Hello there!
My name is Lauren. I'm nineteen
years old and currently living at home with my parents and siblings. I'm a
student at Aberdeen College, where I have been studying Media and
Communications for the past year. In about ten months’ time, I will be
graduating with a HND, which is very exciting yet nerve racking to say the
least. When I'm not at college, I tend to be found working at Homebase,
where I work between customer service desk and cash office shifts. I
enjoy both my studies and work, but at times the two can become very stressful.
I've been suffering from eczema for the past five years now. It started when I was about 14, around about exam time - the problem area being the back of my neck and the creases of my elbows. For those of you who do not know, eczema is a condition in which the skin becomes irritated, red, itchy and sore. If left untreated, the skin can become broken from scratching and result in crusting of the skin and infection. Steroid creams and moisturisers can be used to treat the skin for a short period of time, however at this moment in time there is currently no permanent cure - which I have become all too aware of!
To this day I am led to believe by my doctors that my eczema is down to stress, however if this is the case then it would appear that the only thing that is an indicator to my stress is the eczema itself!
Over the years I have tried various different steroids, ointments, moisturisers (both prescribed by doctors and all natural ones bought at the chemist), antihistamines and antibiotics to try and rid me of this awful condition - by alas, I'm still trying to find a remedy that works for me.
Over the last couple of months, I've been doing some serious research about eczema, what to avoid, what to look out for, what is the best kind of diet to cure the problem etc. I've decided that I am ready to try and abandon the problem once and for all. However difficult it may prove to be.
Compared to some, I've probably got it easy. Over time the eczema has spread across the back of my legs, all up and down my arms, around my neck, across my waist and lower back, down the front of my chest, around my eyes and mouth as well as covering the back of my right hand. However I consider myself lucky not be covered head to toe, like some people. Overtime, my skin has developed a red kind of tinge to it – regardless of whether or not the eczema is at bay. When I’m at my worst - after week or two of steroid creams, greasy moistures several times a day and various different pills – I manage to take control of the situation again for whatever length of time it allows me to.
When the eczema is at its worst, there are times that I don’t even want to get out of bed in the morning. My skin burns up leaving me feeling hot and uncomfortable throughout the day, meaning that I have to be greased up in ointments that make my clothes stick to my skin, which is most uncomfortable when I'm just laying around – never mind going out and about my day.
My aim is to use this blog as a kind of document of my progress. I hope that by sharing my trials and errors, that I may be able to help people understand that there is more to the condition than just “itchy skin”, as well as hopefully being able to support other sufferers along the way.
The above pictures show my skin at it's very worst back in March of this year. At this time, I had to take time off from work and college due to the uncomfortable state that I was in.
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