Skin Issues

Somebody please help! I need help with my eczema! It's getting to the point where I have to take Prednisone weekly if not more often to keep the eczema on my hands under control. I'm not putting anything out of the ordinary on them and the side effects of Prednisone are heinous. I hate it. The prescription steroid creams don't touch the flare-ups. I can usually keep the flare-ups on the rest of my body under control with lotion and/or coconut oil application, but it just doesn't work on my hands. I've tried cotton gloves, latex gloves, pretty much everything. Now the flare-ups on my body are starting to get out of control, too.

I have discovered that I am allergic to Jojoba Oil, so I recently purged myself of all (I hope) products that contain that product. I lotion up nightly, but that doesn't seem to help. I have a patch of eczema on my neck that people seem to think is a hickey. In my wildest dreams, people. And if it were a hickey, it would be hidden by cover-up. Seriously.

People swear by Eucerin, but I cannot abide the sticky feel of it and it never rubs in, just sits on the skin because of the Mineral Oil/Petrolatum/Lanolin. And it doesn't help. My skin reacts very well to lanolin, which I realize is a very rare thing for people with eczema, but whenever I spin sheep wool that still has lanolin in it, my hands never have a problem. I just don't do that and it makes my hands ache to spin as much as it takes to keep them the way they need.

I'm trying to go a natural approach with products that will actually penetrate the skin and help heal it from the inside out, so I'm looking for products that do not have Petrolatum/Mineral Oil. Does anybody have any solutions that they have found that worked to keep the flare-ups down? I hate taking the Prednisone as it makes me a hag, ravenous and a total insomniac for days. Oh, and the hormones go completely out of control. I can be a raving lunatic one moment and in tears the next. Not something I enjoy. HELP!

What the frizzle?!

I thought Utah weather was all out of whack until I woke up this morning to witness it SNOWING! Snowing, people! On May 24th. What the heck is up with that? While I know this isn't the latest snow in history, it's gotta be darn close and I'm about done with the up and down swing with the weather. One day it's nice and sunny, then next, it's cold and rainy (or in this case, snowy).

Can't the weather make up it's mind?! No wonder my hair and skin has been going crazy. I have been making a concentrated effort to try and work on my poor abused eczema-ridden skin. It's showing slight signs of improvement, but the constant swings of the weather don't help. I'm extremely sensitive jojoba oil and don't like to use mineral oil and/or petrolatum if I don't have to because the latter don't really moisturize, they just coat the skin to prevent moisture loss. I don't have moisture in the first place, so loss is ridiculous. I also live in a VERY arid climate (except for the fluke weather system hovering over Utah lately), so regular "lotions" such as Lubriderm don't work because it has glycerin in it and all it does is pull what moisture I have in my skin out into the air.

So...with that all being said. Any suggestions on a lotion or cream that isn't too pricey that isn't scented since scents tend to make me want to vomit?

I know...I'm asking the world, but am hoping that someone might be able to help me. Because I'm at my wits end.

Walking Wounded

Literally. I am the walking wounded. Who would have guessed that a routine fishing expedition into my moving boxes would turn into a run to urgent care and stitches? Background story, you ask? Okay.

I woke up this morning craving homemade Chex Mix. So I took myself hence to Walmart and purchased the makings and after hemming and hawing, got around to actually making it. I gathered the fixin's and couldn't find seasoned salt anywhere in the kitchen. I just knew I had some in my boxes downstairs, so I trekked down to the basement and was digging through my boxes from the kitchen and happened to knock a favored coffee mug off the monster rack the boxes are stored on (the coffee mugs were just sitting there because I was going to bring them upstairs, but then I realized I really didn't drink herbal tea enough to warrant space they would take up). It shattered and hit my right foot. I muttered some choice words (not cuss words) and checked to see if it cut my foot because it felt like it, but saw no blood, so I continued looking without moving my foot so I wouldn't cut the bottom with all the shards of ceramic all over the place. I took a moment to shift the remaining coffee mugs over to what I thought was a safe distance and continued looking for the seasoned salt and consequently knocked off another favored mug, at such a time I gave up looking and went to go up stairs. I turned around, took two steps and felt a certain wetness on the bottom of my pajama bottoms and realized that I had been cut. So I lifted the leg of my pants and hobbled up the stairs where I grabbed a rag and wrapped it around the wound before going to the couch to survey the damage.

The wound wasn't bad, but it was relatively deep and right where the foot flexes at the toes. What with all the recent doctors visits, I was determined I could take care of this, so I sent my mom on a scavenger hunt for butterfly bandages, super glue, alcohol, bandaids and such. No good. The cut wouldn't stop bleeding. And whenever I flexed my big toe, it got worse. So I called my doctor. They don't do urgent care of any sort. Off I go to an urgent care facility. But not before finding the all important seasoned salt. Where, you ask? In the wrong cupboard, of course. Where else? Duh!

I wrap my foot, take apart a tennis shoe to get to the urgent care because of course it's raining here. We get right in. The doctor takes a look, tells me that it would eventually heal, but since it's right at the flex-point would break open often and would take months to heal fully, so he's going to stitch it closed and put me in a post-op sandal. I get the honor of receiving a tetanus shot because it's been just over 10 years since my last shot and set free with my super-stylish sandal and a prescription for antibiotics. Who knows what kind of stuff was on those mugs in the basement, right? Example of my stylish sandal I get to wear for 2 days:


The stitches come out in 2 weeks. Oh, yeah. On top of that, I had my Echo stress test follow-up scheduled for tomorrow. Had to reschedule that for two weeks down the road, too.

What's that you ask? Did I finally get my Chex Mix? Why yes...I did. And it was delicious! Yum!

Resumes, Cover Letters and such

As you probably know if you read my blog, I'm an unemployed bum and have been for quite some time. I've been sending out my resume, but haven't been getting a whole lot of responses, so I figured I would enlist the help of my Uncle, who was an Employment Specialist for our Church at one point. It didn't hurt that there was a very specific position that I wanted that I have previously held before, so I can make it very, very specific.

My problem? I suck at writing resumes and cover letters. I mean, I really suck. For the most part, I can bumble through the skills and experience part because...hey, you either have them or you don't, right? I mean, you can word them differently (which my Uncle totally helped me with, than you!), but the experience and skills are what they are. The objective is really all you have to catch their attention and it's really hard for me to do. My brain doesn't wrap around the concept of what an employer is looking for in an objective. Thankfully, I have people who have worked in the business of helping people get hired that are more than willing to look at it and help me out or I think I might be in serious trouble.

But the worst part is that I suck at writing a cover letter even more than I suck at writing an objective. I feel like I'm bragging too much about myself and the employer is going to snort and just chuck it in the garbage because there is just no way that I can possibly live up to what I'm claiming, even though everything I say in the letter is true. And I try to balance the professional distance with personality that gets me in the chair for an interview. This results in anxiety of the highest order for me. Really.

Again, luckily, I have a great team of family and friends on my side who are soooo patient and willing to help me. Especially when I do the exact opposite opposite of what they told me they wanted. So, to them...thank you. And now, I have a prettier resume, so hopefully I get more calls back for more jobs!

Does anybody else have this problem? Am I the only one who struggles with resumes and cover letters?

Random Musings

I thought ahead and purchased my mom's Mother's Day present. I'm quite proud of myself. And I'm pretty sure I some of it will be used. She and my Dad pretty much buy what they want when they want it, so it's an ugly mess of trying to find Mother's and Father's Day gifts.

I have a skin yeast infection. That has turned into a skin yeast and bacterial infection. It's so bad that a topical solution won't help, so I'm taking pills to resolve it. Except I have the prescription "deodorant" to prevent it from seeping. NOT RECOMMENDED, PEOPLE! I almost cussed. Well, maybe I did because it stung sooooooo bad! I did do some Lamaze breathing for sure. It was awful. Upside? I have unlimited refills and once my body gets used to it, I only have to use it once every few days. Bonus! No more wasting money on Deodorant!

I received my missing items from Neal from Fresno. Poor guy has been super busy at work. He has charged me with trying to get Ashlee out here to see us. I told him that hell would sooner freeze over than Ashlee would come visit us.

Tomorrow, I'm going to go get my hair cut. The girl did such a good job last time, I'm going to let her have at it again and see what I walk away with. I like sassy hairstyles.

I hennaed my hair again. I just couldn't stay away from the red. I think I secretly should have been born a redhead and now just have to correct it manually for the rest of my life.