My Grand Revelation

Let me tell you about February. I had developed patches of eczema all over. The worst scaly patch was on the back of my neck. I also developed eczema blisters...on my face. Huge spots would swell up and form blisters; they itched to the point of distracting me entirely. My sebborheic dermatitis was flared to a fever pitch and by late evening the itching brought me to tears. And then the cystic acne flared. My face was so swollen and painful that I could barely stand to talk and smiling was excruciating. I went to the regular doctor who said maybe it was rosacea, the blisters could be eczema, but it may just be acne. Sure enough, the determatologist said it was just acne. "What about the blisters?" I would ask. "What blisters?" was the reply. "What about the intense itching on my face?" I asked. "Cystic acne can itch" she told me. I finally got her to admit that there was a "slight" eczema component. I went to my car and sobbed for several minutes before I could drive away. I went home with a prescription for antibiotics and 2 or 3 topicals.
A friend of mine has suffered from extreme eczema for most of her life and she kept stressing to me that the itchy blisters on my face looked like the eczema she gets. So I decided to do some research. Let me explain that I don't take the word of a single website as gospel. But after searching on causes for both eczema and cystic acne, I found over and over again a connection between the skin problems and food allergies. The most common food culprit: milk. I talked it over with my mom and my husband and decided to try omitting dairy for a few days and see what happened. The result? The eczema disappeared. Entirely. In 3 days. If I get hidden dairy or cheat I feel the patch on the back of my neck start to itch. This possibility was never mentioned by a single dermatologist. I had recently had a scratch test with my allergist that came up negative for food allergies but I can't deny the results of my experiment.
And that is how I decided to eschew the dermatologist and strike out on my own into a world of holistic skincare.