"I Itch"

I have eczema. I have had it since I was a small child. My mother reports I’ve been spotted since infancy. I remember getting in trouble on purpose just to get the beating that would satisfy the itching for a minute. That weirded my Ole Earth out. I remember one of my godmothers used to slather me with bacon grease. She swore that that would calm the lesions. It did to some degree. But the dog became very friendly afterward. I still have outbreaks. Most of the time it’s a small outbreak. 80% of the time it occurs only on my arms, legs, and back. But it can pop out anywhere. Don’t sleep on adult eczema. It can get really bad, disfiguring and incredibly painful.

I put it, mostly, on the weather. I usually have outbreaks in the winter or if I go somewhere and the weather is distinctly colder than my regular climate. I ALWAYS get something in the winter time. Whether it be light patches just where my bra strap rubs against my skin or all over my body. It feels like little needles poking me that itch. Bad. The skin where I scratch becomes scaly and discolored. And if you look closely, you can see these pin prick holes. Spooky. Folks casually say, “Why don’t you just not scratch?” That’s like trying to stop an impending sneeze. I hate when people give you practical advice they no personal experience from. If your only information about eczema comes from the fact that some child you know, who is presently still a child, has it, then I ain’t interested.

I haven’t had a complete body wide outbreak since I was 16. That one was a bad enough for me to remember it clearly. SMDH. I had to go to the doctor and receive steroid shots and light radiation treatments. The steroids took care of the itching. There was a Rx’ed cream that burned the skin off where the active lesions had been. The skin doesn’t just automatically go back to normal after the itching and scratching stops. That’s too much like right. It has to peel off. That’s what the cream did. If you put it on skin that didn’t need to peel, you’d lose that skin too. The skin underneath it is not the same color as the rest of me either, but over time (lots of time) all of it blends in. While the damaged skin is shedding, it is not unusual for me to find tags of dead skin in my clothes and on my sheets. And people don’t make the suggestion of cocoa/shea/aloe whatever cream to make this go away. Doesn’t work. The root of the itching has to be squashed. You just can make it go away with ointments.

Eczema is an allergy. That is why it is relieved with steroids. It is closely linked with asthma and frequent reoccurring sinus infections. I could insert a link, but y’all can google it just like I can. My mother and brother have SEVERE and bad asthma. My cousin has sinus infections that knock her smack on her ass. I have bad skin. I suppose if I had to get one of these, eczema isn’t so bad. It’s uncomfortable, but not life threatening. My grandmother had really sensitive skin. A lot of my remedies are based on what I remember her doing.

So what makes me feel better? Sun and warmth are the best fixers. There is no cure and I recognize that. It will go away; but always finds its way back. I have never observed that it is triggered by any particular foods. When I stopped eating meat, the severity lessened but never disappeared. It definitely pops out when I am stressed. So I try to maintain an even keel when it comes to stressors and I meditate regularly. I have noticed of late that synthetic clothing and layering will not allow my skin to breathe. And irritates healing lesions back to itch. That is one of the reasons I no longer acquire clothing made of synthetic fibers. And I get very undressed when I close the house doors. Anything with high levels of mineral oil or petrolatum irritate. Regular bar soap is bad for me too. I only use glycerin soaps, black soap and soaps that have shown and proven to be compatible with my skin like Lux and Camay. Definitely NOT Dove. I try to stay away from SLS (a sudsing ingredient that can be an irritant) but it’s kind of hard to find soap without it. So I suppose in this case it’s a necessary evil. I tried yucca, but I couldn’t get it to work well enough to be used daily. But still I do my damndest. I use Tide on my clothes and I love it. I believe my skin is used to it. This was what my Ole Earth has used forever. It is my thinking that my body has developed a tolerance to it. If I go to someone else’s home or even a hotel, the sheets and towels can be annoying. I wonder if using Ivory Snow or Dreft would clean my clothes and be nice to my skin? And this is a kicker….. Crisco when I get out of the shower or in the bathwater is the truth! A Vietnamese dermatologist made that suggestion a few years ago and I thank him for it. It works. Air drying versus towel drying is good too.

I think that’s it. If I think of something else, I’ll post a comment.



Peace.