Eczema Update 002

So after a week of carrying around the hand counter and keeping count of every time I scratched, I sort of gave up with the whole eczema book. The next chapter moves onto booking an appointment with your doctor and moisturising a couple of times a day. Although I didn’t make an appointment to see my GP and going over the creams I use etc, this wasn’t the problem. It’s the moisturising part. I hate applying any type of lotion.  I don’t like the feeling if it doesn’t sink in properly and I always find myself scratching my eczema after I’ve applied moisturiser. I’ve said it before, I think my eczema isn’t “normal” in that it doesn’t respond well to being moisturised and that my eczema disappears quicker if I leave it to sort of dry out. Maybe I just haven’t found the right moisturiser for me but I sort of gave up with the book because of this. Who knows, I might pick it up again at some point but for now it’s just not working. 

As for where I currently have eczema, it’s an improvement from last month. At the moment I am pretty much free of eczema on my body. I have two small patches on my hands that I am hoping will disappear after an application or two of steroid cream. There was also a couple of days were I had a flare up on the bottom of my feet but that cleared up on its own. I only ever get flare ups on my feet in the summer when it’s hot so it was unusual to see it happen in the winter.

The major problems I’ve had over the past couple of weeks are with my face and scalp. Maybe three or four times this past month I’ve woken up and had an allergic reaction on my face. The only way I can describe the feeling is if you imagine a million ants crawling over your face. My face goes splotchy and red, flaky and irritated. After a bit of Google-ing it sounds like a food allergy but it happens as soon as I wake up before I’ve had anything to eat or drink. The only thing that calms it is time and distracting myself from it which I find very hard to do. The easiest thing I’ve found is simply having a lukewarm bath and keeping my hands in the water so I can’t touch my face.

My scalp has also been driving me crazy this month. No matter what I do to it, it seems to be getting itchy and greasy a lot quicker than it normally does. I try to wash my hair on a Sunday and then leave it until Friday before washing again simply because it takes so long to dry and washing my hair too often irritates my scalp. It’s a catch 22 when it comes to my scalp. I want to wash it as keeping it clean helps my eczema but washing irritates it. I’m still using Neutrogena T-Gel Shampoo which is helping to keep my scalp flake free but it hasn’t completely cured the eczema. I’m still applying a weekly scalp treatment which is what helps my scalp the most I think. I had a really good week with my scalp mid-month and now I am trying to work out why. I used a different shampoo, one from Liz Earle, so I have bought the full size bottle to see if that makes a difference. If it doesn’t then I have no idea and the good week must have been a fluke.

What I am going to work on this month is making sure I write down everything I eat and do in my eczema diary as I've been slacking with it. I'll fill in a few days and then slack of the weekend and get out of the routine of writing it all down. I thnik the hard thing is making time before bed to write everything down. If it didn't mean lugging more things to work in my bag then I'd keep it in my bag and fill it in as a I go about my day.

If you suffer from eczema, how are you getting on?

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