13.5 Month Photos

Please ignore the toilet and general bathroom stuff in the background. I can't be bothered to retake the photos.

Face with a little bit of Purepotions on. Yay for eyebrows though.

My lovely Deirdre Barlow neck :(

Chest

Right hand side really seems to be going at it in terms of flaring.

Right leg

Left leg

Left thigh

Poor wrinkly tummy

Mass shedding on left arm (right is the same but too hard to photograph!)

Hard to see but wrists have a bit of a sleeve thing going on

Right arm - you can just about make out the open sores

Armpit. Infection has disappeared thankfully but it's dry and slightly red.

Back of knees are appalling and I'm finding it hard to walk.

Eczema Herpeticum Round 9

So er yeah. Things aren't really progressing much at all and I think I might need to pop to the dermatology department for a second opinion. It actually looks a lot worse off camera. Looks like a sick day from work too. I'm so gutted.

Edit: Went to hospital in the end and it turns out it's actually herpeticum. Again. Makes sense though because I did have a horrible cold and this came straight after. At least I know to stop taking the antibiotics anyway. So yeah, this is my 9th time in the space of 2 years. Hmpf.

Happy Birthday I Have Eczema Blog!

Tomorrow will mark 1 year since this here blog has been up and running. No doubt there will be a celebration of cake to mark the occasion... any excuse for cake in this household!

This blog matter has come a very long way though seeing as I originally started it up to inform others about how severe eczema can be as a condition, only to then learn that the reason I was suffering so terribly was because I had gone on to develop a condition called topical steroid addiction. It has changed my life now knowing what I am suffering from.

I have also been subject to some very exciting opportunities which have only happened because of this blog such as writing for Talkhealth, having an article printed in a nationwide magazine, writing guest posts on other people's blogs and even taking part in competitions that my readers have also benefited from. I've reached over 80,000 page views which is absolutely fantastic to know that I have been able to reach out to so, so many people over this past year. Your emails and comments help keep me going and I really cherish them, even if I can be lax in responding (I'm sorry!).

Unfortunately there are no celebrations to surround my skin. It still isn't letting up just yet, despite my best efforts to try to keep it under some form of control. Just seems to be one of those annoying inexorable things that comes part and parcel with topical steroid withdrawal.

 Right side of face

 Left side of  face

Neck

 Part of breast

Torso

Eczema Herpeticum No.8

Yup. As the title suggests in only 15 months I've contracted eczema herpeticum 8 times.

8 times!!!

I think it's time to do some digging around into natural ways of boosting my immune system seeing as though I am essentially crippled and broken. I don't want this to open an invitation to be plagued with people telling me to use this, that and the other high cost remedy... but I do openly admit that I need some help.

Once again I've rang in sick at work and toddled off to hospital to get seen by my derm. She's given me 800mg of Aciclovir to be taken 5 times a day in the hopes we can kick this in the face (my words, not hers). The thing that terrifies me is that I've already been taking Aciclovir, albeit at a much lower dose, but nevertheless it is already in my system. Just how much longer until I become completely immune? It's frightening to think about.

She's told me to avoid sun light at all costs, which I have been trying to do. I've only been outside in the sun driving around in my car or the train journey I endured last weekend and other than that have been trying to cover myself up walking quickly to places when I've got out of my car so I'm only in direct sunlight for a matter of minutes... I might have to don a burqa at this rate!

This seriously puts my festival next week into question... can I even go?! Yet on the other hand, yes I'll end up suffering by going with this but I'll end up suffering through going anyway so why miss out on an opportunity to do something that makes me happy? I sure as hell need it after the hell I've been through. 

Life lesson: don't allow yourself to get ill kids!

Hello, worlds most flattering photograph!


...& it's all over my body. Brilliant.

Red Skin Syndrome Journey - 2 months

Currently on a downwards spiral. It just isn't improving at all. The majority of this weekend has been spent soaking in the bath as I just can't stand the itchiness that ensues merely an hour or so after I get out. My glands are more swollen than ever and the full body oozing is constant now. Sometimes I am able to pass out from exhaustion but other times I'm tormented by the itch and the ooze...

Outside I can hear birds chirping, kids playing and music being blasted out whilst people make the most of this rare opportunity of sunshine which doesn't last very long here in the UK. I'm sat with blinds closed to ensure that the neighbours don't get a peak at my raw nakedness. Raw being the operative word really.

This morning I got in touch with my GP who has prescribed me a higher dosage of the antibiotics I've just tapered down on from my hospital stay. Not really happy about this as I'm sure they would be at least working in some way against the spread, but she didn't want to prescribe me any alternatives. Ho hum. We also talked through my medication as there is a lot that seems to be missing from my repeat prescriptions and she wasn't phased at all when I told her I was no longer taking the steroids. Wow. At least they're off the repeat now anyway.

I'll put a cut in for the photographs I just took because they might be a bit embarrassing for people who know me in person. I'm not ashamed of my body though and these are strictly to show people the suffering I am enduring.

NSFW

The Great Ooze - My Skin Is Crying

This is getting on my nerves now.

The constant ooze is driving me insane. It's been this way since Sunday and shows no signs of relenting any time soon. Once again the camera isn't picking up the grazes to their full extent but I can assure you that I am really red and sore.

I've never had ooze quite like this before. Usually it comes on after a mega scratch fest, it'll last a day or 2, dry out and I'll have never ending flakes but this is something of another sort. I'm not even touching it and my skin is just cracking open, weeping incessantly throughout the day and night, never quite drying up.

I'm physically and mentally exhausted from it.

Topical Steroid Withdrawal Insanity

Today I had the morning from hell. I can't even begin to exemplify how much pain I was in. I ended up going rather crazy, enduring moments of actual psychosis because I couldn't stop scratching, I couldn't stop hurting, and I couldn't get any hot water to relieve my torment.

Somehow during the moment of sheer insanity I managed to snap some photos. The camera has made them look quite tame in comparison to how I actually was. My skin was yellow from dry ooze yet weeping near-constantly over skin that had gone rock solid like botox. It was a pretty grim sight.

The rest of my body is covered in softer red blotchy skin, bar my arms which are like leather and show the typical bright white palms versus the red arm, shedding like crazy. I think the reason I'm not bright red all over is down to the antibiotics.

My wrists have swollen today. My Mum instantly drew to the conclusion of cellulitis but it's not edema based, they've just lost their definition. Suppose it's from over scratching and wearing tubegrips. The weeping on my face is slightly odd in that I look as though I'm completely covered in grazes but that's where the skin has been weeping. I haven't scratched these areas so the graze is a bit scary.

Luckily I now have 3 days to recover til I'm next needed at work so I hope to God I start seeing some improvements somewhere soon. I know it's gonna take a while seeing as I'm only just over a month into withdrawal but I really need to work.

Same Old Itchy Story

After having had a couple of manageable days after such a long stretch of bad ones, I'm in a bad way again. I have no idea what has caused the flare this time but I do know that it came on at about 10pm last night. The right hand side of my face went bright red and so, so itchy. I smothered myself in emollient ointment, white soft paraffin, took an antihistamine and off to bed I went. I woke up after an hour of not so deep sleep to find my face to be soaking wet. It was absolutely drenched with weeping skin. Mmmm. I was so tired that I just took a tissue and stuck it to the entire area so that it would absorb to the tissue and not my pillow. This morning I've woken up and my face is a bit grim. So yeah, not sure what to pinpoint as the culprit... and this is how it always is. I make diaries to document things I've done/ become exposed to, food I've eaten and my mood but there never seems to be a pattern. :(


 
 

Haha excuse the state of my hair. There's bed hair then there's my hair. Mental.

Documenting My Skin 14/3

So I can't be bothered to keep doing single installments of my days throughout the month so I'll let you wait until the end to show you the full montage of images displaying my skin. Though I have to put my hands up and admit there have been a couple of days where I've simply forgotten to snap an image because the camera hasn't been in reach/ been too tired and what not.

I thought I'd include a few pictures of how my skin was this morning though. It doesn't really show close-ups of the entirety of my face, which admittedly was rather grim, but it does give you an idea.





Since having showered and moisturised my face is now lovely and blotchy. Sometimes I'm not sure which stage I prefer... the incredibly dry, tight and cracked stage that peels off and weeps with huge discomfort, or the moisturised blotchy stage where the skin feels red, inflamed, itchy and just as uncomfortable/ intolerable. There's no happy medium. When my skin is bad, it's bad.

Unfortunately I'm working today and doing a food shop straight after so no doubt I'll be a bit of a mess tonight, as I inevitably am after a day of work. Those who say they're "allergic to work" say hello to me, I actually am!

Photographing Eczema Daily 01/03

So staying true to my word, I have started to take photographs of my skin, seconds after waking up on a morning and just before I hop into bed on a night time. I decided to take the photographs of just my face because even though I suffer with eczema from head to toe, a) it tends to be more prominent on my face and b) I think it would be a bit rude and too much to take full body photographs of myself, especially because a lot of people I know will read this. Not only this, but I'm unable to even wear underwear some days so yeah, a pretty impossible task really...

Beware though, I've taken photos to show just how it is, so there's no Photoshopping and I'm probably blinking or pulling some pained "I've just woken up" or whatever expression as they literally were taken seconds after getting out of bed. This camera also isn't the greatest either. I would use my fancy DSLR but I've lost the charger :(

01/03/2013 Morning Photo

01/03/2013 Night Photo

It isn't too bad in these pictures, my skin tends to pale out when I sleep. I'm guessing that's something to do with my nervous system? But you can certainly see some of the dryness on my face.

The night time photo you can see I'm starting to get a bit blotchy. I tend to be really itchy when I get in from work. I guess it's just being exposed to a level of dust there. But yeah, my hair is a mess from scratching my scalp. Naughty! You can also see some yummy skin dandruff on my black vest top too. The joys of dermatitis.

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I've been taking Mycophenolate for a week now. Can't really report any changes really. I had a bad flare on Wednesday that made me housebound and unable to dress for the majority of the day and my skin has been very dry but I'm going to put that down to the light therapy as that is one of the side effects. I'm back to being a human pin cushion which doesn't exactly fill me with joy. I'm completely used to having blood tests but I'll still forever flinch as the needle goes into my arm. Stupid reflexes.

Hope everyone is doing OK :)

Images Of My Eczema

So because I seemingly cannot order posts in a logical way I thought I'd make a post with pictures that I've taken of my skin. Sadly they're taken on my phone and my phone has a magic ability to try to make images appear smoother which is all fair and good for taking everyday photos but when I want to document things exactly as they are it isn't the best camera to use.

The thing that prompted me to make this post was that today when I showered I glanced at the plug hole and saw that it was completely blocked with my hair. I remove hair from the plug hole every day so I was absolutely shocked to see just how much hair had come off my head this morning. I wouldn't be surprised if I now have a bald patch somewhere :(

I put the disposable razor there for size comparison but it's still hard to properly show just how much it was

Image 1: Elbow flexture. It was much worse than the picture shows
Image 2: Side of my breast
Image 3: My chest
Image 4: My face on Boxing Day
Image 5: Another of my face flaring
Image 6: Bruising from over-scratching
Image 7: My thigh
Image 8: Flare
Image 9: Back of my elbow/ forearm
Image 10: Flare on face with swollen eyes
Image 11: My thigh
Image 12: Skin flare on tummy
Image 13: Skin flare and eczema herpeticum on my birthday
Image 14: Front of my thighs
Image 15: Seborrheic derm on my neck


I haven't posted these images for pity, but to show you how eczema can manifest itself and as I said at the start of the post, the images have had a smoothing effect on them because of the quality of my phone camera so it is not a true representation. The colours should be much more pigmented and the flaking and sores on the skin were much more apparent.

As you can also note, these were some of my better days as I was able to get dressed.