Me vs. My Body

I would like to start with a bit of a disclaimer, if you will. I was never at the doctors growing up. I was a very healthy kid - no acne, no rashes, barely got sick, no infections. At the age of 21 I started to develop bad acne, but ever since 2014, it went beyond acne to serious health issues.

In early 2015 I took myself to the ER for severe stomach pains after eating a few spoonfuls of greek yogurt. I had been experiencing pains every time I ate, but man did that yogurt put me over the edge. Over the next couple of months, I was picked and probed but I never got any diagnosis. I was prescribed hard core pain killers and told to eat chicken broth and crackers until I "felt better" - modern medicine is really remarkable.... Eventually my doctor told me my body went into shock and since I was feeling better I must be fine.

Fast forward to fall and I developed eczema on my upper thighs and upper arms. My dermatologist prescribed me steroids but I never filled my prescription at the pharmacist. I decided to use Aveeno eczema relief cream and CeraVa cream. I love both these products so I guess you could say something good came from it? Below is a picture of one of my eczema spots on my upper thigh, it was about the size of a quarter when fully developed. During the course of a few months, I developed 10 round, puffy, itchy rings just like this one. It will take up to 10 years for the scars to fade.

The next couple of months were okay. Coming into spring I was feeling okay, however, my acne was still a hot mess. I think it could have been a combination of thinking I'm slowing dying from the inside out and the stress I had at work, but my cystic acne was seriously out of control. It was truly embarrassing to go outside. My skin isn't the worst it has been in these pictures but I think you get the point. You can probably see that I'm trying really hard to cover up the dark purple and red spots in the picture on the left.

Fast forward to the end of spring 2016, I started noticing the red bumps again. I figured it was just my eczema flaring up but I was wrong. A whole new skin rash entered my life called Pityriasis Rosea. Experts are not even sure what causes this skin rash... comforting, right? You will see some of the pictures below. I developed over 40 marks in two weeks, again, it will take about 10 years for the scars to fade.

Also, throughout the last two years I have been getting Urinary Tract Infections more frequently. This just isn't adding up.

SO. The last two years have been rough for my body and skin, but I'm hopeful I will figure out a way to get myself on track.

#eczema #acne #hormonalacne #cysticacne #rash #PityriasisRosea