Monday 30 January 2012

Day 71 Wet Compresses

Flare 4 is here and I am having a big problem with oozing skin.

Basically, there are two types of oozing with topical corticosteroid withdrawal. The first type is clear coloured and more like sticky sweat. It accumulates in skin folds when you are sitting or lying down and when exposed to air it dries very quickly, leaving flaky skin behind.

The other type of ooze is nasty. It is yellow in colour and dries hard on the skin. it appears in areas where the skin is very badly damaged. This is the type of ooze that I currently have on my legs and the danger is that it can easily get infected. I am trying to dry it up by dabbing affected areas with calamine lotion, although the ooze still seems to be coming through a bit.

Dr Rapaport suggests treating oozing areas with Domeboro solution, but this is not available where I live in the UK.

Wet compresses are also a useful treatment for wet, oozing and weepy eczema skin.

The flare isn't as intense as flare number 3, but the oozing is pretty bad and I feel like a tree oozing sap. I have some areas of good skin, but my neck has flared badly again and my legs are bad all over.

I can't do much other than keep dabbing the bad areas with calamine and sitting it out until it is over.

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