You were given this life as you are strong enough to live it!!
I was born in 1985. After a few months of being born, my mum said I was having problems keeping the milk formula down that she gave me. I would constantly be crying, being sick and wouldn’t sleep. My mum didn’t know what was wrong me with, so she decided to take me to see a doctor. Back then little did they know about food allergies. They told my mum to try a different formula or soya milk formula. So that’s what she did. She got me onto soya formula. Mum said I improved and things got better once I started eating solids.
I was only about 8 months old, when I developed a rash on my back. Mum said I would wriggle on the carpet trying to itch my back. Mum found out that I had eczema. Eczema is in our blood, my mum has it, my grandma, my brother and also my cousins. There was no way I was escaping it!
After years of having eczema on my back, it moved to a different part on my body. It went to the back of my knees, to my inner elbows to my ear lobes. The doctor told me that my ear eczema was from the nickel in earrings. So I had to avoid jewellery or only use gold in order to prevent my skin flaring up with red, raw, itchy patches. Growing up with eczema was hard. The constant itch drives you mad. I would try anything to stop it itching. I tried natural creams, ice cubes, cold packs, anything. I used to use a hair brush to scratch my back, run hot water from the tap on my inner elbow or hot hair dryer air on my ear lobes to ‘burn’ the patches to stop the itching, even if it was just for a minute or two. I slept with gloves on to stop me itching at night as I would regularly wake up in the morning which scratches all over me where I would be scratching in my sleep. How can I control something I have no control over??! I was desperate. Steriod creams were the only thing that helped.
Going to see the dermatologist was regular occurrence for our family. It was a bit like visiting the dentist every few months with something new. By this stage I was about 11 years old. Eczema then moved to my hands and the doctor said it could be because I used to help my mum with the washing up and used rubber gloves. So, I stopped using them. My hands would be so itchy and sore but the more you itched the worse it got. But it felt soooo good to itch.. then came the pain of living with red, dry, raw, weeping skin. That’s the itch-scratch cycle for you (see image below).
My eczema then decided to go to my face. Out of all the places!!! This is exactly what a teenager needs, growing up, going through school being normal then you develop this. I would wake up in the morning with red, itchy swollen eyelids. I would have patches or red skin on my face and neck. It was stressful to say the least. Knowing you have something that’s visible and people are looking at you in disgust. Sometimes I would wake up looking like I had been in a horror show. After using steroid creams for most of my life I ended up with some side effects; sensitive skin and brown marked patches. But no one really knew much about eczema and what it’s related to back in those days. No one knew about the side effects of steroid creams. When you are desperate to find a solution you try everything.
I soon realised that my life was never going to be allergy free. My body was sensitive and allergies were in my blood. Allergies were part of me.
To be continued…
My battle of living with allergies 