AUGUST 2015
I have started this blog as a journal of my life with eczema and my new found determination to heal my body my way. I have had eczema since I was around 5 years old and have tried many many treatments. I used steroid creams frequently as a child and as a teenager and adult I have used oral steroid tablets also to control my severe eczema in amongst different treatments that have never really worked. I have also been using a steroid asthma preventer since I was young.
I am now 30 and the steroids are having a terrible effect on my body. I begun researching alternate ways that I could heal myself and uncovered the whole new world of steroid addiction and steroid induced eczema. I have also spent months researching gut health and now I am on a mission to heal myself through giving up the steroids and secondly repairing my gut and immune system to full health.
DECEMBER 2017 (2.5 YEARS INTO STEROID WITHDRAWAL)
I have now been on this journey for two and a half years and to be completely honest the first 16 months were some of the darkest and most excruciating months I have ever faced. The flare ups were so incredibly severe and painful and totally impacted my ability to parent with three kids and live a normal life.
Around the 1.5 year mark things began to change and the flare ups became less severe and did not last as long. Since then things have improved drastically and I can now say that I am and have been for a good year completely eczema free! I can do everything that caused pain before and live a totally normal life now. Doing this was the hardest thing I have ever done but the reward now is so incredible I don't regret a minute of it and am so thankful to my incredible family who supported me every step of the way.
Bec Zacher x
This video was made at the very start of my journey when I began steroid withdrawal.
hi,
ReplyDeletemy name is Kai. I'm 20 years old and I've struggled with eczema for 11 years and I still am today.
I watched your video on what it's like to have eczema. and I just want to say thank you for making it. for being so brave to talk about the reality of living with that condition because I know for me, I hate talking about it because it just gets tiring. and I finally feel like someone understands exactly what I'm going through. that it's a daily burden we have to live with and every day is a fight, some days I almost lose. it's miserable and most people just think all it is is just being itchy, when you and I both know it's so much more intense than that. it felt so emotional to know that someone else feels the same struggles i do. the little struggles that seem like not a big deal but are the worst to us. like how showers sting, and clothes hurt, and the sun and light makes us feel insecure cuz our skin is exposed, how we're our own worst enemies because when we itch so intensely, we make our own skin bloody and raw but we can't help it because it feels like bugs are devouring us. and how we feel so ugly sometimes because we can't wear what we want or DO what we want because our skin controls us. I struggle everyday and it makes me sad that you do to ): though I hate my skin most days some days it reminds me to love it. because of it, I am who I am. kind, strong, considerate, sensitive, and tender. I always cry because I hate how I look most days but some days I have that feeling of confidence because I know deep down that who I am isn't my skin or my appearance. I am more than my eczema and you are too. the condition of your skin does NOT define you. I know it's hard with all the ups and downs but through my battle of eczema, through all the pain, the sleepless nights, the fear to be seen by people, the tiredness from all the stares and ignorant questions of "why is your skin red", I have been able to find hope. hope is who I am, not my red itchy skin. and my bestfriend always tells me that I'm beautiful no matter what my skin looks like. that even though mindless people comment on my skin and make me cry, when she looks at me she doesn't see eczema. she just sees a person with skin. sensitive skin and that's okay. she always tells me that she never notices the eczema. she just sees me. and I never believe her, but when I watched your video I just was focused on your being. your voice, and how beautiful you are. never once did I think "wow her skin is really red and bad" I just thought your were lovely :) so I send much love your way. keep your head up and just know that the pain you feel is worth the impact that you have an opportunity of making on so many girls who have no one to look up to. I know today I was thrilled I found a girl I could admire and say how beautiful she was and FINALLY someone who was beautiful had skin JUST like me.
Hi Kai! Thank you so so much for such a beautiful message. i was very hesitant to make a video so thanks fro your support. It's certainly much easier to hide away at home and under clothes but there are so many people struggling with the same condition so being able to find others and walk the journey together makes it so much easier. I would love to connect with you and chat more regularly, do you have an email or social media i can connect with you on? Bec
ReplyDeleteWow Kia that's was a great comment, I agree with it completely! I could have written it myself! Except for the part about the best friend, in my case it's my 6year old daughter. She tells me everyday that I'm beautiful and loved! I don't know where she get it and often I don't believe her because I don't feel beautiful with red, flakey, dry, wrinkled skin and sometimes swollen eyes, but she reminds me and makes me acknowledge that it's true!
ReplyDeleteI always think people can't see past my eczema ugliness too but your right, when I watched Becs video, I saw a brave but also slightly insecure, amazingly brace woman on a journey to not only help and heal herself but share it with world if only a handful other people who share her pain could benefit from it.
Well done ladies, I hope healing finds you in the end and I hope that I can finally find the strength within me because of people like you to head down my path to healing.
Xo Paulina
Btw Bec I'm really eager to know how you have come along since almost a year ago?!?