Lun Lok's Eczema story
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My name is Lun and I am 39. I have had eczema ever since I started working in industry and asthma since I was 2. When I first began work the journey would be an hour there and an hour back. So by the end of each day I would have two hours worth of skin flakes all over the place in the car. The itching was unbearable. I visited my doctor, who prescribed Eumovate and Betnovate. I tried other things like aqueous cream, vitamin E cream, Dermovate and just about anything else that I thought would do me some good. I even said to this woman at work, "wow you always have glowing skin, what do you use...sorry it sounds a bit girly to ask....". She gave me a sample of witch hazel. Everything would work for a little while, but nothing worked well or worked all the time, not even the dermatologically tested all natural stuff. I visited the local hospital, but the fobbed me off with some half-assed diagnosis as if I was wasting their time. I now attend a better hospital. I had other tests too, including food allergy tests, which told me I should steer clear of citric acid, eggs and tomatoes. And the horribly annoying patch testing as well.
A couple of years back, I noticed it would all get worse. Maybe it was because I had moved to the top floor in the office block, there's only three floors, and the air con is never right on any floor, but when I worked on the second floor, it wasn't so bad. My face was so bad, I looked permanently sunburnt. the redness was and still is always visible. Consistently peeling all the time, especially on the eye lids, chin and neck, groin and armpits as well. I would have to peel bits off my eyelids, measurable slithers, and I couldn't help it, my wife would tell me stop it, but I would say its all coming away anyway.....
I remember one time in the workplace, a colleague thought I had been in a fire. I never realised how bad I looked! I had a lot of sleepless and itchy nights. Sometimes it would be two hours sleep, even one hour. The antihistamines failed me. Then as recently as last november, I went to work and looked really rough. Much rougher than usual. My boss told me it was the worst I had ever seen. It itched like crazy and I wasn't able to concentrate. By then my creams and ointments included things like DoubleBase, Vitamin A cream, Aveeno, Pimecromlimus, and Diprobase. But on this day, nothing worked. I went to wash my face and it went worse - my face looked like I had a roll in a box of sugar puffs, all these little bits peeling off. I looked in the mirror and was shocked. I went home and throughout the months of Nov, Dec and Jan, my skin went from bad to worse which made my wife cry. I haven't been back to work yet, a fact I am not proud of. The stress sometimes drives me down into depression, but I try to control it and have been to see the dermatologists at hospital. They want me to go on azothioprine, and they have also helped me find out that my skin is photo-aggravated. Throughout all this time, I have tried searching the internet for remedies, and I found Tetrasil, an ointment with silver oxide in, researching diet, and I found that I should not eat garlic, and going back to my doctors to get a sick note for a seemingly unconvinced HR. I have now even considered cognitive behavioural therapy, and am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I just don't know when the next big flare up is going to be.
These days I try to supplement my diet with Fish oils, Vitamin E, Aloe Vera capsules, Evening primrose oil, milk thistle extract, Grapeseed extract, collagen tablets and good multivitamin. I think its helping!
