Ever since I was younger I've always had on and off flare ups of bad skin, weirdly enough I've never been someone who suffered with spots or acne, I'm not allergic to anything and my skin generally doesn't react badly to any products, it's pretty tough. However I remember as a child have psoriasis at times little patches, usually on my elbows or scalp, it could have been eczema but as I was a little one I only ever went off what my parents told me, as I'm sure they were given the diagnosis by a doctor. Even having two children and with hormones being awry, I never had any kind of flare up, only now at a time when nothing is changing and life is super relaxed, does my skin go absolutely crazy.
I wasn't really going to discuss it on the blog as it didn't seem relevant to what has become a generally parent focused blog, but then I figured this really is my space to talk about whatever I like and if I go through the same again, or anyone else does, then this post is here to remind me exactly what on earth was going on. As I said I suffered on and off, nothing really distressing or anything that affected me in any way, more recently this year I was having little flare ups on the back of my neck, only small amounts and as I have long hair I wasn't really too fussed if I'm honest. Then, I'm not sure if going on the sunbed a couple of times at my parents house (I know I know, not smart) triggered it off, which seems a far reach given photo therapy is usually recommended as a form of treatment, but my skin has just gone absolutely wild. The flare up on my neck became worse, spreading down my back, under my ears and on the sides of my face, even across the front of my neck and chest. It didn't end there however and I found tiny little spots of the sore skin appearing all over my body. Again, I wouldn't have minded too much as I'm a twenty-something mum of two, I have nobody to impress and I'm happy to let the skin heal on it's own. But my goodness has it been irritating, it's sore, it's itchy, it really damn hurts and as it was spreading more and more I knew I needed to do something to try and get it under control.
Given I hadn't changed anything in my immediate routine, no new products, no change in washing powder, no new bubble bath etc. I guessed it was probably more a 'bodily change' and just something that couldn't really be helped or fixed with a simple change of laundry detergent. I think that's what made it all the more frustrating and ultimately taught me to be grateful of when your skin and body are functioning how they should because at any point it can all go a little balls to the wall. In the worst times when this was keeping me awake at night through irritation, I googled and found some seriously bad cases of eczema and psoriasis so I'm all too aware how really minor my case was, but in the same way that if you have a broken arm someone saying 'well I have a broken back' doesn't reduce your pain, it still all felt really rough.
Initially before figuring out the above, I tried removing anything scented or chemical heavy, assuming that it would automatically improve my skin but I was wrong and found that out pretty rapidly. Before the outbreak I would intermittently moisturise my body, but was definitely more of a face moisturiser kind of girl and I now realise what is glaringly obvious, that this probably has something to do with why my face has been least affected by the outbreak. So I began to moisturise, originially using Balneum but I guess my skin had got used to it so I switched to Aveeno as I'd heard really great things about their creams and thought it might help in the run up to getting into the doctors. It's been 5 days now of applying it religiously, every morning and every single night and whenever I feel any irritation in between and the contrast is huge. My skin isn't as angry and red anymore and I'm not sure if it's in my head just yet, I'll probably need another week or so of applying it, but I'm sure it's reducing the appearance of the outbreak too, which I can't lie and say I'm not overjoyed about as it was starting to make me a little nervous wearing my hair up as it really didn't look too pleasant.
But now we're almost a week down to starting to actually try and tackle the problem, I can say that the irritation itself has definitely improved, it at one point was keeping me awake and really sore and itching at almost every point throughout the day were as now it's one to two times, a significant difference. I've just received a parcel from the guys over at Diprobase too, that specialise in cream for eczemas as well as an itch relief cream too, so I'll be giving those a whirl and seeing if they continue to help reduce my symptoms. Hopefully in another week or two I'll be able to come back and update this post and share some miracle cure or diagnosis after my visit to the doctors tomorrow.
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