Cleaning, The Bane Of My Existence, Medical Texts

Yesterday was much like the prior day, my damn skin was fighting me still. It gets really frustrating being unable to do much as most everything I need to do requires walking which is rather difficult when just the pressure of socks on my skin hurts.

It was the last day of Christmas break for the boys so they made sure to make the most of it. once the floors were cleaned around the house they spent hours during the day running the rollerblades around the kitchen/livingroom circuit. Partly it was instigated by my having the winter classic hockey game on between Boston and Pittsburgh which J admitted to after about the second period.

When looking for information torrents are your best friend. During my searching for information I have managed to find a few books that are proving to have a good amount of very pertinent useful information. This is the best of them so far and is 938 pages with 259 conditions. The 2 that are most pertinent to my condition is #17 - Atopic Dermatitis and #99 - Hand and foot eczema (endogenous, dyshidrotic eczema, pompholyx). So far I have 9 texts on the immune system, autoimmune disorders, and skin diseases with 5 more waiting to download.

The sections are broken down into the management strategies of various types then goes into the specific investigations done, then is followed by the different lines of therapies with multiple studies referenced and a grading scale of the evidence level of the treatments. A is double blind study performed, B is clinical trials > 20 subjects, and so on.

I have found a few newer things in the text that I have yet to try on my skin or in my body but I am also not sure about being a test subject for newer drugs. At least with the Prednisone I have a long history with it and know how it acts like most all the topicals.

My hands have largely cleared up now but this is what is still hanging on. It was the first spots to appear so makes sense they would be the last to go. It's hard with sleep as I know I am scratching at night but even with covering on my skin I will still scratch and rub the itchy spots which still cause the skin to get damaged. I tried some Hydroxyzine before bed but likely need a higher dose to be more effective.

The boys are back at school today and life will get back to a bit more normal now. I am closer to my skin being healed and am really really hoping to have it better by the weekend, I miss soaking in the spa. I have to make more tortillas today as we plowed through the last batch, empty the ashes in the fireplace, spend time on Spanish lessons, finally get back to mandolin practice now that my hands are healed, and I want to start moving all the stuff out of the attic and sort it for getting rid of or going to the Tardis for storage.