Fast forward nine years later since I started this blog, I’ve had a few more major flare ups since, but what’s persistent today is eczema on my fingers, sneezing in the morning and an itchy upper roof of the mouth, which is new.
The finger eczema – I’ve had this for over three years now and while it’s good on some days and bad on others, it has never truly gone away.
The fingers are are a really weird place to have the eczema itch. And it’s certainly not an easy place to scratch. It’s just on a few fingers, but on those few the skin is dry and crackly, the nails are ridgy and there’s no cuticle because the skin surrounding the nail is swollen. Doesn’t make a pretty manicure, that’s for sure. It’s not regular eczema either – it’s dishydrotic eczema, which means it has what looks like teensy tiny blisters filled with liquid. You literally have to look waaay up close to see it. One characteristic of dishydrotic eczema is that sometimes the blisters are only there in the morning, and while the itch remains throughout the day, the blister doesn’t. Wake up the next morning though and the blisters are back. I don’t ever get dishydrotic eczema anywhere else on my body, odd. On my inner elbows and back of the knees, it’s your regular large swollen patches.
The morning sneezing I’ve always had has continued over the last few years, but in the last month or so has reduced significantly. No idea why.
Itching in the roof of the mouth – this is literally the part of your mouth that is opposite your tongue. As in if you push your tongue to the back of your front teeth, the top part of your tongue comes into contact with the top / upper roof of the mouth. That part. I didn’t even know how to describe it initially, let alone start Googling it. Eventually I stumbled on some possible explanations.
On the bright side though, it’s not on my face, or the rest of my body, which I still think is a significant improvement to some of my earlier flare ups. I remember each flare up being unbearably uncomfortable, painful, incredibly itch and often just feeling like it was debilitating my everyday life. Always having to cover up here and there, not being able to concentrate because I was so itchy and feeling intense pain from raw scratches. Looking back through the old posts I’m glad I documented the experiences, what worked and didn’t work. It serves as a diary or a record almost, and I hope it’s helped anyone who has stumbled on here over the years.
Wishing all a happy 2020 š
five hundred home 