Serena Windsor-Clive

My struggle with eczema is not one that has an impact on my life and neither is it something I need to deal with on a daily basis that hinders my lifestyle. However, it had been a concern in my life when my eczema first showed up. It was only a minor thing in my opinion and it occurred whilst I was at boarding school around year 9, first appearing on the inside of both my elbows and was worse on one side compared to the other. To me, it just looked like really dry skin, but I started to become slightly concerned when the redness and cracks hadn't faded and seemed to even expand in size. I also didn't get any cream or moisturising lotion to help soothe the area because it wasn't a very significant problem in my eyes because it only seemed to appear in that place on my elbows and by then managed to 'spread' to around my eyelids. The only problem for me was that I scratched everything that itched, and these two/four patches of skin really felt uncomfortable and I disliked how dry and 'cracked' my skin looked. My case wasn't severe but since I rarely moisturised, it would be extra 'flaky' and I would constantly pick at it. It got to the point that I would rub at my eyes everyday and scratch the eczema on the inside of my elbow so much that it bled numerous times, but the feel of scratching it relieved the irritation similar to itching a mosquito bite. Once I showed my Mum, she offered and bought me many different creams to put on it to heal and improve the area and it took a lot of self-restraint to stop picking and clawing at it which was very difficult for me at the time. Over the months, the eczema slowly started to go away and has never come back since, though I doubt that it could have been the cream because I am inconsistent with applying treatment for any condition, but I really hadn't changed anything about my livelihood and I'm curious to how it came and went so suddenly. My situation with eczema is not as extreme as I have seen with others who have experienced it almost their entire life and receive medication for it, but I hope that with our developments in medicine and research we can find better treatment for those suffering with eczema.