Eczema

[Victrixa]

I just started getting eczema like 2 years ago. I normally would have rashes on my hands - and boy are those itchy YIKES! - and lately I started getting rashes elsewhere on my body. Is that ever so unpleasant?! It's itchy and painful at the same time. Plus it's ugly!

Anyways, mine is nothing compared to some of you (and some pictures I saw on the 'Net) How do you survive? I just have a few on my body and I feel impatient and it seems my whole body aches... Oh gosh, my heart goes out to you.

I have aloe vera gel here. It is healing my eczema rashes. Very powerful stuff.

I will hydrate myself with aloe vera gel continually (all over my body) as I itch all over all the time. I have very dry skin to start with. And water, we must drink lots of water to hydrate our bodies and skin.

Hope things get better for all of you eczema sufferers. As I write this, one of my rashes is itching me like crazy... Ouch!

 

[Victrixa]

Hello eczema sufferers,

Does the eczema you have, whatever type you may suffer from, make you feel pain?

I'm so in pain. My eczema rashes feel as if someone is pinching me painfully on and around them. I feel pain on my skin which feels overly sensitive...

Is that how you experience it?

 

[Victrixa]

What a quiet place... I keep talking to myself, lol.

OK, I think I might have shingles rather than eczema. I'm talking about my rashes here and the pain in my skin. Now that's another story. Shingles are a viral infection.

I know, I'm not even 40 yet, but I have all the symptoms described... I'm in pain...

See ya....

 

[ChristsDisciple]

yeah ive got Eczema but its not very bad, but i do have other skin condidtions 2! Have had them all since I was born. The thing I hate most about the eczema is not how nasty it looks or how much it hurts, but that it puts me off my college work and distracts me. That and the fact that im doing a physical course, and have it on my armpits ans so every lesson it stings like mad when i sweat and i know theres nothing I can do about it! sucks!

 

[gsook]

One thing that helped me was to cut down on carbs and stick with a strict protein only diet. But it's hard. Very hard. I can only afford 5g of carbo a day. So it's basically fish and chicken almost everyday.

I managed to last 3 months. The improvements were drastic. But the temptation of carbo led me to the dark side again. Please god. Help me. Discipline! Discipline! Say no to carbs

 

[Diciple]

I have found at the present turning the heat down as low as is comfortable helps. I have central heating which dries up the air etc. Especially try to have the heating off as soon as you can before going to bed helps. Fight it as best you can and avoid scratching as best you can.

 

[JohnPeter]

Number one, eczema is not contagious! you may be a little gross to look at when you have it, but appearances aside, you can not affect anyone else.

Eczema is a loose label slapped onto one of two things - non-differentiated eczema (itching, red, oozy epidermis marked with little crops of tiny vesicles, etc). Or atopic dermatitis.

In children, it is most commonly produced by an allergic reaction, though it can also have "idiopathic" reasons for being, too. Children who suffer this condition early in life may go onto develop an allergic condition or asthma later in life.

Older people can also get eczema, and it usually indicates a hypersensistivity response to foods and other allergic triggers.

Treatment: soothing baths, moisturizing creams; topical steroidal treatment (eg., Elocon ointment. Smells like damp soil, but works a charm); oral antihistamines and sometimes oral steroidal therapy (not anabolic kind), should help.

Suspects: Allergies. Try and see patterns in behavior and/or diet and link to events of eczema. Usual suspects include - milk, eggs and fish. Note: inhaled allergens - such as dust and pollen RARELY cause eczema.

 

[benjie]

My 3-year-old daughter has eczema since she was a baby. It has something to do with food allergies. She was blood tested to determine the specific food that could triger the reaction and when I avoided those food, my daughter got better. She still flares up every now and then and I use triamcinolone for the body and elidel for the face. I also soak her in the tub to ease the itching and moisturize with lotion all the time.

 

[CaseyK]

Wow, I never thought there were others out there like me. I too have had to be taken to the hospital and held down because of my eczema. I have it all over and it gets so bad that I scratch until my skin is just bleeding rivers. I have a ton of it around my mouth and it is hard to talk or eat when it is bad. When I was in school I used to get made fun of because of it. I am 25 and have had this since I was born and I still haven't found anything to help me I also have severe allergies

My second dd also has severe allergies and eczema, I am so scared hers will turn out to be as bad as mine.

Sometimes I just feel like crying because I have scratched my skin raw and it hurts so bad.

How do you tell a child not to scratch when she sees you do it all the time?

 

[benjie]

eczema is usually related to allergies. going to the allergiest really helped my daughter cause we were able identify the food she's allergic to.

 

[tigercub]

well i have Eczema. It can very bad at times. One time it got so bad that i had to be held down and had to go to the hospital. SO anyone out there aslo have Eczema? And if so what do you do to keep under control?

Sorry to hear that.

I do have eczema. I am not very good at keeping it under control to be honest...I have Cortisone cream and I use it sometimes, but often it doesn't seem to make much difference. Apparently it thins the skin when used over long periods of time, and it's been on my fingers and hands most recently...so I'm gonna have old lady hands pretty soon

I must scratch in my sleep because sometimes I wake up with blood splattered all over me/the bed

 

[HeyJupiter]

i have chronic eczma.. Ive had it since i was young. and its EVERYWHERE...not always really very bad but its everywehre... hate it

 

[PoundingMetal]

I was born with eczema. Head to toe. At a very early age it succumbed to only my feet. As a little boy I couldn't walk barefoot. The eczema would dry out my feet to the point that they would crack and bleed. Until my 16th year I was suffering almost everyday. Not horrible suffering, just uncomfortable most times. I went to a dermatologist and he gave me **Topicort**. To me it was a miracle. At 16 I praised the medical profession for relieving me of the biggest detriment in my life. That was 20 years ago. I still have eczema, but now it is controlled. Just as quick as an irritation forms, I rub a fingertip amount of cream on it and the next day it is gone. TOPICORT, my friends, has made my life since 16 a very active joy to live.

 

[David_The_Disciple]

well idk if any of you have heard of Clary Sage Oil but i picked up a book and it siad it helps with it so i gave it a try you put it in your bath or mix it with oil and rub it on your skin i used it in a bath and it felt so good it was the 1st time i got out of a bath that i did not feel ichy or worst cuse of the bath. i would say talk to your doc and try it. it can be found in heath food store. anywho if you have and use it let me know how it works for you. it feel like it helps me.

 

[David_The_Disciple]

I must scratch in my sleep because sometimes I wake up with blood splattered all over me/the bed

i know that i have blood stpts all over my bed and tops and such i know whats it liek urgh it so hard to get them out most time i cant get them out.

 

[This_Beautiful_Grace]

well i have Eczema. It can very bad at times. One time it got so bad that i had to be held down and had to go to the hospital. SO anyone out there aslo have Eczema? And if so what do you do to keep under control?

Eek. That must have been aweful. I've never had it THAT bad before, but currently my eczema is worse than it has been for me in awhile. Steriod creams can help when my eczema flares up but I have to go to the doctors for it for every new tube, and they're so small these days too. It's not particularly great for your skin either though. I too have heard it thins out your skin.

As for other creams and ointments, nothing else really helps me. If my skin is already under control, moisturiser can help but once it flares up again, it's not so easy to re-gain control over it. There are too many factors that trigger my eczema too. Even if I avoid all the foods and drinks that trigger my eczema, drink lots of water and avoid long and hot showers, still there is the weather and stress that can anger my eczema too. Stress is probably the biggest trigger, sadly.

Eczema is a pain in the butt.

 

[This_Beautiful_Grace]

Wow! I just googled some eczema images and saw many pictures of it that are much worse than what I've ever known. I still say my eczema is a pain in the butt and can be nasty stuff, but it's certainly not the worst out there and not even close.

 

[joshuverixen]

Mine isn't too bad for the most part, but I have been using Elidel, which seems to help.
Eczema is not a fun thing.

 

[Avolarx]

*sigh* I have had my deal of troubles with eczema too. When I was 11 I had to be in a hospital with it but since then not any more. For about the last 5 years it has been rather moderate, but it tends to get worse in summer [I also have allergy to grass pollen, so possibly it's connected than in June/July the eczema gets worse too].

For keeping it in a moderate state I use just a cream that stops it from getting dry and doesn't contain steroides [currently I use a Finnish cream called Ceralan].
And when it gets too bad I use hormonal creams [Elocom] but they really shouldn't be used frequently because then the skin would get used to it and they would lose effectiveness.
Sometimes it even gets "wet" like if it's infected or something D: and when that happens I use applications of black tea or applications or bathing in potassium permanganate [that was what they used for me when I was in the hospital. But the solution must contain very little of it - not darker than light pink!] - both helps for these extreme states.

 

[jarrettcpr]

I see noone has made a post in the allergies section in this forum for quite some time now, but maybe someone can still read this post of mine.

I had exzema when I was a baby, grew out of it, but then when puberty hit, my exzema started flaring up.

I went to the doc and they would give me foams, creams, and ointments. Well, sometimes it would work, but would seem to come back up and even more severe. Well we decided to stop seeing the dermotologists and went to an allergist. Well, the only food allergy I have is to shellfish which I already knew, but was allergic to all types of pollens, dusts, molds, and etc. So, I was put on an allergy shots. Well that didn't really seem to work and the allergist would put me on antihistamines and would give me cortisone shots. Also, he had me on a very strong corticosteroid ointment. Well, that too would sometimes work, but not fix it... he got desperate and basically just had me taking prednisone whenever I was flaring up(which was just about always). I was taking prednisone so much I started having panic attacks, and he simply perscribed me anit-anxiety drugs, and that's when my mom said enough, and we went back to a dermotologist.

Well the allergist did do one good thing and that was he's heard people that have exzema usually have high levels of IgE and sure enough my levels were through the roof. Something like 21,000 when normal levels or 100. The new dermotologist I went to knew of a drug that was suppose to decrease IgE levels. The drug is called Xolair. So, luckily he was able to get me on it, and with that shot and with a strong cortisteriod with a good moisturizer, has made my life much better.

The thing about the Xolair, which is a shot( I get it every other week, via a shot in each arm), it's very expensive, but I was able to get it off label, and it's meant for people with asthma. Still, if you have sever exzema, get some blood work done to check your IgE levels and see if your insurance will to pay for the medicine.