3 Things I Dislike Most About Eczema
Living with eczema isn’t always the easiest thing and even though I’ve gotten to the point where I’m able to manage it well and mostly keep it from flaring horribly, there are still plenty of things I don’t like about it. So here are the 3 things I dislike about eczema and how I try and deal with them.
Subconscious scratching
I tend to subconsciously scratch my eczema without realizing it. I’ll be out with my friends and all of a sudden, they start getting concerned and weirded out because here I am just vigorously rubbing my palm against the side of my jeans. Or I’ll be at home, trying to figure out what to make for lunch while I start scratching my eczema up against the refrigerator door.
Scratching habitIt’s sadly become a habit for me, and I’ve been doing my best to break free of this subconscious habit. I’ve told friends and family to kindly tell me to stop scratching if they see I’m doing so, I’ve also been keeping my new soothing balm as close to me as possible, so that when I notice I’m scratching it I can put some of my balm on and calm down the itch.Dry eczemaMy eczema is prone to getting dry quite often. The dryness leads my eczema to itch and even hurt more. It’s not very fun, considering when I’m out of the house I don’t always carry my soothing balm with me, so once it gets dry, I have to come up with ways to keep it from getting to the itching stage. If I’m near a bathroom I’ll go and run cold water on my palm, or I’ll take my other hand and I’ll apply pressure to the palm with eczema. These may not be the best solution, but when I don’t have my balm with me and I’m out of the house, these do the job pretty well.Eczema locationNow, no one can choose where their eczema is, if we could I’m pretty sure we’d all choose spots that were nice and comfy or spots that weren’t too visible because let’s be honest, no one enjoys being asked: “Hey what’s that weird thing on your body?”Bad eczema placementI have eczema on the palm of my right hand and the very back of my left thigh and let me tell you, they are not fun places to have it. I have to look really hard to find shorts that are both comfortable and cute while also making sure that when I sit down, I don’t scratch the rash on my thigh. Clothing irritationI went to Disneyland once, wearing a normal pair of shorts. The first ride I went on was Space Mountain and oh boy let me tell you that was not a fun experience, the entire duration of the ride my shorts kept scratching my eczema, so by the time I got off the ride I had to go to the bathroom and attempt to calm it. That was not a fun day and it was made worse by the fact that I didn’t have another pair of pants to change into.Those are just a few things about my eczema that annoy me, what are some things about your eczema that annoys you?
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