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The earliest I remember ever having eczema is when I was 7 and I remember it mainly being underneath my knees. I used cream a dermatologist gave to my mother and that's the last I remember of it. I was unaware at the time that I actually had excema. I always remember having extremely dry skin all over the lower half of my body. As I got older, and started to see my doctor, I just attributed it to being heriditary as my dad has ridiculously dry, flaky skin -- but he doesn't have excema.
Anyways, for years and years and years I NEVER showed my legs or feet to anyone but my family. It wasn't because of my excema that I had no idea about until this doctor informed me of it at 22 (I'm 25 now), it was because of all of my blackheads and uneven skin tone, dry, cracked feet etc.
In 2010 I went to Barbados to a family reunion and of course, as it was hot as ever, decided to wear shorts, skirts and dresses. Most summers back home in Toronto, it didn't matter how hot it was - I wouldn't be caught dead doing this! For some reason when I came back home from that trip I continued to show off my skin and body. I've always been skinny and tall, people always would say you should model, blah blah and it's like... they have NO idea what my skin looks like! I could never be a model! Please.
I would say once summer ended that year in 2010, my eczema that was finally revealed to me from my doctor was acting a fool and flaring up like crazy. He prescribed me Elidel, Hydroval and Benovate in a period of two years (from 2010-2012). We all know how these things affect our skin! They all come in these tiny portions and it's like, sure I can put it on only the places where my skin is rough and flared, but my ENTIRE lower body itches so what do you do? And I had YET to find a cream and my doctor has as well, that will help relieve my itchy skin. Naturally I put these products on my entire lower half. What did the Elidel do? Weaken my skin where now it's like... An old lady who has wrinkly skin -- almost extra saggy layers of skin, plus it's naturally cracked, plus its dry, plus my skin is 20 different skin tones. It's just sad and embarrassing.
Last summer I went to England to visit my family for two months. Prior to this I had random flare ups. Omg, I went to England and it was the WORSE it's EVER been. I was in so much pain, itching my skin until to bled in PUBLIC and around my friends and family - totally embarrassing. And the worse part is no one there would prescribe me anything because they didn't know my history. I was forced to use these counter products like Eurcerin that at the time, made me itch even more. It was SO unbareable. During that time I got huge discoloration patches all over my knees and down.
No matter how much I try to stress to my doctor that I need a dermatologist, he just doesn't seem to get it. His response is more or less like, 'you'll have this forever, dermatologists are expensive. ' I just feel truly hopeless at this point.
I had quite a bit of acne on my face during my time in England as well which I think was unrelated to the excema. And after several months of over the counter acne medications, I decided to go natural on my face. Recently I decided to go natural on my body as well.
WHAT I'VE USED: I bought a jar of coconut oil and put that on my skin twice a day for two days straight and my skin has never felt so tight!! It was totally irritating. I was itching all over the place, it was crazy so I stopped using it, lol. But I will admit, in certain places, the eczema has cleared up and has somewhat dried up in a sense. I see people have talked about this working for them so I might continue you it tonight.
My doctor told me to buy a humidifier. In fact, two doctors have told me that. So fine -- I bought a humidifier for my room and honestly, it hasn't done much of anything. And it's even more irrelevant now that its spring in Canada and yet, here I am with excema outbreaks.
Late last year I started eating green Granny Smith apples once a day for a month straight JUST to be healthy. Funny enough, I see it on here as something that could help excema! BUT, during my time of eating the apples, I feel as though my acne flared up like crazy! So I stopped doing that. I tried again for two days straight this year, and the same thing so I've just stopped eating them altogether.
My doctor suggested grounded flax seeds, so last week I bought a whole bunch in bulk, grounded them up and have been putting it in my drink and food constantly. We'll see if this will help.
Before I bought the grounded flax seeds I was taking one flax seed oil pill a day and I don't know... The results are unknown. When I bought the flax seeds and finished the flax seed oil pills I decided to get Omega 3-6-9 instead, which I almost feel is making my excema worse, ugh. But then again, I never use things long enough to really tell.
MY QUESTION IS: After all of that, lol. When you use these remedies, does the eczema flare up initially and then start to become effective? Or is it meant to work instantly, so to speak? Because if it is meant to flare up, then I'll use some of these remedies longer then I have been.
People don't realize how debilitating having eczema is and I feel worse for the ones who have it shown visibly like on their face and neck, etc. Even going swimming is an issue and what kills me is, I actually have a nice body! And I'm so sick of hearing people tell me about it, little do they know. I'm 25 and I'm tired of living like this. I shouldn't be covering up, I want to show it off!
Help me, please!!!
