I've had odd small patches of eczema for a few years now but mostly just on my left foot. In September I was sitting in the garden when it occurred to me that my skin was crawling.
I was covered in patches of itchy red skin and blisters were forming on the palms of my hands. Over the next few weeks I saw several doctors , was prescribed various treatments (including scabies!) to no avail. By November a secondary infection had set in and my hands had become a mass of weeping sores. Two courses of antibiotics and three different creams seemed to kill the infection but my hands continued to blister.
Last week I was in a pit band for a panto and the trumpet player is a retired surgeon, he asked if I have ever worked with nickel? Yes most of my life , making keys for woodwind instruments. He said it's very common to become allergic to it and maybe my bass string were causing it? I have spent months trying to find the culprit but in my diet, at one point I thought it was dairy, then chili, then sulphites in wine.
Nickel seems likely as I've been practicing every day for an hour or more and more blisters came up every day ....except boxing day (I took a day off for Christmas)
So.. I played the last panto gig yesterday at 2 and haven't touched a nickel string since ...so far no new blisters ...stainless steel strings in the post....fingers crossed.