How I Deal With My Sensitive Skin And Eczema – Fighting An Exhausting Health Battle

For as long as I’ve been living on this planet, I’ve been fighting a battle that I thought I could never win. And you can’t fight your battles when you give up the fight, right? So since I am here to encourage you to be better, I am encouraging myself too! Can’t inspire others, if you can’t inspire yourself. 

My battle is having to live with seriously itchy body parts, and bearing scars and dark patches in every part of my body. Eczema is my notorious physical health battle. According to the National Eczema Association, Eczema is a group of eight conditions that cause the skin to become red (dark in my case), itchy, and inflamed. It is said that eczema only bothers you during certain seasons or situations, but that’s definitely not the case for me. Eczema is my 365 day-a-year battle.

And sometimes, I feel like I can’t win at all. Consequently, I realize that if I can’t win this fight, then I should go around it, understand it, and perhaps make peace with my adversary (Eczema).

Eczema appears in every part on my body, and have had it since infanthood. You hear that? Since infanthood. From my legs to my scalp and my face, I’m always scratching. If I stand next to you for 10 minutes and I’m not rubbing a body part, I’m probably reciting Jesus’s prayer in my heart – hoping that nobody part starts itching.

So for the past 12 months, I’ve been doing an experiment. My own experiment. While my dermatologist tends to prescribe me only one cream for the whole year, I’ve found another way to ameliorate my illness.

I’ve grasped the idea that my body responds to changes in the weather the moment the temperature adjusts. Imagine you have a body that changes every time the weather temperature drops or rises. I have highly sensitive and dry skin. I think there should be another name for “dry, sensitive skin” because mine is much worse than that. My friend used to call me the girl with the crocodile skin.

I have to be very careful in choosing my skin products. Whether bath or facial products, everything I purchase must be well selected to avoid the itch-scratch cycle.

So this is what I did for the past 12 months: I used a specific lotion only at specific times.

When it’s super cold like winter time in New York  (November to February) I use Aquaphor Healing Ointment. It’s very greasy, but the grease doesn’t stay in your body. It takes the dryness away while leaving your skin smooth and hydrated. It lessens the itchiness and the dryness.

But you absolutely must switch when the weather temperature raises a bit. Not spring per say, but a cooler weather (March-May), at which point I switch to Cetaphil. This is a much more hydrating lotion, specially made for individuals with sensitive and dry skin.

Then I switch to Cerave when the weather is warmer (June-July). This lotion is well-known for helping sensitive skin, and it can also be used for normal skin. It certainly helps, but only when it’s warm (at least that’s how it works for me). It’s not greasy at all and it dries up quickly.

I go back to Cetaphil when the weather is getting cooler again (August-September). Cetaphil is my friend when Mother Nature is on a cool-breeze mode.

I find that these products help me combat my eczema episodes. Share your story with us, I’m sure there are others out there like me fighting a battle within that only they know about.

Cheers to fighting this battle together. We might not win it, but I am positive we will do better at coping with it!