The Menstrual Itch

This is an itch that is again created by some type of imbalance within the body. 

I have noticed that about 2-3 days before my period arrives, my body, arms, legs, neck, etc itches constantly. It is like a background noise that is always there. If I dare to scratch any part then the eczema slowly rears its ugly head.  

Once the period starts, the itching subsides.

So what is happening to the body?

I found the image on the right in wikipedia (of course). 

A couple of things stand out to me:

1. The core body temperature rises
   
2. Progesterone levels are increasing and estrogen levels are decreasing before the period.
   
3. On the onset of ones period there is a sudden fall away of progesterone

Again I have found drinking more water when one is itchy has some effect in reducing the itch. The other is being in a nice cold environment. It is no wonder I find myself drawn to the ice and snow! -20 degrees celcius seems so inviting!

As for the progesterone levels,  perhaps I don't have enough of it or it is out of sync! I have read it is suppose to have a calming effect and there is a tendency for one to feel lethargic or depressed. Strangely I have quite an opposite effect leading up to the period. I have a lot of energy and when running, can feel like I can run forever!!! Two nights before my period I have insomnia. On the first day of my period, I want to sleep the whole day.

Without medical measurements of the production of my hormones, it would be difficult to understand how it is affecting the eczematic skin.  However, a rising body temperature will explain why being in the cold is the best thing for reducing the itchiness, as well as drinking water.

The Sleepless Itch

Having identified the "dehydrated itch", let's talk about rashes and itchiness arising from lack of sleep.

I have bouts of insomnia. This has been far more so as I have been taking antihistamines to make me sleep and reduce the itch I feel when in bed.

Right now I have had a 2 week spell of sleep deprivation. Although I am relaxed specific parts of my body take it in turn to feel itchy - body/leg/arm/neck. I can drink lots of water and not much seems to happen. Putting ice on the area will alleviate the symptoms temporarily but the BEST medicine here is sleep.

What Happens to the Body Physiology When it Does not Sleep?
Having looked up this question, it is well documented that within the body sleep deprivation causes:

• A decrease in core body temperature
• A decrease in immune system function as measured by white cell count and activity
• A decrease in the release of growth hormone
• Other hormone imbalances (look up sleep deprivation physiology)
• Enhanced activity on the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This controls reactions to stress and regulates body functions such as digestion, the immune system, mood, sex, or energy usage

So the above therefore will give some indications that sleep deprivation is associated with many chronic diseases/disorders such as weight loss, heart conditions, growth and more.

Sleep and Eczema
So now focus on the bullet point about the enhanced activity of the Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and that this decreases the immune system functions.

Sleep becomes an extremely important factor in order for the skin in eczema to repair itself and become more resilient to the rash symptoms. Studies have shown that the ability to heal is thus reduced when we are sleep starved.

It is no wonder that my skin feels so poor. Fortunately, last night I finally had a continuous sleep period of 9 hours and today my skin feels better. It is amazing how one night out of so many sleepless nights can make my body feel so much better.

Pharmcies out there - we need a cream to make our skin feel calm when we don't sleep!

The Dehydration Itch

When hives begin to appear the time can be stressful. And that stress manifests itself to more rash. By the time you regain control over yourself, you have scratched yourself to shreds and eczema begins to take control.

I was running with a friend and for the first 8kms we were fine. I drank lots of water but my friend only drank a sip of water once at 8ks. We headed on and by 15ks she was starting to get a bad case of hives on the arms. She was stressed and she reminded me of me when the rash appears and we just want it to stop.

We stopped at a water point and I got her to down 300ml of water against her wish as it would make her feel bloated. She was looking at her arms worsening and as panic started to set in, so were her neck and face starting to itch. She wanted an antihistamine now! Anxiety normally makes an itch worst and requires a good distraction. I gave her something to hold and got her to drink more water (500ml usually helps me) and then she was to replace the word "itch" with "water" or "ice" if she wanted to tell me how itchy it was. I had hoped using cooling words would take some of the heat of that itch.

I believe my friend's body was telling her she was dehydrated and that she had not recognised it. I normally find that drinking water dilutes whatever toxin is trying to come out of my body and reduces the symptoms of itching. However it is not an immediate effect and can take about 5 minutes.

It was time to talk about other more positive things like:

- What do you like to eat?

- What is your favourite ice cream?

- What is the best adventure you've been on?

I banned her from looking at the hives and feeling the lumps appear. And after a km, the itching subside, but I never asked her about her itch until the end at 25ks if she still needed an antihistamine.

She was proud to say she did not and thankful not to have to knock out her system with it. As those who take strong antihistamines know, it can cause drowsiness and for me a very heavy head.

So in conclusion:

- drink more water when you feel itchy symptoms appear

- distract yourself and never focus on the itch

Cortesone Stopped

Oh well. As expected, have stopped using the cortesone for 2 weeks and am now back to scaling itchy skin. Soooo now to bare with it and get back to sorting it out naturally.

Time to Face the Cold

So back out to the cold and hopefully will return with better skin and no frost nip ;o)

When Cold Is Hot

Hmm having gone down the chemical route, using a cortesone cream (fucibet) to control the symptoms (well had a skin infection last week!), a strange reaction is happening.

Running in the winter is great as one tends to wear less clothes (I was in shorts and t-shirt) and still feel warm! And so I went for a run. A long run for 4 hours. I was hot but my skin was cool as the breeze (@ 12 degs c) stroked my bare legs, arms and midrift (well I was hot!!).

At the end of the run, I stretched and my legs began to feel prickly....itchy. Entering a warm room made everything worst. Soon a heat rash caught hold of the top of my legs, arms and midrift. Had to scratch the unbareable itch......and quickly plunged myself into a tepid bath which seemed to ease the symptoms with......of course sea salt and a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda in the water.

This is the first time I have suffered with these symptoms from the cold, and can only guess the cortesone has made my skin more sensitive. Hope my skin can grow back once I stop using the stuff.

Keeping the Regime Going

Sometimes it is hard to keep on track. If you deviate a little, you can find you've lost some ground.

It's like a diet or training. You start off with good intentions and when things are going well, then for whatever reason you are tempted to do something different. This might be environmental or of course being a woman, hormonal.

Bath-time:

• One tablespoon full of bicarbonate of soda into the bath water seems to ease an itch!
• Dead sea salt will bring down a rash. Had a hooouge itchy lump on my arm recently. Bathed it in dead sea salt and it went down pretty soon after.
• Currently trying to wash my scalp in dead sea salt water.
  

Moisturising:
Am moisturising at least 3 times a day now, down from the 6 times a day, with top ups during the night.

• 100% natural coconut oil. No additives. This seems to have eased the shedding skin even further. Have been using this on my scalp and this has had positive results. Still working on the dry scalp problem.
• Epaderm covering after applying coconut oil. I am one very greasy person!

Chemicals used:

• Cortesone Cream:This has been cut back to twice a week and only on the legs.
• Antihistamines: Twice a week.
  

Diet:
This is the hardest part of the regime.

• Drinking lots of water - at least 1.5 litres, if not 2 litres
• Very little diary or wheat
• Potatoes, rice, fish and lots of green veggies are regular items in my diet
• Suppliments of Thistle, 1000mg Evening oil of primrose and 500mg Cod Liver oil (lovely!!!)

If I can stick to this, the itching eases off and I can even sleep without scratching on occasions. But a bad night's sleep and central heating can make my body begin to feel uncomfortable. And you all know when you're feeling tired, waiting at a train station for your home coming train, it is soooo easy to be tempted by the smells wafting of freshly baked bread, or cornish pasties or croissants.........

Cooky Coconut

My cousin has been using coconut oil on her child's eczema and found it has been effective in reducing the symptoms and keeping the skin hydrated.

So I took a sample and found it has been really good on the "craddle cap" scalp have been suffering with since all this started. The only downside I have is the greasy looking hair the oil causes. But who cares when the itch has subsided.

So now trying it on the rest of my body to now try to fight the effects of "heating" on my skin as the radiators are turned on for winter. Seems okay 3 days in.

When Pain is Good!

Had a bad rash attack. It could have been due to being overtired, or having eaten bad food for 2 days and no exercise. What ever it was, it wasn't going away fast. Hives were breaking out all over and the normal distractors of praying, trying to send myself to sleep, keeping my hands occupied were not helping the stress of the itch.

Instead a luke warm shower with dead sea salt rubbed all over my body, substituted the itch for pain. Well by the time I got round to having another shower, I had already created scratches on the skin surface.

The pain was hard, but the dead sea salt did the trick and perhaps leached out something that had got onto the skin surface. The rashes calmed down almost immediately after!

I want clear skin by the end of this year!!!

The eczema I suffer from has reduced a lot but has not gone and am still fighting it to get rid of it totally. So keeping one's mind occupied helps......praying has been great, thinking peaceful thoughts, gardening, drinking lots of water, doing the washing up, and playing sport.

Talking of peaceful thoughts, am helping a lady in her 60s train for the South Pole race this year. She is intending to take everyone's peace message to the South Pole to read them to the earth. The idea is to follow an ancient Tibetan tradition of flying messages on prayer flags to bring peace and harmony to all.

So all you readers, I would encourage you to send Tess a peace message on any subject such as for personal reasons, your environment, or the world. You can read about this mission here as well as a sample of what other folks have written: http://www.teamsouthernlights.org/12.html

You can also leave your peace messages here:
http://www.climbfortibet.org/peace_messages.cfm

Have a peaceful week.....and of course....."To the pole and beyond!"

Polar Dreams

Hmm penguins.....just need to sort out skin a wee bit further but it is manageable!

Why do Eczema Sufferers Scratch?

.....becos sometimes it really is very itchy

.....becos there are bits flaking off, so we start picking it or try to rub it off. Result itchiness

.....becos something has been brushing against it and irritated the area

.....becos it is hot....we like it cold (perhaps that's why am looking at the cold lands!) and without the central heating

.....becos we're feeling irritated at people telling us to "stop scratching" or slapping our hands away or websites like eczematreat that copy our content word for word with zero links back to the websites they have copied it from or people telling us "go or scratch some more!"

Now we know these people care about us and it would be great if they carried on caring about us and gave us something to do with our hands as a distraction. For example like give us a tall cold drink which could help to relieve the symptoms.

Awas Shingles

Deciding to try out the doc's method was a GFI moment and perhaps an act of desperation and experimentation. You might detect am regretting having gone down the alley with steroid creams and ointments.

So week 1 of the new prescription regime to step down the use of steroid creams had to be stopped mid way. The hydrocortesone was reacting to all parts of my skin, causing rashes. Additionally there was an area on my back where I had been applying both the fucibet and the hydrocortesone that seemed to make it worst.

It started with a stinging, burning sensation. The type of sensation that occurs when you have scratched yourself. I ignored it and went on a camping trip to South Wales to drag a tyre around the Brecon Beacons with a couple of 60 year olds.

3-4 days later some small blisters appeared. With eczema, it is not unusual to have blisters where some infection has occurred. Unfortunately the blisters continued to be sore and looked like they were spreading. They wept, became lumpy and ugly the more the steroid creams were applied. Thus stopped the application of steroid creams anywhere on my body as I thought there was a chemical reaction and now the same blisters were spreading onto my stomach. Really gross to touch (pic on right).

Two days later after the picture was taken, ran a 1/2 marathon. Felt tired, the pain on the back was bearable but completed the run even if it was a poor time. A friend who I'd shown the rash too said it looked similar to shingles (oh dear might have infected thousands as have been going into work)

Decided to drop into A&E (hospital) to get them to evaluate and give me an exact prognosis. L4 shingles it was! And yes the application of the steroid creams was making it worst. However by the time I had dropped into A&E the blisters had already dried out. Doc said I had only been infectious to those who did not have a vaccination against chicken pox or those who did not have chicken pox whilst the blisters were weeping. I could still go to work! Unfortunately as the virus was already on the way out there was nothing that could be done to ease the pain, and that it was possible that I could feel the pain for up to two months.

Doc recommended bathing in bath water with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to reduce the intense itching and taking painkillers if the pain became unbearable.

Helping the Healing Process of Shingles
So having been told there was nothing that could be done, I of course did an internet search to find out about how to quickly reduce the post symptoms. Plenty of vitamin A, C and B to help nerve endings to be healed. So for the week I got through a 500g bag of baby carrots, a bag of
oranges and ate marmite sandwiches everyday.

I really don't know if that helped, but the pain was gone by the end of the week. So hopefully the nerve endings have been able to heal quickly.

As for running, well should have taken it easy as the virus could do further damage with a reduction in the immune system. So I have taken it easy otherwise my running buddies will give me an earful.

Got to find something else to eat!...might as well.

Food Sensitivities

Always look out for these. No matter what your doing, letting down your guard can be a bad one.....and eating lots of cashew nuts has been a bad one for me. Love them, body hates them :o(

The most common food allergies, in general, are diary, egg, peanut, tree nut (walnut, cashew, etc.), soy, and wheat.

Think I should try an exclusion diet for longer. Steroid creams can only do so much but the body needs nourishment to help the skin grow and reduce toxins that affect the lymphatic system. Phew

So.....

...another visit back to el doctor.

Doc: Skin looks much better

Me: Yeah - expected it as you've hit me hard with steroid creams. The flaking has reduced. My worst fear is that it'll all come back after stopping the steroids and that will be my big disappointment with the whole treatment.

(no pressure!)

Doc: What we will do is step down your treatment and ensure there is no rebound.
So
- Week 1: 1% hydrocortesone now every other day and fucibet the other days
- Week 2: Use only the hydrocortesone
- Week 3: Hydrocortesone every other day and then come and see me for the next stage

Me: Ok (well might as well since I've reverted back down the steroid path)

On the other hand having had the antibiotics seems to have calmed down my system and have been able to sleep at night without the use of anti-histamines. I have had 2 weeks of sleep and the skin likes sleep.....

Starting up a new world

In my zeal for removing all catepillars from my veggie patch, I sadly removed the aphid "lions" the nickname for hover fly maggots.......the good guys.....I have been like an antobiotic to my plants.

I miss those hover fly maggots, really exciting to watch when they go hunting for prey. Hoping to see them again but knowing, as summer ends, it is unlikely.

However my stomach bugs can be encouraged to grow back.

Probiotics! .......that's what everyone is telling me - "will get the friendly bacteria back in there!"

• Lactobacillus Acidophilus
• Lactobacillus Casei
• Lactobacillus Plantarum
• Lactobacillus Rhamnosus
• Bifidobacterium Bifidum
• Bifidobacterium Lactis
• Bifidobacterium Longum

And so I drink up!....MADNESS

....One Bag of Skin

....so another visit to el doctor, well a different one who has specialised in dermatology. Picture on the left is my arm before the medicines. The skin is flatter compared to the picture on the right in the side bar but texture ain't great and it is now red.

Me: So doc this is what I am using to keep my skin moisturised. 500g tub of emollient and have nearly finished it after a week....and this is a bag of skin to show you why. I have skin dandruff! (displays a ziplock bag of skin to doc)

Doc: Thank you, I don't need to see the bag of skin. It is obvious you have a skin problem.
Your skin is very warm to touch....

Me thinking: Good it means I'm very alive.

Doc: Very dry.....

Me: I only moisturised it an hour ago.

Doc: ......and you've done some damage to yourself.

Me thinking: Thank goodness I had a small scratch session in the night....the last doc didn't take me seriously when the skin had no scratches!

Doc: ....from the notes you've had this since January. Right I think we need to hit it hard.

Me: Yah! Finally

Doc: So I'm going to give you:
- 500mg Flucloxacillin (antibiotics) to take internally to kill the bacteria infection in your body. Take 4 times a day.
- Fucibet (say it carefully) - an antibiotic + cortesone cream to apply externally to clear the skin of any further infection
- Ucerax 25mg - stronger antihistamine to help you sleep and stop scratching in the night
- AND more emollients

Me: Great!

Doc: ....see me in 2 weeks time

I give the pharmacist a small fortune and look at the amount of "stuff" I need to take/apply.
For the whole of my life, I have avoided chemicals like antibiotics. Now I'm about to destroy the good bacteria I've nurtured my whole life.

Killing Bacteria
I decide to only take the antibiotics over the next couple of days to monitor its effects. The antibiotics reek of chemicals. However after the first day of downing antibiotic pills, the redness over the entire body seems to disappear and for the first time, I sleep normally at night.

3 days later the skin is still feeling good. Unfortunately this is the day where I got a bit slack taking the antibiotics. I was doing a 12.5 mile run and it's a warm day (in the 30s). 12.5 miles later the body is hot and I've forgotten to bring the pills to the venue so I miss a pill pop. Socialising, the itchiness starts and the skin is hot and red even after cooling down. I try to make up for it later, but in fact miss another pill pop as had eaten a meal and cake! (must take these pills on an empty stomach).

2 days after the run day the skin is still red and itchy, so decide to start applying the fucibet. I said never again to steroid creams, but many assure me it is only temporary and if applied correctly should heal the skin and the symptoms should not return. You guys BETTER be right!

Stand Still

So I know I said I would get up at the same time (08:00) every day. After 3 days of this, had to sleep in until 11am-12pm on the weekends to catch at least 5-6 hours sleep.

Fuzzy head + work = Struggle
Little to no sleep = Itchy skin

The brain signals the head to not bother or care how hard one scratches. However constant reminders keep things in check. So giving up a little and will go see doc about insomnia.

Yawn - maybe I should cat nap now....

Reprogramming Insomnia

The skin is looking much better and slowly beginning to look like normal skin.

The only problem now is the insomnia. An eczema sufferer can suffer long bouts of sleepless nights due to the itching and scratching. I've learnt to exist on 3-4 hours sleep a night sometimes only 1 or 2 hours during the weekdays and then try to do a catch up on the weekend.

Having done this since January, my head seems stuck in the habit. No matter what time I go to bed, I lay there restless but seem to doze off just before the alarm goes off at 07:00. Sometimes I go to bed in the early evening, tired. I doze off but then find I am awake after an hour and then the sleeplessness continues.

Sleep is so important for healing to occur so need to reprogram. Will to try to wake up at the same time every day. No more lie ins and early nights.

Lady DustStorm

If I were to be a superhero, I'd call myself Lady Duststorm.

It is incredible the amount of skin that falls off daily and that I dust off from my bedding each morning. I have a severe case of skin dandruff!!

So I see myself as swooping in on a crime scene, and to confuse the villains I'd rub the skin off my body creating a dust storm. Thus I would be able to disarm them and save the day!!!

Yah

Controlling The Scratch

....so why did I ask the doctor for steroid creams in my last post.

Just completed a book (yes I read a book - but it was an easy read with large print!) called "The Eczema Solution" by Sue Armstrong-Brown. It is about how to break free and be free from Eczema for life by the author who had atopic eczema for her entire life, until she went to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

Scratching is a normal response to an itch, however eczema sufferers will do other things that lead to scratching. An example is, I hate the rough flaky feeling of the dry skin that eczema leaves, so I pick it and rub it off. This often leads to irritation of the area and then can progress into a scratch cycle end hence the continuation of eczema.

Two things made sense to me in her book:

Become Aware
Part of Sue's treatment was to monitor when the affected areas are scratched, rubbed, picked, or touched and is all placed under one category "scratching". Using a hand logger or tally counter
to log the times when the areas are "scratched" and record in a diary. This way a history is built up and bad times can be actioned appropriately.

Use of Steroid Creams
Steroid creams are used to reduce the red, bumpy, raised inflammation of the skin. They are also known to thin the skin as one of its side effects. Hence GPs tend to err on the side of caution and prescribe low dosage of cortesone or the patient will stop using the cortesone when there are signs of improvement.

Low dosages of cortesone on bad eczema will mean using cortesone for much longer periods of time which is bad for the skin and body. I've seen this in my life of suffering with varying degrees of eczema.

Under a doctor's supervision, the affected areas should be hit hard with high doses of steroids and then stepped down not the other way. Once signs of improvements appear the use of steroid creams should continue until 2 weeks after the skin looks good to really "kill" the bad skin off.

However, the book continues about how to ensure the condition does not come back and each chapter should be treated like a visit to the doc. Definitely would recommend it as a read for anyone suffering.

I've been fortunate that so far my alternate treatment has worked and so now it is learning the "habit reversal technique" to prevent myself from attacking the skin when the dry skin is itchy and after when eczema spots reappear.

What's Up Doc?

Decided to see the doc about my white nails again so that she could refer me to a dermatologist.

Remember I saw her 4 weeks ago and she was ready to refer me to a dermatologist at the time, but I rejected it at the time wanting to try out my sea salt experiment.


Me: Doc can you refer me to a dermatologist?

Doc: Why?

Me: Well because you said you would the last time and I'm fed up with this eczema and I have a bag of skin to show you that I scratched off during the night. I'm fed up of sleepless nights.....

Doc: Let's have a look at it.

I strip off - behind closed curtains off course.

Doc: Well, have to say it looks more like you are suffering from very dry skin now. I don't see any eczema.

Me: Err yes, I'm at a stable moment, been killing my skin with salt for the last 5 weeks. However, perhaps a stronger dose of cortsone cream will be able to kill off the last parts. Better to whack it off the planet than touching it with weak doses.

Doc: Cortesone won't do anything for you at this moment. You need to intensify your moisturising program.

Me: ???? I moisturise many times a day and in the night. I go though two 500g tubs of thick emulsifying ointment every month....

...and so I get packed off with a prescription of epaderm which is suppose to be more moisturising and forget about my white nails!!!

Well she has given me 3 weeks to see if it makes a difference. I hope she is right.....can't believe I nearly went for the cortesone!!!

Olive Oil - Never Again

Having tested small patches on the arm with extra virgin olive oil, thought everything would be okay as there was no apparent reaction. So decided to test it on the whole body before I went to sleep. Bad bad bad bad bad!

After 1 hour I started feeling a little itchy on the upper arms, then the legs, then the torso. I tried to ignore it as I wanted to sleep. No way, the itching intensified and here was acute eczema presenting itself. Hives everywhere. After 15 more minutes of enduring, decided to get up and have a good salt out to leech out the oils that had got into my skin. Unfortunately too late as had done damage all over.

The day after was not too great either, salting it again and again, eventually the itching died down and now have to remember to touch or pick the mess! Oh well good thing I had some healing time before this. Time to start again. Must remember if things are going well - not too change too much from the routine!

And to top off everything, Friday night the spinach was looking great, the beans were growing nicely. Woke up in the morning and everything had been trimmed back! Thought my house mate had picked them, but in fact a deer(s) had come and eaten everything. Oh well at least the deer has eaten well.

Cook Me

Soooo having used the dead sea salt for 3 days (didn't manage to buy oats but bought lots of other things!), the pain is getting more tolerable so that I can bear to keep it on the skin for a couple of minutes!

Have just been reminded about using Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I have used this in the past but found I reacted to the oil. However, since my system now rejects the E45 creams I was using, I have tried olive oil again. If I react to it then I would just cook with it! Anyway applied it on both arms and no reaction.......

So am now salted and oiled - wonder what cooking time I should put myself on?

Not All Sea Salts Are the Same - Dead Sea Sea Salt

Someone has recommended dead sea salt to help accelerate the healing process. Doing a web search, seems like it may have theraputic properties over normal ocean sea salt due to its higher mineral content.

So I bought 1 kg to see if it would have an effect. I applied my concentrated sprinkling of salt over my entire body as per normal. OMG - intense pain on the scratched areas. I could not keep it left on for long although it appears to have had an effect on the skin. Maybe it has a more acidic nature that a pH test would indicate.

Have just been recommended to mix it with a solution of oatmeal before I apply it to my skin. So off to the shops I go to buy oats!

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

Hotel Destruction
My job requires me to travel and this means living in hotels and no guarantees about the environmental factors. So I arrive at the hotel late at night, weary and tired and go to bed. During the course of the night I am itchy, restless and have a mini scratch destruction. Unfortunately a sharp edge of one of my finger nails ploughed thru some areas of the skin.

Oh well, alas back to square one.....flaky, over dry skin. Getting up was a chore, my body felt aweful, my face was very red and the eyes red and puffy.

I've had an allergic reaction. Two things:
- the room was warm - got the hotel to supply a fan
- the bedding was feather pillows and a down duvet - got the hotel to replace all bedding with anti-allegenic.

Getting Back on Track
I had forgotten the Aloe Vera and not had time to find any in shops close by. I think great let's see if there is an impact. It took 5 days to get the itching back under control again. Getting up during the night when itchy to have a cold shower as well as using the sea salt treatment. However the skin did not feel as moist as when Aloe Vera had been applied when the skin was at a similar condition earlier on in the year.

So my lesson this week to all sufferers, is to check your bedding before you go to sleep.

When Nothing Happens....

Monday
Could only find sea salt flakes in the shop so bought them. What a mistake! Rubbing it onto wet skin is far more abrassive. So have to work a bit harder to use them, i.e. wet the salt a little to dissolve rough edges before rubbing it onto skin.

Tuesday
Started detox meal plan today and for the next 4 days ate the following:
Breakfast: Porridge oats with soya milk
Lunch: Jacket Potato plus salad
Dinner: Rocket leaves, beetroot, corn, raw cashews, tuna fish, avocado salad

I lay in bed and did nothing.....normally I am scratching some part of my body, but I did not feel itchy. It was a strange feeling. Unfortunately later on during the night my legs did feel itchy. However it felt as if I was being given a taster of things to come.

Wednesday - Saturday
The skin appears to be healing. The itching has reduced, although there are still flakes of dry skin on the torso.

The improvement in skin quality and tone, leads me to believe that the sea salt has been playing a part of the healing process. I will continue with the sea salt. Diet might be helping.

I have bicarbonate of soda on stand by in case the itching reappears. A friend had recommended I use the bicarbonate of soda on any itchy areas. I did use it once and burnt my skin as I had put a dampened concentrated mush on. My friend had told me I was suppose to have used a diluted version i.e. one teaspoon in a glass of water. Oh well at least I felt pain instead of itchiness!

Slip Sliding Away

This week the ears, face and neck are starting to look normal!


However, on Friday I was feeling a little down, about being continuously itchy, trying hard to restrain myself from the slippery slope of scratching, taking chunks out of my skin (as had done so earlier in the week on my arm), and the whole eczema cycle. Had taken two baths one in the morning and one at night to ease off the itch and decided to go to bed early.


I woke up Saturday feeling calm, the skin on my torso and legs felt calm, and it was a rather odd feeling. Looking at my email I noticed a friendly mail had come through from a Singaporean friend, saying he had been praying about my skin. :o)




This weekend, I have noticed the skin on the torso has improved although still spotty in areas. I am still following a regime of:

a) showering my skin to wet it and plugging the bath to retain the water

b) salting my skin with sea salt, leaving it on for a couple of minutes

c) washing salt off and now sitting in diluted salty water

d) rubbing balneum plus on my skin to put the moisture back in

e) washing the bath oil off after a couple of minutes

f) relaxing in a salty oily bath water for about 5-10 minutes more.


After I towel dry myself (or if warm enough dry off naturally), I apply aloe vera gel. The one in the picture is from my local health shop and then followed by emulsifying ointment (very greasy) to seal the moisture in and act as a barrier. The skin laps it all up and normally have to do a top up before I go to bed.

Note: During the day I will apply emulsifying ointment as many times as necessary when the skin feels dry or irritated.

My enlightening email, also suggested that since I reacted to massage oils it has got into my system and so there must be some way to get rid of it. A light switched on in my head - I need to additionally do a detox and cleanse my liver. So onwards towards a detox week.

Doctor Doctor

My nails have gone white, my lymph nodes are enlarged and I have a body rash. A web search indicates that I could have anything from liver disease to lymphoma. So before I die of what ever I decided to visit the doctor.

Me: Doc my lymph nodes are up, nails are white and I have a rash all over my body.

Doctor: Hmm yes your lymph nodes are up - must be due to your eczema

Me: And my white nails. I've not seen them white before

Doctor: Hmm yes they are white! I believe this is also due to the eczema. Nothing to worry about. It should all get better when the skin heals. I can prescribe some cortisone cream.

Me: NO thanks. Am trying to get my skin to heal properly. I already did a one month course in Feb/March. It got better and then it worsened!

Doctor: Well it is the only thing we can prescribe to get it under control.

Me: Okay well I am salting it at the moment to desanitize it

Doctor: Really!!!

Me: Yes I get a fantastic burning pain, which is better than the itching

Doctor: What's the logic for salt?

Me: My skin gets better swimming in the sea.

Doctor: Well let me know after a week, becos as your eczema is so wide spread we'll get you seen by a dermatologist and put you back onto steroid creams.

...and so I leave thinking the salt has got to work. After one week, there is a mild improvement but nothing significant yet. I am going to leave it for another week!

By the way putting salt on the skin is really drying and requires loads of moisturising after. However, I have now been mixing this with Balenum Plus and this seems to be a better concoction.

Watching Hives Appear

I wake up in the morning and although I had to wake up once during the night to have a cold shower to reduce the itching on the legs, the skin on the arms is looking quite good.

Continuing on with a normal morning routine of creaming down the skin (aloe vera first to soothe and heal the skin, followed by a covering with emulsifying ointment to act as a barrier). I don't know what happened in the next couple of minutes, perhaps I rubbed some dust into my skin or the fresh t-shirt I put on had dust on it, but little bumps started to appear on my arm. My back began to feel intensely itchy and I knew this was bad. A cold shower helped a little but with the whole back now feeling itchy and both arms covered with hives, I needed to take an antihistamine.

So I will probably have to go to sleep soon again!

Salty Skin

Swimming in the sea has always been a positive experience for skin in general. My friend swears that when he has a bit of dandruff he goes swimming. Well he lives in Italy by the sea.

The sea water appears to have the same effect on my skin. Swim in it for a couple of weeks and the quality and texture of the skin improves significantly. Although one could also argue that the cleaner sea air and the reduction in city stress could also be signalling the brain to heal the skin.

Visiting seems a long way to go and I need to stay in the city and earn my keep in this world of spiralling food and fuel prices. So next option is to test "Does salt water have a significant effect on the skin?"

Today I decided to see if sea salt has an effect and will try this for a week. I have taken a handful of sea salt and rubbed it into my wet skin. It burns and feels very satisfying! I am not a masochist but if does not make me itch further then perhaps it might help santize my skin, since doc has already told me off for using dettol to disinfect my skin!

I'll update you all next week Sunday

8th June: Sneaky update on a past post....however have researched salt on wounds and seems it has been used in medicine since the beginning see http://www.tribunes.com/tribune/sel/worm.htm

Learn To Love The Cold

Having survived minus 40 degrees and a cold Arctic wind, you'd think I'd be fine about having cold showers.......but ohhhh nooo.

The rashes hate cold water, so when am itchy I dunk my body into the cold water. However it REALLY is a big mental psyche up. I turn on the tap and watch the water flow, take a couple of deep breathes and in I go.....and as the cold eases the itching, it helps to also make a lot of weird noises.

Think it might be easier to have an ice pack in the fridge.

Anyway off to see the doc next week to see if she can make any sense of this.

The Best Defense

Nails
I've cut my nails soooo short that I can't even peal an orange or open a can of tomatoes using the ring pulls. Yet my skin can still find an edge to cut into the skin.

My best friend therefore is a nail file to smooth out the rough ridges.

Recommend filing in one direction, smoothing off the edges every other day. Thank goodness I'm female, so that I can file my non-existent nails in public where ever I am.

It also acts as a minor distraction as it is a two handed operation. The more intense the itch, the more I file my nails.


Bath and Sleep
Had an itch attack today so I tried a bath with Balneum Plus. This has helped to alleviate my itching in the past. It did not today. So I sent myself to sleep focusing on thanking God that I was not at work today and that my nails were so short that it was difficult to scratch anyway. Meditation on other things is good to remove the focus off the itch.

Reducing Stress

Stress will certainly exacerbate the eczema condition.

Mentally I might not feel stressed from lack of sleep, but my skin will certainly tell me about it. I have just had a number of months without good sleep and I am suffering.

I have just had in the last 2 days, 2 nights of good sleep and my skin is feeling better.

Eating badly and drinking poorly are 2 other ways to stress the body without realising it. It is very easy to eat junk food and to drink less. I am now trying to drink at least 2-3 litres of water a day. I have found when my body is itchy at night, particularly the neck, the itching eases off when I drink a glass of water.

So now top of my "get well agenda is" eat healing foods, drink plenty and sleep well.

Short Term Cures

Steroid Creams - Yuck
Western doctors have great short term relief for eczema......steroid creams and anti-histamines.

I started from using very weak concentrations to now far more potent doses. I will not use them any more because this is NOT a cure. It is temporary relief. As soon as I stop using the creams, the itching rears its ugly head and seems to hit even harder.

Each eczema sufferer will have a cure for them and it is just finding what that cure is. A life long dependency on steroid creams is not a cure to me. Scratching or thinning the skin. I guess it is going to be scratching for me.

Antihistamines
This is as far as I will go now with western recommendations. Like hay fever suffers, this can dull the itch and provide some relief. I dislike introducing chemicals to my body as all have a side effect, however after a number of sleepless nights, I take the antihistamine.

Effects that I have suffered from antihistamines: I never take them during the day because the ones I take cause me drowsiness. I tried one of the non-drowsy types and it caused me heart palpitations. I will never switch products again and stick to the one that does work for me. Drowsiness I can tolerate. I have now taken one anti-histamine to ease the itch for the day.

Bedtime
Bed can be scarey. One lies there trying to clear the mind.....that is when the itching can seem to intensify. And when one is asleep, hands move automated by the head to the itchy places. Before you know it, the skin areas are sore and the bed feels like sand paper. During the night, I keep a multitude of creams and powders to hand (some seen in the image, alongside skin droppings)

Prickly heat powder is great becos it can make the skin feel like it is burning and hopefully gives enough temporary relief from the scratch cycle to stop itching. Pain is better than itch. It is probably why you'll see an Eczema sufferer scratch and try to dig the skin off their flesh. You see:

Itching = Bad
Pain = Good

Itch + Scratch = Relief and then pain
Therefore Itch + Scratch = Relief + Good

However friends hitting your hand and telling you not to scratch is irritation and therefore more itching.

Friends if you want to help an eczema sufferer please give our hands something to do as a distraction

Eczema Woes

Today, I decided to create a blog about skin ughs. Well one in particular that I am badly suffering from at the moment: Eczema.

Psychological Effects
In public places, bad eczema is a cause for concern to the people who are near you. Seeing someone constantly scratching, flakes of skin flying off, one cannot help wondering if the ailment the poor person is suffering from is contagious. Either that, or seeing their skin red, raw or flaking.

Personally, seeing one's own skin in total chaos: red patches; dry patches; cut patches from one's own dagger nails is a challenge for one's own head. Feeling the irritation and dryness is another that plays on one's mind. The body can feel sore; the arms tired from constant scratching and the head can feel misplaced from lack of sleep.

A typical eczema sufferer can have low esteem and not want to go out socially however an eczema sufferer has to balance all these and learn to carry on living life. Everyday I have to tell myself it probably looks worst to me than to everyone else. And in my workplace and people I meet, I apologise to them as I dig up my arm, face, neck, body or legs.

I constantly want to remove the dry skin which causes bouts of scratching and the cycle goes on.