JAmes Aed's Eczema story
Read these other fellow eczema sufferers stories
My name is James and I am 24 years old. I have had eczema for as long as I can remember. I have always had allergies, and asthma and I am aware that these things may be related. When I was a small child I apparently used to get very bad rashes all over my body. However, in my general childhood I didn't really have any problems with my skin. When I became a teenager, however, that began to change. I developed eczema heavily on my arms and legs. Thankfully my face was never affected, or other more prominent or visible areas, which I always found strange. The skin on my legs was always dry, flaky, itchy and inflamed. I do remember scratching so much that I would break the skin, and for long periods it was constantly raw. I used to wear tubing bandages, although the worst thing about these was that they would dry out and become stuck to the healing wounds! I was always extremely self conscious about showing my arms and legs and the pain and itching was difficult to cope with. I thank my parents so much for the treatment and support they gave me. I used to take various emolient baths and use emloient and steroid creams. They perhaps mitigated the symptoms but I do not remember them ever having a great impact on the condition.
As I reached about 20 my eczema cleared to some degree. I tried some herbal treatments around this time, but I have since gone off those and I am not entirely sure that I did not just partly grow out of the condition. I was off dairy and certain other foodstuffs for a while, and this seemed to help. Now I am less strict with my diet, but still try to avoid dairy. I still have red, itchy patches on my arms and legs where the skin can become dry, and in the past year or so the front of my neck is affected. I presently use DoubleBase and Vaseline Intensive Rescue emolients and 1% BP cortisone cream to control the areas. I know that everyone responds to different emolients and creams, but I found that the Vaseline store bought cream is very effective when used on wet skin, while it is less effective otherwise. Similarly the DoubleBase is a good all round cream with an effect that I hadn't seen before, which is to leave a fine, almost sticky layer on the skin to prevent it drying out. Most other products just make me itch. To be honest I find it difficult to discern the effect of my cortisone cream. Beyond all of that the condition of my skin seems to be in God's hands.
I am really grateful that my eczema is not worse than it is. My condition is annoying and makes some parts of life more difficult, but it is not as bad as it has been and hopefully it won't get that much worse. It is nice when people understand what it means to have eczema, as it is something that makes me feel quite self conscious and alot of the time I am resisting the urge to scratch or looking quite strange and frustrated while scratching! For those reading this who have eczema, it is likely that yours will be worse than mine, and I take great heart in your courage in dealing with it. For those who do not, I hope this provides a bit of understanding.
