Eczema? Allergies? Contact Derm? HELP !

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Atopic Eczema? Allergies? Contact Dermatitis? FED UP!!!
« on: Yesterday at 05:14:34 PM » Quote Modify

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Hello Everyone,

This forum is great - its nice to know there is so much support about. I have been going through a really rough time of late and wanted to share my story - would love any advice or help from other members...

Like many people on here, I have had atopic eczema since birth, along with hayfever and asthma. All three were resonably mild and under control, and subsided quite a bit throughout teens, and then eczema came back a little worse after 16. I seemed to have grown out of asthma and hayfever.
I started taking some chinese herbs and they also gave me some "herbal cream" to apply which i used sparingly as and when I needed to.

Eczema was controllable until 20's , I went on holiday to Greece in early 20's and was bitten my mosquitos on my legs which seemed to flare up a bad weepy, discoid type eczema on my legs. This was cleared up with antibiotic and steriod creams.

I still suffered from eczema on various parts of my body but it has been managable. However, since last year its been a different story...

I have never really had any problems with food allergies before but last year in Feb I was in India and ate some almond nuts off a street stall. Within half an hour of eating them my eyes became very itchy and swelled up. There was no redness, just swelling and its almost like the lids filled up. I took some antihistamines and within 36s hours, I was ok.

I never related this to an allergy to nuts as I had always eaten almonds before without any probs.

The next few months were the lead up to my wedding. My eyes had been slightly irritable anyway, from mild hayfever i had thought, and then stupidly I ate some almonds again in July. My eyes became quite irritated but as they were slightly sore anyway didnt think anything. They next morning they were "heavy" and it was until the day after that they swelled up and I also got a bumpy itchy rash on the face. I took antihistamines (at this stage 36 hours had passed) and it wasnt making any difference. I had an appointment with the gp a few days later and she gave me an oral dose of prednisolone - 25mg for 1 week. Alll was fine until I abrupty stopped it and it all flared up again.
So, I was put back on the oral prednisolone and remained on it throughtout my wedding as each time I would try to come off I would flare up again.

Since then I have had problems with hives on my body which are extremely uncomfortable, and they got a little better, but my face and eyes have continued to swell up. My face gets red and itchy, and bumpy and eyes usually accompany it. It got really bad recently and I had to be put back on the pred. The dermatologist seems to think that its contact derm, and I have tried to eliminate all the products I use where possible. I am also trying to get on the waiting list for patch testing

TO add injury to insult, all this time I have tried to refrain from using steriods on my face, I have had the chinese "herbal" cream that I have used sparingly on various parts of the body for various years TESTED and it contains cortiosteriods!! I am so upset, angry and feel hard done by this. I havent been using it for the last couple of months.

So, I am coming off the steriods soon as worried that I will have a flare up again. Does anyone have any advise on what to do / use? The derm told me to use nerisone on my face (a potent steriod) which I am reluctant to do, I am using a little 1% hydrocotisone in a little area at the moment..
I have used protopic once before and it seemed to be ok, does anyone have any opinions on whether this could be good to use?
I only use a natural oil as a moisturiser and trying some homeopathic treatments.

Would anyone recommend using Protopic?

I am so fed up as I feel that I cant make any plans, rather the skin condition determines what I do..

Thank you for your time to read this

Lilmiss xx