Monday, 6 October 2014

When Things Are About To Get Nasty

I can always tell when my skin is about to take a really random turn for the worst.  My right hand breaks out in these tiny little blister-like spots around the knuckles, and my fingers become unbearably itchy to the point where I usually break the skin around the creases.  My hand proceeds to become an unsightly shade of red, followed by the backs of my wrists joining in on the itch fest.  Usually by this point, if I have no steroid cream available, there is nothing that I can do about it, other than to lather the irritated areas up in copious amounts of cream and hope for the best.


I've thought long and hard about the products that I use on my skin as of late, and I can’t seem to come to any understanding as to what could possibly be causing the skin on my right hand to flare up, yet leave my left hand perfectly fine.  However I have since noticed that my flare ups do tend to be a hell of a lot worse on my right arm and leg compared to my left… I just don’t understand why!
One Dr that I visited earlier on in the year did make comment on the weird situation with my hands, because I am in fact right handed, he believed to think that I must be using something or dealing with something on a regular basis that my left hand has little contact with, hence the drastic difference in the two!  However I have since shot down that theory, after having read that it is not uncommon for people’s symptoms to be worse on one side of their body compared to the other.  The Dr did leave me wondering though…

Since then, I have been looking into the various types of remedies that can help ease the symptoms of eczema.  Of course, I’m not going to get my hopes up over any of the following, as each person’s skin is completely different from the next, and something that my act as a relief to one person may be the same something that causes the next person to become completely miserable.
I bought 100% pure organic, cold pressed coconut virgin oil from Amazon about 2 weeks ago after reading online that it is one of the purest and most effective remedies for eczema.  I read many good things about the product, how it cleared the affected areas of skin of eczema for good, how it completely changed the users life, how good it was in terms of value for money etc.  However, although I do completely love the product in terms of its texture, its smell and how far such a small amount goes in terms of actually helping my eczema, I’m not convinced it’s for me.  The product DID make my un-irritated skin ridiculously soft after as little as five applications, but it actually caused more harm to my eczema than good.  I’ve continued to use the product as a face moisturiser at night opposed to a night time serum, however I’ve tried to keep the coconut oil as far away from my eczema as possible.

Today I went out and purchased some vitamins which may or may not be essential to tackling bad cases of eczema over time.  To start off with, I’m trying out vitamin C, Vitamin D and Evening Primrose oil – one of each a day.  I’ve read some forums online that indicate that there is no evidence to prove that any of the above will have any impact on my skin – however I’ve also read that there has been many successful cases after increasing their daily intakes of vitamins… So I guess I’ll just have to try for myself.  I’ll stick it out for 30 days (when my evening primrose oil is all gone) and hopefully I’ll be able to comment on what kind of benefits I’ve seen from taking the 3!



In regards to my last post, my skin has stayed much in the same over the week.  I’ve been applying the Cetraben cream throughout the day to keep my skin moisturised, and I’ve also been applying the Bentnovate RD cream (steroid) to the most irritated areas of skin – my forearms and the back of my thighs mostly.  The itching seems to be at its worst in the evening – I assume because my morning antihistamine is wearing off – and so I’ve found that by using the steroid cream at night has helped to ease the problem.  However this will be a short term solution, as I am running short of the Bentnovate, again.

(I do apologise for these nasty images... as you can tell I am no photographer!)


Right now, I'm in the process of trying to switch my daily necessities to ones that are free from SLS, so I will be able to fill you in on how successful/unsuccessful that has been later on in the week!

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