A small bump at the intersection of my thumb and index finger developed sometime last year and became very itchy; it persisted in varying sizes and itch-levels for the entire year, sometimes becoming two bumps and sometimes nearly disappearing. This summer, many more similar bumps arose on my elbows, and they became phenomenally itchy, to the point where I scratched them and they started bleeding. I eventually guessed (correctly) that they were due to dry skin, although usually such bumps only would appear after my skin turned chalky and “alligator”-like, and only in the dryness of winter. Using moisturizing lotion, I was able to get these bumps to subside, and similar application to the back of my hand also removed that bump, which probably came about due to constant rubbing from pencils or pens I was holding. The lotion was definitely the solution, for I performed the treatment under controlled experimental conditions (I applied lotion to one elbow and not the other, confirming negative results with the untreated elbow).
I then wondered if such bumps could have been around all my life, and I just had never realized that they were due to dry skin. I remembered at some point that my knees, as long as I could ever remember (at least dating back to elementary school) were bumpy – they had these small orange-pellet (the small units of an orange)-shaped protrusions which contained strange white fibers which could be pulled out. I decided to apply lotion to these as well, and voila, they have nearly vanished!
There are many other locations where I am suspecting that abnormal bumps which I have simply associated with my normal condition are actually the result of dry skin acting up. I shall apply lotion to these as well and see if perhaps I can restore my skin to a nice, smooth state!
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