Medical: Eczema

Recently, I have had a massive eczema flare up. I thought it would be good to go through some basics of preventing and treating eczema (things I should have paid attention to before the problem became so bad). 

There are many factors that can cause an eczema flare up. Allergies, stress, dry skin, and recent illnesses or surgeries are just a few things that came cause flare ups. 

My first flare up 8 years ago was due to a surgery. The surgery was unavoidable, however I did not manage the flare up until it was unbearable; bleeding from the pores kind of unbearable. In my defense, I didn't know about eczema at the time. Ended up going to a dermatologist and got a steriod shot.

My second flare up was due to a severe allergy response 3 years ago. I had just moved to Florida and the allergies from Indiana that I took allergy shots for were completely different from the allergies in Florida. I have heard from several doctors that when you move to a drastically different environment, it can take your body up to a year to adjust. That first year was a constant running nose and headache. Eventually, my body rebelled with an eczema flare up. So I was given steriods in pill form and a daily allergy medicine.

This latest flare up was due to a short bout of dry, cold-ish weather here in Florida. My lips got really dry even after nightly lip balm treatments. Right after that, the normal Florida warmth returned. I didn't think much about it until the patches of eczema showed back up. Within a week, the rash covered half of my body. I knew what was happening this time and tried to treat the flare up before it got worse with hydrocortisone cream. It continued to spread. I even tried a bleach bath (putting a half cup of bleach in a full bath and soaking in it for 10 minutes. Then rinse off). It still spread. I ended up at the dermatologist's office again and was given a heavy steriod cream. 

In all of these instances, there were indications of a problem that I ignored. That tends to be something I have done a lot in my past. Other things always seem more important to deal with than a little  itch, a liitle pain, a little anything. The body tries to give us warning signs before there is a more serious problem on our hands. Our job is to take care of our body. This is something I am continually learning and something that becomes very clear in times of feeling miserable and knowing it might have been prevented. 

Simple solutions, such as taking allergy medicine, putting on some moisturizer, paying attention, could have prevented some issues later.

This is not just about eczema, it is about our need to start slowing down and pay attention to our health before some bigger issues creep up on us. Sometimes we need a wake up call to make changes in our lives. Sometimes it is the new year, with the yearly resolutions that never seem to stick. Maybe it is an illness that could have been prevented or at least treated before it got worse. Maybe it is watching a loved one ignore issues for a long time and then they come home with a life altering diagnoses. Whatever it is, why do we need these things to enact a change? Why can't we listen to the whispers of our body before it must scream at us to pay attention. 

Getting back to basics needs to start with us. Our inner voice. We need to stop letting the outside world, and all of its stuff, speak louder than our inner voice.