Stress!!!!

Stress can be murder on the skin, apparently.  And I have also been reminded that I do not have all the answers.  Not even close.  I thought I had things figured out but I was oh so wrong.  : (

My life has been extra stressful lately, which affected my immune system, which allowed my asthma, allergies, and eczema to go nuts.  My forehead has a huge patch of bumpy eczema, my nose swelled up with another patch, my face is oily, my scalp is scaly, and I'm having mild asthma attacks.  I'm back on Zyrtec, I've switched shampoo/conditioner, I've gone back to basics with face products, and I've got fake nails.  The zyrtec seems to be helping the eczema and my asthma so that's good.

I had noticed with my scalp that it was acting more like my other eczema patches than it's usual seborrhea so I decided to approach it the same way.  I found a sulfate-free moisturizing set of shampoo and conditioner.  It's definitely more soothing and the flakes are disappearing.  Still some itching, though.  I think the tea tree oil and other treatments were actually irritating my scalp for some reason.

For my face, I'm having to ignore the aesthetician's advice.  I was doing what she suggested at my last facial but that seems to be too irritating, at least for right now.  She had told me that the pH of my black soap facial wash was too high so I quit using it but now I'm back to it because it works.  I'm also back to straight aloe gel as a toner since it helps clear up the bumpy eczema and tone down the redness.  I'm not sure what to do about the oiliness but I do recall that during flare ups in the past this has been a problem so I'm hoping it will go away when the eczema does.

The fake nails are my last ditch effort to stop picking!  Picking at my scalp, face, etc is not helping and it's a compulsive thing that I have not been able to control through will-power alone.  A friend had suggested doing it awhile back, saying that the fake nails don't do as much damage when you scratch.  I have nice nails on my own so I kind of hated to get fake ones but it seems to be helping so far.  Maybe a few months of acrylics will break the habit.  (I hope, I hope!) Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Nothing to report on the spider veins yet.  I took "before" pictures but I have yet to be consistent about applying the lotions so I'm not going to post anything until I can get that together.

I'm still on the non-dairy wagon, thank goodness!  I have found dairy-free sour cream and cream cheese, both of which are totally edible!  My gastronomical world has grown and for that I am thankful.  Yay for Tofutti!  Oh and I have to add that we went to Cici's Pizza yesterday because the boys requested it and I did NOT cave!  I ordered a cheese-less pizza and had salad, pasta, and brownies.  I double-checked with the manager to be sure the brownies were safe but it turns out the pasta sauce has a small amount of dairy (doh!  I didn't even think about that possibility when I ate it!).  I'm not counting that as a slip-up, though, since I didn't do it on purpose.

Now if I could just find a cure for stress...

Why is this so hard?!

I did it again.  I fell off the dairy-free wagon and hit a few slices of pizza and some string cheese.  At first I thought I'd gotten away with it.  Started thinking maybe I was wrong about the allergy.  And then the eczema flared.  I have 2 huge lumpy, blistery patches on my cheeks and scaly patches forming on my neck and forehead.  This no dairy thing is just so difficult!  It's so hard to watch everyone around me enjoying mac'n'cheese or chips and dip and know that I can't have it.  There are some things I can get substitutes for and be just fine but cheese is cheese.  The cheese substitutes do nothing but remind me how much I miss cheese.  ((sigh))  I really need a support group!

As for clearing up the eczema, I'm going extra gentle on my face.  Probably time to pull out the oat powder to ease the inflammation.  I also have a facial scheduled on Saturday to get some relief.  It's with the same aesthetician who was so wonderful last time and helped so greatly.  I'm really hoping she is able to ease the redness.  At least people aren't bold enough to point out how awful I'm looking and just stick to commenting when I look better.

As for my pet project, diminishing my spider veins, I have ordered 2 products, which could be here as soon as tomorrow, and I will be posting progress reports with pictures.  I will apply the products side by side on the same set of spider veins to get a good feel for which one is more effective.  I found a few new spots on my legs last night so I am mighty anxious to get this going!