I have suffered from eczema since I was a tiny baby (me? tiny? YES IT WAS ONCE TRUE THANK YOU). It’s not surprising– my maternal grandmother had it so bad that there were times she couldn’t hug us; my mother, when faced with cats, breaks out in hives all over (and complains? Oh lord you wouldn’t believe it!). Mine is aggravated by allergies (and, well, I’m pretty much allergic to everything you can think of), but even when I’m being super-vigilant, avoiding every single allergen I possibly can, and basically living in a bubble, it never really goes away. Actually that’s not true. There were the 11 months they had me on prednisone for another reason; my asthma and eczema were never a problem during that time. Of course the risk of my bones breaking and the fact that it helped me to gain like, 80 lbs kind of precluded me just staying on it for life so as soon as I stopped taking it, the itch was back (why am I thinking of Elton John right now?).
So, my body is covered with scars from times (like when I’m asleep) when I just can’t stop scratching. Also stretch marks– the steroid cream that gets rid of eczema unfortunately thins your skin and causes stretchmarks. I had them when I was 7. Of course I have plenty more now just caused by expanding, but whatever. Rob doesn’t mind them (although he does empathise because he knows how painful it can be). He will douse me with vinegar sometimes to help me stop itching. Then he calls me his french fry. Hey, we all love french fries, right? There are days when wearing clothes? Oh, it’s so horrible. The clothes! They’re touching my body! NOT GOOD!
Last night I was taking a bath (you know, the cool baking-soda bath? Yep, let’s use all our kitchen ingredients for bathing!) and I made him come in and take the following photo (warning: It’s after the jump because it’s gross and also it’s probably pretty big).
So I was totally NUDE during the photoshoot! Are you excited? Yeah, it’s only my belly (that could be why the photo’s so huge 
) and know what I’m doing today? VANQUISHING THE RASH. I’m putting on so much steroid cream (stretchmarks be damned) that I’ll be squooshing when I move and that is my project for today.
LOOK AT MY BELLY. BE MESMERIZED!
Okay so that’s my belly (in the original picture? my boobs! But I cropped those out. Hey guess what I went and got fitted for a new bra the other day. I’m in a new size– 36 Long). I have a gross spot on my right leg right now, and this one spot on my right hand that’s been bothering me for a few months. Today’s mission is to totally vanquish this crap.
VANQUISH!
Yeowzzzzzzzza!! And I thought that my sensitive skin was a pain in the arse…I hope the treatment worked!
Ouch. That does look painful, indeed. I get a rash when I get out in direct sunlight for too long in the summer but this looks much worse. Hope your cream works.
as we have already established i have the same horrible want to rip your skin off issues as you. which means i can totally sympathize. funny, i often get something that looks similar to that on my boobs if i spend the night trying to rip the flesh off in my sleep. it never occured to me that it could be a rash and part of the cause of the flesh ripping and not just a symptom of the flesh ripping. hmmmm.
Looking at that picture (your belly) brought a tingling to my fingers — a tingling to scratch!!
Oh my God, how I sympathize with you. I recently (within the past two years) have been struggling with eczema. Last year I had a patch the size of a golf ball on my right hand and it didn’t heal for 3 months. Everyday it was a oozy mess. Now I’ve got 3 little patches that have popped up on my legs. I refuse to scratch.
I REFUSE.
(6 days later)
Did the eczema kill you? Where are ya?