Seewalds 31: Jessa’s Maybe-Baby

[2manyKidzzz]

I have always had eczema....the above mentioned acupuncture took it off my hands for the first time for the most part....but you have to go once a month or so, which is fine because I also use it to help control BP. 

I have seen eczema on the list of ailments caused by an autoimmune condition. And this is really the tough thing. When my kids were little, my hands were awful from washing them for diaper changers. The dermatologist said that I needed to use gloves and wash the gloves and not my hands. So there it goes. 

Just wanted to add that a discussion like this is so helpful, because something like this can have different triggers and all of the solutions presented are so helpful. So kudos to all here in the discussion. 

[justoneoftwo]

Just a shout out to my dermatologists who I have loved.  Thank you for taking care of my skin cancer, and being on top of it.  

I think all kinds of doctors can be focused on symptoms, but the answer is really to find the doctor with whom you "click."

[GuineaPigCourtship]

12 minutes ago, JordynDarby5 said:

Doctors listen to your patients! Its not that hard.  

This is definitely something that drives me crazy.  Most doctors I've had do a pretty good job of listening to me, but currently I'm trying to sort out some health issues with a new doctor and I hate to jump ship right in the middle (although am getting to that point).  For example, a new medication has been giving me insomnia which, while kind of awful, isn't enough to make me stop taking it without waiting to see if side effects subside.  But I don't really like being told that I'm probably reading into it too much or drinking too much coffee... just because everyone else subsists on caffeine doesn't mean I do.  I'm a vet, as I've mentioned before, and I would LOVE to be able to ask some of my (admittedly far cuter) patients how they're feeling or what's going on.  Treating someone/thing that can flat out tell me about their symptoms and if medications are helping would be a dream.

Although part of that dream does have me as Dr. Doolittle (from the books) and my own herd of best friend guinea pigs I can shoot the breeze with.  Curse you, reality, curse you.

[Jellybean]

Oof @Rachel333 that looks so painful. I have similar skin reactions, but I’m lucky that it’s not the natural state.

One of the frustrating things is that it takes so long for the inflammation to settle once it’s triggered, so it can be hard to know if something is helping. I had an awful reaction to an antiperspirant that left my underarms (as far as my elbow and all down the side of my body) red and raw and cracked and SO itchy. I could stop myself from scratching/rubbing while I was awake, but I would scratch in my sleep and wake up bleeding. It took months to heal, even once I found a product that didn’t irritate things.

I need to find a new medical tape now. I found one that didn’t irritate my skin and always carry it with me to use instead of whatever the hospital stocks, but the last couple of times I’ve used it, my skin has been irritated. Photo below spoiler is the reaction from ten minutes of tape.

Spoiler

 

[SapphireSlytherin]

@Jellybean - I have good luck with the paper tape, rather than the standard adhesive tape. Have you tried that?

[laPapessaGiovanna]

2 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

For everyone treating the symptom  of eczema, Jessa is 100% on-track by changing her (and Henry's) diet. Dermatologists LOVE to treat symptoms, rather than diagnosing the CAUSE. They're always saying it's laundry detergent, fabric softener, body wash, soap, shampoo, etc., when it's likely to be something internal (a reaction to food).

My eczema went AWAY when I cut gluten from my diet. My skin is CLEAR and no longer paper-thin from all the creams/ointments/lotions that I was constantly bombarding my body with. 

My eczema would go away in a heartbeat if I lived in a place with low humidity and no damn fucking dust mites. It's not a food caused reaction for everyone (I tried that route following the counsel of my dermatologist and allergologist).

@kachuu the eyelids eczema is the worst! I usually have it from October to June, hate it! Also because the treatments you can put on eyelids are fewer, more expensive and in my case mostly useless as hydrocortisone dries my skin horribly and I hate putting moisturizing treatments on eyelids because they invariably melts and gets into my eyes. Hate it.

[kachuu]

1 hour ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

My eczema would go away in a heartbeat if I lived in a place with low humidity and no damn fucking dust mites. It's not a food caused reaction for everyone (I tried that route following the counsel of my dermatologist and allergologist).

@kachuu the eyelids eczema is the worst! I usually have it from October to June, hate it! Also because the treatments you can put on eyelids are fewer, more expensive and in my case mostly useless as hydrocortisone dries my skin horribly and I hate putting moisturizing treatments on eyelids because they invariably melts and gets into my eyes. Hate it.

I never "met" someone who dealt with it being on the eyelids! I thought i was the only crazy one! SHowers were the worst & the cracking and the bleeding! ugh

I was told when i first went to the dermatologist that basically, my skin wasn't producing oil as it should but when i finish going through puberty, it should "right itself". And for the most part she was correct. In high school it went away completely- the flaky & bleeding part of it but to be clear, i still have super dry skin but just not to the extreme anymore. 

Until about a year ago & it has returned only to my right eye & my wrists. I've been pretty good about keeping my skin moisturized but every winter it is always the cherry on top of dealing with the cold weather (I'm in NY now btw, from the South where i believe the humidity keeps it at bay better)

[Jellybean]

1 hour ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

@Jellybean - I have good luck with the paper tape, rather than the standard adhesive tape. Have you tried that?

Thank you! I’ve tried a couple of brands of paper tape, but no luck yet. Thankfully I can mostly get away without using tape for most things. I think I’ll just add a tubular elastic bandage to my kit, which will hold cotton wool over the needle hole after a blood test. 

[justmy2cents]

I developed allergies to certain fruit (apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, etc,) about 15 years ago. During pregnancy (8 years ago) I also developed a mild case of eczema.  My Doctor recently told me that both conditions may have been triggered by GMO glutens. She suggested I try eliminating them from my diet.   I'm a bread lover so it's not that easy but I'm slowly making changes (buying cereal with non GMO gluten, etc.) 

[KelseyAnn]

16 hours ago, fluffernutter said:

What I want to know, is what do grandparents do for say, holidays, birthdays, graduations, (wait never mind they will probably not have traditional high school graduations), etc  for 100+ grandkids? My in-laws have nine grandchildren and just helping the parents out, gifting at holidays, going to their concerts/games/events/ and celebrating birthdays and such is a full time job for them. Michelle's full time job is going to be managing some kind of epic word document or spread sheet alerting her to birth dates, names, etc. It must be a completely different dynamic. 

My Gramma uses an ordinary calendar for all our birthdays, and each year she sends $20 dollars to those under 18. When the year is up, she moves the dates unto a new calendar and so on. As for school events, she doesn't go unless it's grandparents day, which I think is perfectly reasonable. This way no one feels left out. 

3 hours ago, kachuu said:

I never "met" someone who dealt with it being on the eyelids! I thought i was the only crazy one! SHowers were the worst & the cracking and the bleeding! ugh

I was told when i first went to the dermatologist that basically, my skin wasn't producing oil as it should but when i finish going through puberty, it should "right itself". And for the most part she was correct. In high school it went away completely- the flaky & bleeding part of it but to be clear, i still have super dry skin but just not to the extreme anymore. 

Until about a year ago & it has returned only to my right eye & my wrists. I've been pretty good about keeping my skin moisturized but every winter it is always the cherry on top of dealing with the cold weather (I'm in NY now btw, from the South where i believe the humidity keeps it at bay better)

My niece has it on her eyelids but luckily my sister found a cream that works really well for her and keeps it mostly at bay. 

[BunnyBee]

I have eczema on my face and it has only recently spread to my eyelids during my last flair up. It was absolutely miserable! 

My wedding day is less than 9 months away and it brings me to tears sometimes worrying about having a flair up on my wedding day 

My skin on my face is constantly dry and very sensitive. The only lotion my skin tolerates is Nivea.

I have been completely gluten free for 3 days now to try and keep the symptoms at bay

[samurai_sarah]

18 minutes ago, BunnyBee said:

(snip)

My wedding day is less than 9 months away and it brings me to tears sometimes worrying about having a flair up on my wedding day 

(snip)

No bride is ugly on her wedding day.

[SapphireSlytherin]

Good luck, @BunnyBee!

@samurai_sarah - that's one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. And it's true!

[JillyO]

I had really bad eczema as a child, mostly in the backs of my knees, insides of my ellbows, and armpits, to the point where I would scratch myself bloody. My parents were going crazy trying to find ways to help me. I did have some food triggers (any kind of gummy candy, for example), but eliminating them only did so much to help. I remember some truly miserable times. Thankfully, I have always responded really well to hydrocortisone and have never had any kind of side effects. My eczema went completely away when I was mabe ten, until it suddenly came back in my early 20s. It's definitely not as bad as it was in my childhood, and it's easily manageable on my arms. I do have it on my scalp now and that is a fucking bitch since I can't treat it with hydrocortisone as effectively. So that has been an ongoing struggle for the past six years or so. What has always helped me the most has been lots (and I mean LOTS) of sunshine and salt water. Send me on a beach vacation for a week and my skin clears right up. Sadly, that doesn't last once I'm back to reality. But it helps me justify my many vacations to myself.

[Bethella]

On 3/7/2018 at 12:13 AM, fluffernutter said:

What I want to know, is what do grandparents do for say, holidays, birthdays, graduations, (wait never mind they will probably not have traditional high school graduations), etc  for 100+ grandkids? My in-laws have nine grandchildren and just helping the parents out, gifting at holidays, going to their concerts/games/events/ and celebrating birthdays and such is a full time job for them. Michelle's full time job is going to be managing some kind of epic word document or spread sheet alerting her to birth dates, names, etc. It must be a completely different dynamic. 

She could always borrow my spreadsheet  

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

56 minutes ago, JillyO said:

What has always helped me the most has been lots (and I mean LOTS) of sunshine and salt water. Send me on a beach vacation for a week and my skin clears right up. Sadly, that doesn't last once I'm back to reality. But it helps me justify my many vacations to myself.

If you moved to the San Diego area, you could have daily visits to the beach and swim in the salt water in your bikini! As a bonus, you could help Lori Alexander fuel her rage against women who wear bikinis at the beach.  As a drawback, you might notice her husband Ken staring at you and drooling... 

[jakesykora]

18 hours ago, Jellybean said:

Oof @Rachel333 that looks so painful. I have similar skin reactions, but I’m lucky that it’s not the natural state.

I need to find a new medical tape now. I found one that didn’t irritate my skin and always carry it with me to use instead of whatever the hospital stocks, but the last couple of times I’ve used it, my skin has been irritated. Photo below spoiler is the reaction from ten minutes of tape.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I react the same way to adhesives.

I never had an issue until my PICC 5 years ago and it took nearly 3 to clear up even a bit, and now even just using much tape (like when I moved about two years ago so after the initial start of the adhesive issue was finally mostly resolved) will cause it to start back up again.

Obviously w/a  PICC we had to figure something out because I couldn't have it uncovered, we couldn't pull it, and paper tape over gauze wasn't sufficient.

The ONLY thing that ended up working and that I could tolerate is something called IV3000 (by smith&nephew) and we only found that because I had an AMAZING home health nurse who was trying every trick in the book to help come up with something that would not exacerbate the already horrible situation plus would meet the needs that went along with having a PICC.

It might be worth checking into and seeing if it'll work for you as well.

I've never found a hospital or clinic that had them - it was only home health people that seemed to have used them / heard of them - even in infusion clinics, so I started carrying one with me always, even once the PICC was pulled, just in case I ended up admitted and needing a longer IV or something when just paper tape may not cut it.

I ordered some from Amazon and keep most at home, have some in my ever-ready hospital bag, one in my glove box that I rotate out periodically, etc.

Now, actually one of the infusion rooms I used to end up in with some regularity even post-PICC and the main UC I used started keeping a very limited number on hand just in case I (or someone else happened to have an issue) came in and the paper tape route wouldn't cut it.

 

 

[Jellybean]

Thank you! I have a central line too, which might be why my body is so pissy about adhesives. Thankfully I have a Hickman line, which is anchored internally, unlike a PICC. I wore a dressing for years (I’m SO allergic to IV3000, though it’s used as standard in most of the hospitals I’ve visited) and it destroyed my skin. I was ok with a dressing called Mepitel for a couple of years, but have since developed an allergy to that too. 

I used to persist with the dressing, but my line sites kept getting infected because the skin was broken. I had 3 lines in a year because of that. After the first few months with this line (it’s been about 18 months now) I stopped wearing a dressing completely unless I’m in hospital, which helps a lot, but it would be nice to be able to use some kind of tape or dressing for next time I need surgery, for example.

[JillyO]

9 hours ago, WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? said:

If you moved to the San Diego area, you could have daily visits to the beach and swim in the salt water in your bikini! As a bonus, you could help Lori Alexander fuel her rage against women who wear bikinis at the beach.  As a drawback, you might notice her husband Ken staring at you and drooling... 

Ha! I actually did live in San Diego for a year a while back, but that was before I knew about Lori and Ken. I quite enjoyed sunbathing in my bikini, though the ocean there is usually freezing cold and I only went in maybe twice when it was 95+ outside. Except for surfing, but that was always with a wetsuit, which maybe meets Lori's modesty standards?

[PainfullyAware]

I have scalp dermatitis, a kind of eczema, and it also appears on my face. I can mostly keep it under control with a shampoo and hydrocortisone cream. But sometimes I wake up with a patch. It's really embarrassing because it eventually flakes. So far no correlation with diet changes. It's like being a teen with bad acne all over again.

[SassyPants]

Thanks to all who have contributed to the eczema discussion. About 18 months ago my husband developed a recurring rash in his elbow creases. We are big hikers and we thought he was getting poison oak, as he is very sensitive to such and does of have a history with this condition. His MD prescribed lotion (SkinFix) which basically treats the symptoms. His recurrent rashes look exactly like the photos posted above. Guess he's going to have to keep track of what he is eating prior to breakouts. Since he travels during the week for his job,  that should be an interesting task. I've been surprised at the random afflictions that have affected us as we are aging. Never had allergies? Have them now. 

[fundiefollower]

My daughter had bad eczema as a baby/toddler.  I found that emu oil did wonders to clear up her skin.  I bought it at local craft/vendor fairs and used both the oil and the bar soap on her.  It is amazing stuff.  I'll post the link for the kind I bought (the website is a little dated appearing but it is sold by an older lady who is passionate about this stuff).  There are also a lot of options on Amazon and sites like that.  Just thought I'd share because I know how desperate I was to find something that would work when she was in pain.  I had initially used Aveeno eczema care lotion but then they discontinued it for a few years (this was back around 2008).  I know it is back now but is different than the prior formula.

 

https://www.emumagic.com/product/premier-emu-oil-6oz/

[libgirl2]

My son had eczema issues as an infant.  The doctor recommended eucerin.  He still has sensitive skin. 

[Nowyn]

On 3/7/2018 at 3:10 PM, Rachel333 said:

 

I got it a bit better by wrapping my feet with a thick layer of hydrocortisone cream overnight. (Kind of gross description so I'll use another spoiler.)

  Hide contents

That treatment worked pretty well, but it also had the side effect of causing all kinds of fun bacterial infections (which people with eczema are particularly prone to) on my ankles and lower legs. 

 

 

I follow the example. My gross stuff under spoiler.

Spoiler

I have autoimmune issues (not named currently) I am on immunosuppressants. I know those lovely infections too well. Just had a MRSA too. It was very pleasant. I had abscessed mastitis on extra breast tissue in my armpit because of that. I haven't been pregnant longer than for 9 weeks over a decade ago. The doctors were little flabbergasted.

1

 

[Nowyn]

On 3/7/2018 at 6:51 PM, GuineaPigCourtship said:

This is definitely something that drives me crazy.  Most doctors I've had do a pretty good job of listening to me, but currently I'm trying to sort out some health issues with a new doctor and I hate to jump ship right in the middle (although am getting to that point).  For example, a new medication has been giving me insomnia which, while kind of awful, isn't enough to make me stop taking it without waiting to see if side effects subside.  But I don't really like being told that I'm probably reading into it too much or drinking too much coffee... just because everyone else subsists on caffeine doesn't mean I do.  I'm a vet, as I've mentioned before, and I would LOVE to be able to ask some of my (admittedly far cuter) patients how they're feeling or what's going on.  Treating someone/thing that can flat out tell me about their symptoms and if medications are helping would be a dream.

Although part of that dream does have me as Dr. Doolittle (from the books) and my own herd of best friend guinea pigs I can shoot the breeze with.  Curse you, reality, curse you.

This is the reason why I hate so many doctors (and because I am logical I want to be one). I have too many issues going on in my body and after a couple of years of better health, I am again having issues. I have met too many doctors who do not listen in last week. And too many wanting to put stuff on my mental health after being in normal psychological health for over 2 years while under constant stress. Drives me insane. I wanted to slap the doctor from Monday evening,