My brother-in-law has a medical problem which is stumping the doctors.?

He says if I can figure it out he will buy me a new car. Help!
OK - his hands are severely cracked and swollen. His fingertips are split open. He has seen an infectious disease guy and a dermatologist. There is also a rash, but it doesnt really itch. His fingers are puffy to the point where he cant really bend them. When he lets it go, it travels up his forearms along his veins. I should also let you know he is a nurse who works in the er of a fairly urban hospital. He has taken Zyvox, Vancomycin, used cortizone cream, h2 blockers, lamisil and prednisone. The prednisone is the only thing that has worked even a little, but you cant use that for too long because it causes a host of other problems. No one can figure this out. Can anyone out there help his hands and help me get a new car? Obviously this is a real problem for him - he's offering a car!

Can't really help with the diagnosis, unless if I could see the hands with my own eyes.
Based on the history you presented. An ER nurse, and only the hands are involved? The culprit could be the latex gloves he uses. Suggest using a hypoallergenic gloves and see if it clears up.

O man it sounds like hes got the feva. My yahoo answer would be to keep your distance. Man once you got the feva you got the feva forever.

Wow.. that sounds horrible :( Try more doctors; sometimes they don't get to the root of the problem and you'll need a second opinion... But man, that really sounds horrible. If all fails, try a Chinese herbal doctor. They can cure everything :D

That's pretty sad, I thought you were just trying to help a brother out...

My friend has the same thing, if you find anything out...let me know.

There is a type of arthritis that makes your hands like that, my father has it and it took a long time for him to be diagnosed, it requires a diagnosis by a rheumatologist, you have to take a combo of prednisone and medrol which is used to fight cancer, the combo is methylprednisolone, it's a 21 day pack and you take 6 pills then cut down to 5 etc.

Probably he has an autoimmune disease, example of which is rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, polyarteritis nodosa and some others which I forget at the moment. Just wondering- with the host of diagnostic tools around, why his diagnosis cannot be made. Maybe a change of doctors needed?