From Wikipedia: Chilblains is a medical condition that occurs when a predisposed individual is exposed to cold and humidity, causing tissue damage. It is often confused with frostbite and trench foot. The cold exposure damages capillary beds in the skin, which in turn causes redness, itching, blisters, and inflammation.
Me as a Finn I am used to the cold weather. Suffering from the cold has never been something that I have done but oh boy. In Portugal the coldness is way different. I have no problem waiting for a bus in -20'c but hanging out here with friends in +10'c is really nasty. It's the moisture that makes the coldness rough and going through your bones. Wearing lots of clothes doesn't help that much since the clothes are moist as well and there is no warm layer of air inside the clothes layers.
Because of the cold I have now experienced something I had never even heard before. Chilblains. Couple of weeks ago my finger started to be red and sore. In the mornings it's hard to bend it. My boyfriends family told me it is probably a spider bite which is normal here. I totally bought it. The weird feeling in my finger didn't go away but instead I noticed the same feeling in two other fingers. I had a conversation about this with my friends Lia and Rui and I got the answer: "Aaa, it's a frieira! From the cold." Rui had the same thing on his middle finger. I was a bit confused. Me, who is used to handle the coldness, chilling with -10'c, had never heard of this condition. I was familiar with frostbites (that is more serious condition) but I had never heard of chilbails before.
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| Swollen red fingers. |
