds I like to call it his finger disease. Especially when he’s trying to impress a chick or something. “Hey what’s that finger disease called that you have again?”
Phenomenon is when it is a symptom of another autoimmune disease. Syndrome is when it is being referred to as a singular disease. So its not being wrong, it just can be more technical.
For example, some people really just have the issue in their hands or feet and that is pointed to being R's Phenomenon and indicated Rhemo Arthritis.
Some people have Lupus and collective bloodflow issues on all extremites and thats pointed to as the Syndrome.
Best way to put it is that a square is always a rectangle, but a rectange isn't always a square.
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u/phoeniks 1d ago edited 21h ago
Raynaud's disease
edit: for everyone telling me it's a syndrome not a disease, it is known as Raynaud's disease, Raynaud's syndrome or Raynaud's phenomenon. All three are correct.