Summertime and the living's greasy

So turns out summer hasn't brought the skin relief I'd hoped it would. Not that I'm all that surprised, a seasonal shift would require there to be seasons, and my town's usually pretty mild all year-round. Winter dryness is the bane of all eczema sufferers, though I sure could use a little more vitamin D in this foggy July.

January felt like a revelation -- no bathing! No products -- but 6 months and another failed elimination diet later, I'm back to needing to leave work to come home and bathe and medicate my skin, dressing it like a salad with apple cider vinegar (oh it BURNS so good) before soothing it with petroleum jelly. While being the only substance seemingly inert enough to not provoke a reaction, I've decided Vaseline just isn't an acceptable alternative to avocado, olive oil, grape seed oil and vitamin E. The cancer risk seems too great with the sheer amount of the stuff I slather. But all the natural alternatives cause eruptions. 

And it really did feel like an eruption today when the new polyester shirt I was wearing adhered to the ClearSkin-E Cream I'd put on my stomach this morning and I broke out in little red itchy goosebumps all over my torso. On a conference call. So maybe nerves had some role in the outbreak too.

I've been tracking all the possible variables in a diagnostic spreadsheet again -- indicators like mood, allergies/asthma, skin, all on a scale of 1-10 on the same axis as likely food allergies, water consumption, exercise, stress (at home and work), hormones, clothing. The idea is I gather enough data and I'll be able to plot it all on a graph and see some correlations. 

Trouble is that the variables aren't isolated since I went back to a normal diet after 3 weeks on the Whole Living 2012 detox(TM). My skin didn't fully clear up during that period, and it was pretty rough. I dropped 10 pounds in a matter of days on raw fruits and veggies (I quickly added meat since beans, nuts and other veggie proteins are off-limits), and felt sunken and exhausted. I was constantly in the kitchen, juicing, smoothie-ing or roasting veggies, and I spent a fortune on produce. And I didn't see the results I wanted. Skin was still patchy and dry (though I suppose that's better than the hair-trigger high alert it's on now).

So I fell off the bandwagon -- ate a salmon banh-mi after a particularly weak, light-headed day of physical exertion and seasickness. Decided I didn't react to the gluten (and who knows what the typical reaction time is anyway? Could be 20 min, could be 5 hours, so I'm never confident about pinpointing the cause). Then I went back to dairy, caffeine and booze over the weekend. All at once (stupidly). Felt like I'd been shot in the gut after a sugary vodka drink, so sugar was persona non grata in Heather land. Felt it after brownies too, and fried green beans, so pulses and oil were suspect.

The cure of the moment -- that salve or superfood that I research and shell out loads of dough on and pin my hopes to -- is raw milk. While controversial (to big agribiz), proponents have hailed it as a miracle non-drug for allergies, asthma and eczema, all things steroidally treated.  I figure I'll take my chances, give that overactive immune system something to do other than attack me.


If I go MIA, I'm either cured or dead.

No news is good news.

Writing about my condition has been a outlet for frustration, so logically radio silence would be a sign of improvement. And it has.

It's been about a month since I radically changed my self-care routine. Used to leave myself half an hour to shower every morning before work. Now I wake up early, brush my teeth, deodorize and make coffee and breakfast. I avoid full-body water submersion and wash my hair every other day -- usually at night -- using a hand-held sprayer so the rest of me stays dry. I use olive oil soap only where absolutely necessary. Evening full upper-body applications of Vaseline sealed with a cotton shirt keeps my skin criminally soft, and any suspicious itchy bumps get nipped in the bud with the most minimal touch of cortisone cream.

Haven't changed my diet, and only after 3 back-to-back meals with legumes did I feel a little itchy. But otherwise it's been smooth sailing. It's all about maintenance now that I've stabilized at a baseline level of skin appeasement.

Seems almost too good to be true, after everything I'd tried. Really? Who knew doing NOTHING to it (except slathering on "natural" petroleum products) would be the key. Every eczema treatment program calls for baths and oils. But those both made it worse for me. They're certainly not the culprit -- but clearly they were exacerbating a seasonal, likely environmental reaction, since winter's when it's worst.

And until I live in a tropical climate year-round, this routine oughta keep me sane.

New year, new (smelly) solution?

Whenever I'm at my wit's end, it's easy to forget times when my condition's improved. So for future reference: my skin's been clearer this past week without bathing than it has been all season, with minimal drugs and despite massive doses of probable food allergens.

I've allowed myself daily localized applications of triamcinolone acetonide creme (yea, Googled it) to treat flare-ups in small patches, but nothing close to a full upper-body coating of ointment. Seems to be under control for the time being.

A luke-warm bath this morning did irritate it a little. Might be best just to leave on that protective layer of oil and dead skin, no matter how unappealing. I bird-bath to get clean while keeping the majority of my skin dry. And it hasn't felt this soft in winter since Hawaii last year.

So in the ongoing saga of unscientific speculation I'm leaning toward stress and environmental causes, maybe even something in the office building since I haven't been there since the 22nd. We'll see how long it lasts this week once I get back into the old routine, and back at my desk.