And I'm off.

Hospital, take 2.

This time I'm entering in a much better situation, relative to last time.

Still feel pretty awful, though.

It was just recommended this time, not required really. But the situation was going downhill so quickly I felt it would be better to listen to the good doctor.

And I'm off.

An Ounce of Prevention

The following can be considered preventive measures, and may be very helpful a such, as per the adage that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Still, they do not constitute a treatment, and once your situation gets real bad, they may not cut it by themselves.

1. Moisture, moisture, moisture. Oi, moisture. Dry skin is the enemy of atopics worldwide. Take a daily bath with oils, put moisture-loving creams on, the whole nine yards. Other methods may help (primrose oil AKA Omega 6 is claimed by some to be a good skin-moisture helper).
   
2. Antihistamines. Lots of atopics are reacting to allergens, so do your body some good by helping it deal with the allergic reactions (histamine cells).
   
3. Avoidance. Find out what you're allergic and/or sensitive to (those are two different things, by the way) and avoid it. Minimizing dust for example may be a huge factor for people allergic to dust. Contact with chemical agents can make life worse (hire a cleaning lady if you can afford it). Choose your clothes with care. Etc. I may write more about this someday.
   
4. Climate control. Rapid temperature changes make life difficult. If you live in a cold place, dress warmly and cover up as many areas as you can when stepping outside. Keep a relatively moist environment in the winter (AC for heating is bad; radiators are much better). For the summer, try not to sweat because sweating induces itching (AC is great then). Air pollution can make matters worse. In Israel, for example, there are dusty days ("ovech" in Hebrew); try to stay indoors in those days.
   
5. Stay cool in the other sense as well. Stress, anger and emotional pressure can worsen the situation. I know it sounds impossible, but try to keep your cool. Different approaches on this one, including my own varied attempts, but meditation and self-hypnosis can help to extend calm further. Work out your issues if you have any. See a shrink if you need one. Whatever works for you.
   
6. Keep your hands and your mind busy... I don't mean that you need to be a workaholic (or any other -holic either). But anything that makes you feel good and keeps you busy enough to forget scratching, is worth doing. Hand-engaging hobbies that you love may serve a double purpose by keeping both your mind and your hands off scratching.
   

Again, I want to stress that these methods are not likely to improve your situation once it is bad. But apply them at all times and you may just help yourself - if not totally preventing, they will certainly slow down any potential deterioration in your situation and possibly keep status quo.

Still, don't forget that when things get bad, you need to actually treat the situation. Here's a reminder for how to recognize things are going bad.

Put on a Happy Face

Hi there. As I said above, this blog will be devoted to my self-research, recommendations, insights and plain rambling about atopic dermatitis. Also known as skin asthma. If you're here you probably know what it is so I'm not going to bother too much with that. Welcome here.

I have it, and have had it since I was 8 months old. I'm now 23 years old which gives me over 22 years of experience to share, not to mention any number of doctor's recommendations that I've heard and unconventional treatments as well. As of right now my atopic is pretty darn severe. This comes and goes in waves of a few years at a time.

So I will begin with a funny insight I had the other day. I woke up after a good night's sleep (a rare occurence for me these days) but due to some renovation noise on the floor above me, my good mood soon turned annoyed. Took my bath and started putting creams on (more about all that later) and was really upset and itchy. This surprised me because, as I said, I woke up with a smile on my face after my first 8+ hour sleep, possibly in weeks. Yet twenty minutes later I was grumpy and as far from smiling as night from day. And then it hit me. I was down and couldn't bring myself to smile, for a very simple reason. My face was so dry that it actually hurt my muscles to smile. I immediately applied my favorite moisturizer to my face and, surprise! The smile came back. It was like magic. Try it the next time you're grumpy for no apparent reason.

By the way, I believe this realization took part in place due to the difficulties I was having in the previous evening's sports class - I attend a muscle-training/toning class. Usually I enjoy the class but that evening I was so dry that it was literally painful to stretch and work the muscles. The next mroning I recognized that very same feeling when I tried to smile. So take this for all muscles, not just your facial ones. Exercising can lift your mood as well as smiling, but if you have atopic, make sure your muscles are getting a reasonably moist skin to work with. Otherwise you will just be in pain.