Gramma's Hands

Today was a pretty nice day. I woke up at 11:30 and at 12:30, I went with Gramma to my favorite Flushing restaurant - roughly transalated, it's "South North River." We had deep fried crullers, soy milk and beef noodle soup. Yum! Afterwards, Gramma wanted to just walk around a bit, so I suggested we explore the stores going up Roosevelt since we both always walk past them and never enter. One store sold home goods - mugs for $1, plates for $2, relatively cheap furniture. Another store sold accessories. All the girls that worked in there were Japanese and they kept following us around telling us about the 20% discount on all purses. Gramma bought me a nice new bag to put my sketchbook in, and with the discount, it was $9.50. Then we looked at a store that was filled with lingerie and Gramma-esque clothing, except the sound system was blasting Shakira. I don't think Gramma appreciated the choice of music. Then we went home and sat around a bit, reading and napping. Then we made jiao zi (dumplings). Hundreds of them. Gramma's hands have been giving her a lot of trouble. Since she usually complains no one pays much attention. Today she told me she split the skin just under her index finger open this morning, right where she grips the knife when she chops things for cooking - I told her she should wash dishes less because it makes her hands too dry. After dumpling making, she amazingly let me wash the dishes. Then we sat around all day some more and then she started making dinner. While she did that, I fixed the string thing that makes the shades open and close with the use of my trusty paperclip. Right before dinner, she was talking about how much her hands hurt and I told her she ought to put some anti-bacterial ointment on it and a bandaid, since all her fiddling around rubs it off. So she went and put on some ointment and I insisted I help with the bandaid.
And then I realized what horrible condition her hands were in. For the most part, her hands were whispery dry and badly in need of lotion. The lower half of her left index finger, front and back, as well as a sizable portion of her palm is covered in blisters. Not like the normal big puffy ones. There were hundreds, and they were all below the skin and the way her skin was torn away makes me think that not very much is keeping the top layer of skin attached to the rest of her hand. I'm not sure what it is, but it looks more like some sort of extreme eczema. Needless to say, I had trouble eating dinner. She said that she got it recently, and it comes and goes. But it's always just in that one spot. Which has me profoundly worried. So, under the pretense of asking about my sister's fabulous new living quarters, I called daddy and explained about Gramma's hands in English so she wouldn't be worried and I told him just how worried I was. I think he got a bit of an idea of how much this is bothering me, so he promised he'd look at it tomorrow. I really think she should go consult a dermatologist.