....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!!!