Awe, my dear friend and arch nemesis eczema!
I have had eczema my whole life, all 36 years of it! These days it seems to be isolated more to my hands, wrists, and up to my elbow creases… sometimes on my forehead. As a kid, teenager and young adult it was, at various phases, all over my entire body; covered from head to toe quite literally and most often open, cracked, oozing, weeping, itchy sensitive and sore.
It was especially bad behind the backs of my legs, in my elbow creases and on my hands; which was where all my default spots were. My hands would be so cracked, bleeding and sore that I could hardly hold a pencil or bend any of my fingers, put on my clothes or open/ close my bag etc. Everything was such an effort and exhausting. I remember the creases in my elbows beings so weeping, cracked and sore that I need to decide in the mornings, upon waking before school, whether I needed to have my arm straight or bent for the day (pending what activities were ahead). Then I would proceed to straighten/ pull apart the cracks in my arms to get them to straighten up. The cracks would then dry and set either straight or bent for the day. It was painfully sore, I can almost feel the intensity of the pain still. Every movement of my hands, arms or legs were painfully sore and limited me from participating in some activities which the other kids could do no problem. I was often sent to school in bandages with smelly creams on below and looked different to others. I didn’t know at the time that I looked different, I just knew that nobody liked me. This was a theme that ran deep into my early childhood years. Bullying and exclusion. It was my norm. None of my classmates liked me at all, I would spend a lot of time on my own, but I don’t believe it was all to do with the eczema, it was a very small class and they just didn’t like me anyway. So, I spent most of my younger life alone and by myself.
As a teen, I often had eczema all over my face and neck, in my hair and all over my back, which I found particularly tough in secondary school. People would look and stare at me, and I would feel so dirty and diseased to look at! Of course this made it all the more difficult for me to feel in any way confident with boys, however I was never short of having a boyfriend so I must have been doing something right! I was certainly much better at covering it up, in my teen years.
I was always prone to going out with older, more mature, boys in school. Much to my brothers’ dismay at stealing their friends! I remember going out with one guy, I had a real crush on him, another friend of my brothers! We would write love notes and pass them between classes and soon began to hang out at lunchtime… that is till one lunchtime! We were sat in the local chipper with a ‘friend’ of mine, when both were chatting about how people cover their hands with their sleeves. I could sense where this was going, as I would always cover my hands with my sleeves. Both rolled up their school jumper sleeves, my ‘friend’ saying ‘Well, I don’t do that just because everyone else does’, followed by my ‘supposed’ boyrfriend saying ‘Neither do I’, both then looking at me, as if to assume I would go next. I just let it go over my head. I wasn’t playing that game, my hands were covered in cracked and bleeding eczema, and before I even had a chance to speak, my ‘Supposed New Boyfriend’ says ‘Well, there’s no point you rolling up your sleeves because you’re hands are horrible anyway’. Gob… Wide… Open!!!! What the actual F**k! Needless to say, he was dumped that lunchtime when we arrived back to school. He pleased with me to forgive him for being a jerk and I ignored him! What an assh**e!
I spent many a summer completely covered up in long sleeves and bulky jackets in the splitting sunshine, just to cover it up from being seen! It was my cousin who managed to bring me out into the open, when she came for a visit to my home county. We stayed in a holiday chalet by the sea and would go down to the water everyday. I would have jackets and long sleeves so others wouldn’t see and I wouldn’t be looked at. In hindsight I was probably drawing more attention from wearing a jacket in the blistering sun, that I would have been for the look of my skin. But it was habit. My cousin was determined to drop the baggage and gain some self confidence. She just encouraged me that nobody was looking, she didn’t care, nobody cared, and if they did so what. So, I undressed into my swimsuit exposing legs and arms and hands and all, and we ran with blissful excitement and freedom into the sea! That summer changed my life as it was then I began to say, Feck it!
Through the years I have tried absolutely EVERYTHING to get rid of it, with some and little success. My Mum is the only reason I haven’t died from septicemia or infections in fairness to her. She was the one who did all the cleaning and bathing and loving of my eczema when I didn’t know how. She brought me to see so many Doctors, Healers, Medicine Men and Women, tried some many natural cures, faith cures, and has put her heart and soul into helping me. My painful journey has been as much my own, as it has been hers. She is the only one who felt my pain when I was suffering through the years and for that I will forever be eternally grateful. She is a truly inspiring, caring, kind, persistent and loving women. I can’t thank her enough!
So, it’s not a surprise (although it was to me) when, in recent years, I discovered I had a real taste and passion for self healing, alternative therapies, natural medicine and folk healing. How could I not have developed an interest with all the quaint and quackery we tried, in healing my eczema, through the years!
In 2009, I went traveling with a friend of mine. I had always known that the sun is good for the skin, mind and soul but even though I was doing plenty of partying, my eczema seemed to diappear and for the first time in my own personal history… my eczema disappeared and I had fingerprints for a change! I could see the prints and patterns on my skin, and I felt like everyone else. I remember as a kid, watching others on stage at the school plays and wanting their freedom and hands, I always wanted to know what it was like… and here I was in Thailand, with no eczema! I believe it was combination of drinking lots of water, sweating out the crap and toxins from my body, and the sun to heal as I sweated out!
When I came back to Ireland, to the cold and damp, it came back straight away.
The same happened in 2017, when I went traveling again, my skin returned to normal and looked fab! Although I found whenever I would return to countries with cooler climate, damp and cold, temperamental weather changes, etc. my eczema would come back. A good excuse to leave the cooler climates and head for the sun eh?
Back to Ireland and it’s back again. This time it’s changed though, and it seems to be a different kind of eczema. It is not as cracked and sore and bleeding, it is more smooth and spread out, flatter and breaks more easily.
What I have discovered is;
- Keeping my nails short is PARAMOUNT!
- Washing only when needed!!!
- Washing my hands hurts like hell and I can’t use normal soap, or it dries them out and rips my hands open. So, I just rinse my hands with tepid water. (I used to scald them under the tap with roasting hot water, as a sort of pain/pleasure thing to override the pain of washing them…anyone with eczema on their hands will know this only too well… it is SO good, but SO bad! However, although the feeling is amazing it dries the eczema out and makes the skin thinner and easier to rip open!
- Drink LOTS of Water!
- Eczema is caused due to a toxic internal environment, inflammation inside the body. If the sewage system for your body is congested it comes out in your skin. The main ways in which your body excretes toxins are through poop, pee, skin, breath. If you are constipated you will notice your eczema is worse – your poop excretes toxins and if it’s staying in your body then you are re-absorbing those toxins. The same for your pee, if you aren’t drinking enough water then you are not peeing enough toxins. Lymphatics can only be drained by muscle contraction, lymphs are the sewage system to your body and if you are not moving your muscles then they have no way to pump out the toxins (which also go into your pee, which means you need enough water to pee them out!). If your system is over-toxed then the next place for the toxins to come out it your skin, by smelly sweat and skin irritations. Sauna and Steam rooms are a great way to clear the skin. Breath. If you are not breathing properly, deep breathing from your diaphragm, then your body cannot pull out toxins from the air properly, bringing oxygenated blood to your cells to help them renew. These toxins are drawn in through the breath and recycled in the body, however if you breath deeply and out deeply, then you are creating a more efficient cycle. When I smoked my skin was always worse, which didn’t help an already overloaded toxic system.
- Nourish your body! Eat Healthy, be mindful over what you are dumping into your body!
- I don’t always practice what I preach here, but on a whole I’m usually pretty sharp and like my healthy foods. I’m definitely an emotional eater, so when I am down or feeling a little depressed, I tend to eat worse. However, everything in life is a cycle and I also know that with the rough comes the smooth and rather than beat myself up, I embrace those times and keep my head up knowing that when the time is right I will make the right choices once again.
- CBD Powder!
- We have a family friend who has introduced some really excellent quality organic CBD powder, which is crazy high in all the omega oils and good stuff we need in our bodies for our joint, muscles and cardio system anyway. The CBD Powder reduced inflammation and is really FAB for eczema! I’ve definitely noticed a difference in my skin, in fact I believe it is on its way out right now! It is smoother, more even in tone and the raised and cracked parts are becoming less and less. It is like I can see the foot print, but the eczema itself is dwindling!
