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.