update on my life

[aliki]

So at 24, I got diagnosed last week with eczema. I thought that was something that started in childhood like chicken pox, and if you made it past a certain age, you didn't have to deal with it. The worst was hearing my doctor say: "Well, you can never cure eczema, you just have to learn ways to deal with living with it." ARGH! It felt like you could've substituted any given sexually transmitted disease like herpes into that box. I almost visualized those herpes commercials on TV where the woman goes kayaking, mountain climbing, and snuggles with some guy with low occurences of outbreaks... I cringe. Eczema is way gross. I look like an alligator with serious red and inflammed skin.

Also, as I walked to work this morning at 4am, I realized this is why I hate fall and winter. The sheer fact that I go to work before the sun rises, and don't leave work till the sun sets (I left yesterday at 7pm) is really depressing. Really. When I have to turn the front porch light on as I leave the house so I can get my keys into the car, and return at night, thankful that I left the porch light on because now I can find the keyhole in the front door-- it's sick! Sick, I tell you! My one neener-neener comment would have been that I don't turn into a deathly-pale vampire because I work outdoors and keep my tan, but the stark reality is that trying to have dexterity in your fingers in 28 degree Fahrenheit weather (sub-freezing!) in the dark, on a rocking boat, with splashing, wet, ocean waves, that six warm thermal layers of clothing don't keep the chill off you and your toes felt like they fell off after two hours is nothing to brag about.

Comments

[aliki.livejournal.com]

Dana recommended Aveeno's oatmeal bath.

Currently, I have it on my feet-- it spread from my toes (which initially from the itch I thought it was the woeful athlete's foot) all the way to my ankles. When it started on my fingers, I ran to the doctor. Since it's mainly on my feet, I've gotten a small tub that I've filled with that oatmeal bath stuff and it does sooth the itch a lot.

I'll also start with the baby oil in the bathroom suggestion! I used to put a little on before i put my clothes on, but then I found sometimes it stained my clothes, so I had to lay naked in bed for 10-15 minutes till the oil dried... which, I rarely have the patience for.

As for your comment about saltwater-- AHAH! So that's what started it! It began mid-July and aggravaed through till now, but it started after 3 months of constantly wearing sneakers soaked in saltwater! Ah hah!

[aparecida.livejournal.com]

haha, I almost forgot to mention the saltwater, and then I was going to put it in as an afterthought, and then I realized that you must be exposed to saltwater all the freakin' time. I always have a little patch of eczema in various places, but after exactly two dips in the ocean when I went to the beach this summer, it freaked out horrifically and spread all over my legs and arms -- even though I rinsed off as soon as I could and then showered with lotion and body oil. Seriously, I gave up swimming in the ocean for the rest of the vacation. The salt water and then the dried salt does the whole osmotic water-drawing-out number on your skin. I know you can't really avoid it, but do whatever you can as far as rinsing. :)

The Aveeno oatmeal bath does exactly two things for me, jack and shit. :( You're welcome to try it though, it might work for you. The Alpha-Keri bath soaks my dermatologist recommended didn't do jack for me either. The baby oil after showering made a night-and-day difference, though (the key is to put it on before toweling, not after drying off). I used to always put on crappy loose cotton clothes after I showered so that I wouldn't stain any good clothes with baby oil. It was only a few months ago that I figured out that if I apply it while showering, the excess will rinse off but I wind up with a nice moisturizing film all over me. Hooray!