My Skin Wants Me Dead

Soooo I have eczema. I had it when I was little, and then it went dormant until I was 20. I had a brief break from it throughout last summer, fall, and winter, and now it has emerged in a glorious flare-up to end all flare-ups.

To make matters worse, my family and I just spent 10 days in Disney World. My family takes Disney World very seriously. We are up at 6am, at the parks by 7:30, and first in line for the rope drop. Then we positively ravage the park, hitting every ride we possibly can (some of them multiple times), and depart just before dinner. Every day. We spent 10 hours at the Magic Kingdom.

For those of you unfamiliar with eczema, its mortal enemy is the sun. Despite spraying myself with a thick layer of sunscreen (that stung my eczema patches like CRAZY, EUGH), my skin decided it was offended at just the very notion of being exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time, and broke out in large evil rashes with bumps and scales and all other manner of despicable skin texture you could imagine. By the time I was on the airplane home, the dry air being pumped into the cabin made it feel like my arms and neck and eyelids were positively on fire.

So I am now in a state of permanent stickiness as I slather myself in steroid ointments I dug up (specifically, Clobetasol, for anyone interested) and copious amounts of Aquaphor. I've had to be careful not to touch my elbows to the couch cushions. They leave a sticky spot.

Sun exposure will continue to be a problem over the next month. Bryce and I are spending a week at his uncle's house on the Gulf coast in Galveston, TX, where we will spend a lot of our time on the beach. Same for our next vacation shortly after, where we go to Cape Cod and spend a lot of our time on the beach (or in Boston).

To that end, I have bought baby sunscreen. For my poor, baby skin.

We'll see how it goes. I'll be sure to post an update.

As a final note, my mother suggested going gluten-free. Super-skeptic that I am, I immediately balked at the thought. But perhaps I will try it, as scientifically as I can. Of course, it will be a single-subject, qualitative study. Not exactly journal-ready. But perhaps we'll try, once all of these vacations are over.