This was a bit of an amazing discovery if I'm honest... I was about to give up FitBit, which would have made me very sad. The strap was just irritating my wrist to the point where the skin was broken, weeping and just not good. I wasn't sure if I was allergic to the strap and discovered I could wear it over a tubular bandage and it would still work! Amazing right? But … [Read more...]
Methotrexate Mondays – 12 weeks in…
I've been taking methotrexate now for 12 weeks in the hope that it will help to heal my eczema and allow me to stop using steroids, which have stopped working for my skin, but that's another subject altogether. I've touched on TSW or topical steroid withdrawal here before but watch out for much more in the coming months. Methotrexate is not a drug to take lightly. It is … [Read more...]
The many masks of eczema
Having lived with eczema for most of my life, I'm familiar with many masks that have visited me over the years. It's a particularly shaming condition, in a world where your appearance, perfection and looking good seem to be the aspiration of most and we compare ourselves to our peers and to the relentless polished images we see on social media. I pretend I don't care and … [Read more...]
Mindful scratching – can it help eczema?
Before I begin I strongly believe that berating a person for scratching their eczema is the worst kind of well meaning advice. Trust me, if you have eczema and it's in full force, you cannot stop scratching. And sometimes that is OK. Don't beat yourself up if you can't resist that horrible incessant itch that seems to live deep inside the skin, and only subsides when you've … [Read more...]
Topical steroid addiction and withdrawal and what it means…
I'm addicted. There, I said it. I'm an addict and it's all my fault. Well I didn't know that the drugs I was prescribed would cause any long term problems at the time but it would seem topical steroids are a ticking time bomb. At first the steroids worked but over time higher and higher doses were prescribed to keep the eczema at bay. It took years to understand the … [Read more...]