What a Life!

You know how it feels when someone puts alcohol on a scrape on your knee? That’s how my eczema felt yesterday afternoon…except that the burning would not go away. It was raw and sore and there were really bad cracks. If I opened my hand too much (which I inadvertently did this morning), the cracks would bleed. Here’s a picture:

So with the burning and everything, I was almost in tears. I called our family doctor and asked if we could get an appointment. They managed to squeeze us in so I woke Ben from his nap and we went to see the doctor.

I showed him my hand. Ben was clinging to me so I couldn’t really show him is legs but he saw enough to know it was bad. I told him we all have it in different places. He asked what I was doing with my hand. I told him I try to keep my hands out of water and use as little soap as possible, and I named a few that I use that seem to be gentle and not bother. According to him, every soap is fine for some people and not fine for others, so he’s heard good and bad for eczema on the ones I’ve named.

I asked him about two of our theories that no one seems to talk about (they talk about things like dairy and dust mites most of the time, it seems):

Can eczema be aggervated by stress? Definitely.

Can it be aggervated by hard water? Definitely.

It’s no wonder, then, that we all have it.

He gave me a prescription for some Derma-Smoothe Eczema Oil. Its a mild steroid in a base of peanut oil that seems to be very effective and not something you build up a resistence to. The peanut oil is highly refined so even people who are allergic to peanuts can use it.

I went to Walgreens and the one I was at didn’t have it in stock. They called another one and I had to go over there to get it. This isn’t the first time our doctor has prescribed something off the beaten path, but such things have worked in the past for other ailments so I’m allowing myself to be optimistic here…

I put it on myself last nigth before I went to bed and again this morning when I got up. It seems to take about 15 minutes to soak in and it doesn’t burn even when I put it on dry skin (unlike just about everything else I’ve put on my hand). My hand doesn’t really itch either, though yesterday it was so sore, if it did itch, there was no way I would have known. Today it isn’t so sore but it’s still calloused enough that it bled a little this morning.

I called the company that makes it and asked if I should keep putting things like Eucerin on it. Their insert said not to use anything else with steroids. They said I shouldn’t do anything else – just this. I can wash my hands and do whatever I need to do once it absorbs into my skin.

So we shall see. The doctor said we could use it on everybody in the family. I may try it on Ben this morning. I’ll put it on him before we go on our walk so it has time to absorb. Since it is supposed to be used alone, I’ll have to tell my dear mother-in-law to not put anything on Ben’s legs when he’s over at her house this evening. I’m tempted to add that the doctor said no cortisone and that I’m not discussing it anymore with her because she thinks I’m stupid and that I don’t know what I’m talking about and then I’ll just leave and she can stand there with her mouth open. If it keeps Ben from itching, she won’t be tempted to put anything on it and then it wouldn’t be an issue anyway. We’ll see how it goes today.