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

oh yeah!!! exzcema (had it all these years still can't spell it

[vwsrmylife.livejournal.com]

i have had it since i was a very small child. it is just one of those things that you have to spend all of your time keeping it under control

i take
1. atarax (prescription) to stop the extreme itching
2. i use elidel (prescription) for the the eczema on my face and my hairline.
3. i use protopic (prescription) for the other areas of my body.
4. i also do not take a bath or a shower every day. :D
4a. if i do take a shower, i use not so hot water because that only makes the itching worse. and then you CAN'T stop scratching it. even if the skin is coming off.
hydrocortizone breaks down the skin over time and it is not good to use it continually.
aveeno is used just because i like to put something in my bath. does nothing for my ezcema.
seasonal changes in the weather mess me up royal. i try to keep my body hydrated by drinking tons of water and skipping out on the caffeine.
my biggest trigger has been sugar. SUGAR of all things. i don't know what it does to me. i just want it, but then i can't stop myself and before i know it, i am covered from head to toe in itchy spots.
when i was in high school, i was allergic to my clarinet reeds (bamboo)and had to go out and buy very expensive plastic reeds. can you imagine that? i would get these secondary infections all around my mouth. just imagine the teasing. i also had it on every finger but my thumbs from the bottom knuckle to the cuticle. my mom understood my pain. she always took me to the doctor for it. my brother has it really bad too.
stress is the other big factor. when i was getting divorced, my skin was a crawling and itching.

i have learned to live with it, but it sucks. every once in a while, i go tot see my dermatologist and he tells me the same thing, that it will never go away. it is worse when you are an adult. you don't get teased, but you feel that god could have done better when picking from the disease grab bag. i dread even getting a scratch because i know that when it starts to heal, my ezcema may take over.

it'll be okay though ms. c

g

Re: oh yeah!!! exzcema (had it all these years still can't spell it

[aliki.livejournal.com]

SUGAR....!? Dairy!? (suggested by someone else) Oh Lord, I can't take this!