Eczema
This
is just a quick synopsis of my experience with eczema.
I
first noticed tiny blisters along the side of one finger when I was 12. Within
a couple of months there were loads of them. A year later my fingers were
totally covered in blisters and sores. I couldn’t write because I couldn’t bend
my fingers enough to hold a pen without the fragile skin cracking. I was
referred to a dermatologist who put me on very strong steroids with no
bettering of my skin. I was told it wasn’t atopic
eczema. Fingers were bandaged up in melolin and tubegauz, also finger stalls from Boots.
When
I was told there were no stronger steroids to go on, we started looking at
alternative therapies. I was still only about 14 at this time. Homeopathy
didn’t do anything. Reflexology didn’t have much effect on my hands but relaxed
me. The reflexologist suggested trying me for
allergies. Using the arm-stuck-out-and-resisting-pressure technique it was
found I was intolerant to milk, more particularly lactose. I therefore cut
lactose from my diet. Also began using aromatherapy to calm me down, and a
cream made of aqueous cream and chamomile roman on my skin. My skin began to
improve.
After
going to the doctor for something else they recommended I see a dietician to
check my diet wasn’t deficient due to the lack of milk. I had been taking
calcium supplements, eating fish such as sardines and whatever it is that goes
into kedgeree and white bread. I ate healthily anyway. She didn’t recommend any
major changes.
Patch
tests didn’t show anything- it wasn’t contact dermatitis.
Shortly
after going dairy- free I also went vegetarian. Most food with meat in also had
milk in so I was more or less veggie anyway. I just made sure I had enough
calcium by taking supplements and eating lots of vegetables and pulses and
stuff like that.
By
the time I was 15 my skin had cleared up so much that I could do my GCSEs by
hand, and at college my hands were pretty much fine. At 17 I started working in
a restaurant, and for four years my hands were subjected to soapy water,
cleaning chemicals and constant handwashing with no
more trouble than needing regular application of hand cream.
I
always had a small patch about the size of a fifty pence piece on my left palm
though. At times of stress this would get itchy and a few blisters would
appear, but it never got any bigger.
When
I was 21, this itchy patch suddenly flared up. Large blisters formed, the skin
broke and never quite healed. Another patch appeared in the main crease across
the centre of my left hand just about the time I got my new car, making
changing gear very painful. I could only watch as more and more blisters formed, large
and close together, hundreds of them, and soon I needed to wear a glove for
driving and change gear with just my fingers. Over a period of four months, no
matter how much E45 or chamomile cream I piled on the skin got more and more
sore, bleeding and weeping uncontrollably. Eventually a layer of skin just
seemed to fall off around the crease where my wrist met my palm, and I had to
work with a tissue under my hand to absorb the moisture than was pouring out of
my wrist. The skin was red, and every time I looked at it I felt like crying. Since
steroid creams hadn’t worked for me the last time I didn’t see why they would
work this time, but I couldn’t think of anything that I was eating that was
making it worse. I hadn’t changed anything majorly in
the past 5 months and I couldn’t work out a trigger that could only affect my
left hand. I thought it might have been my computer mouse, dust in my flat,
getting too hot in bed, shampoo, alcohol- but nothing I hadn’t experienced
previously.
I
looked on the British Association of Dermatologists website, the most helpful
resource on the web as it tells you about the conditions rather than the many
old wives tales and American- prescription only supposed cures there are. From
this I learnt that I almost certainly had atopic
eczema, and it was infected. I went to the doctor, realising that I couldn’t
fight this on my own. The website also had a very interesting section working
to dispel some of the myths relating to steroid creams, so I felt much better
about going to ask for them.
The
doctor prescribed me with some antibiotics and a steroid cream. Within a week
of starting the cream my hand had healed up. Flakes of skin fell off it for
about 5 days, but on the 6th day a beautiful new hand was revealed
underneath. I stopped using the cream at once, and within a few days the skin
had started to blister and peel again.
I
have since learnt that this was probably because although the top layer of skin
had healed, the skin underneath had a long way to go and would need more
treatment. When I stopped using the cream, it didn’t get the treatment and
caused the upper layers of skin to flare up again. I am now sticking to the
cream, using it twice a day as I have been told.
I
have just bought a new book, called The Eczema Solution by Sue Armstrong-Jones.
This book is aimed at teaching you to stop scratching. It says that much
scratching is due to habit rather than itchiness, and your skin cannot heal if
you keep picking and scratching it, especially when you don’t actually feel the
need to.
Another extremely helpful thing the book tells you is about the emotional side of eczema. Through case studies and a helpful little section on depression, I realised that my feelings of despair and depression about the revolting weeping sores on my hand, and the way people on checkouts would pull a face before putting change into my hand were things experienced by all people with severe eczema. It mentioned that people constantly telling you not to scratch is not helping either, as this just reinforces the feeling that it’s your fault that your skin isn’t responding to treatment. It is written in a very helpful and friendly tone, and I’d recommend it- even if it ultimately doesn’t shift the last bit of eczema I have it has made me realise things about my eczema that the doctors have never told me and it’s a lot less intimidating than some websites that I’ve read.
A year on I have normal hands again. No problems.
