A Girl's Wedding Day

So the moment came that every girl waits for...many years of mental preparation via Disney...yes you are right girlies! I am getting married! now apart from all the obvious I have to plan, every woman knows that the most important aspect of the day for us is the DRESS!!

Last thing any girl (should say woman here but weddings do tend to take us back to our days of playing with Barbie and Ken) wants is to look back at her pictures and feel like shes been dragged through a bush backwards, which is why the dress, makeup, hair and pre-wedding diet is key, there are some things you cannot control. In my case the realisation of this came when i tried on a beautiful strapless dress only to be staring right at my blotchy, itchy red eczema on my shoulders and back.

So now for all of you who are looking at the same scenario as i am, there is sadly no cure for this but I do have some tips that I am trying to follow for the next 6 months in the lead up to the wedding:

• Get into a good moisturising routine: most breakouts of eczema come from skin becoming to dry, in particular these winter months its essential to moisturise all often. In heavy breakouts I tend to cover myself in Aqueous cream and going to sleep in long sleeved Pj's. This also keeps the skin cool at night too.

• Eat well: Most of my breakouts come as a result of a poor diet, so now might be the time to rethink what you eat (also good for the pre-wedding diet side of things)

• Stay away from allergens: or take preventative measure i.e. do not order a Domino's when you are allergic to wheat (my confession) or take antihistamines if you are going to be confronted by a pet you are allergic to.

• Stay Calm: another popular reason for flare ups is stress. Now with planning a wedding and battleing and various family members over control of the plans can prove stressful for any bride, taking the time to relax or vent of some steam is important. My current stress releasing activities is Yoga, working out and Kickboxing (which will also help the pre- wedding diet)

Now in terms of the actual dress itself, it is all about knowing how your body reacts so you can plan what kind of dress will suit you. Being an all over eczema sufferer I decided against a short wedding dress so that if my legs give me grief on the day no wedding photographer will have to see it. Another tip for those whose arms tend to suffer around the arms and back is to have a bolero, cardigan or wrap around handy, just in case

Biggest tip of all is enjoy you will look stunning, ezcema or not!

New Eczema Study Is Looking For Pregnant Ladies

A new study into the use of emollients on babies from birth is being undertaken by the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology at the University of Nottingham with the aim of finding out if such usage will prevent childhood eczema from developing. For this study lots of babies are needed. If you are pregnant and live in the East Midlands area and are interested in taking part or just learning more about the study, please contact the study manager, Jo Chalmers. Jo can be contacted by clicking here.

NSGCCE wins N.I.C.E. Stakeholder Status

The NSGCCE was today confirmed as a stakeholder organisation for the “Food allergy in children” guideline which will be produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. This is a tremendous achievement for us and means that you will be able to comment on this guideline in due course. We will of course keep you informed but you may want to keep an eye open for the RSS feed and Blog as well as here on the web site.

Eczema and Confidence

Eczema affects confidence. Fact.

In fact I'll go as far to say the amount of eczema I have is directly proportional to the lack of confidence I have.

It dictates how well I sleep, how well I feel, what mood I'm in and what I wear. On the back of this I have been known to comfort eat when feeling down. In fact I comfort ate my way to 20 stone over a 14 year period.

If my eczema gets me down then I don't do much. Or anything. Including live my life. It is this cycle that needs to be broken as I know it doesn't have to be this way.

The question is how do I start? I'll be the first to admit I use my moisturising cream daily but only break out the steroid creams etc when it gets really bad. And when I do I stop using them as soon as it clears up. What I should be doing is using them for a few days after it's gone too as its my understanding now (GP Advice) that the eczema has gone from the surface but still lurks below so still needs the treatment! I was brought up thinking that too much was bad, it seems not enough is bad too!

The other big one is scratching! As you may have seen in an earlier blog I have many inventive ways to scratch. All of which mean my eczemas going nowhere fast :)

The first step though is acknowledging the problem and asking for help. For example my friends now tell me off if they see me even go to scratch... And this has started to work! You'd be surprised how often you attempt to scratch even without realising. It's not even itchy it's just a habit. And they can be broken with will power and friends :)

I'm feeling positive about this whole non scratching thing so I'll keep you posted!

You're not really allergic to that...

I do like to rant every now and then...

This time, it's about my food intolerance to wheat/gluten. I live a wheat free life style because after blood tests the docs told me I shouldn't eat wheat, to be honest I don't actually know if eating wheat affects my eczema that much but since I've stopped eating it I don't get any stomach cramps when eating, I don't get bloated anymore and I don't have this sudden urge to use the W.C.!

Avoiding this has led to my life being slightly more comfortable in the stomach/bowel region. So when people tell me that avoiding wheat is a pointless exercise because it hasn't made my skin any better I tend to get frustrated that they can't see that eating it causes me to be uncomfortable. Also, with my food allergies I tend to find myself in lots of situations were I have to refuse things because of my intolerance to wheat. This again leads to certain people saying such things as...

"I understand you can't eat certain things, but you tell everybody at any opportunity that you are special and can't eat things and you really are just saying it for the attention now."

Priceless!

You understand? If you did then you wouldn't be giving me grief for handling things the way I do! So no, you don't understand. Nor do you want to, you seem quite happy being ignorant from atop your pedestal.

Tell people at every opportunity? I'd rather not have to tell people at all thanks. I'd also rather not have any skin allergies at all. And to be fair it's sometimes awkward when people insist you take something because they think you are just being polite in refusing. A quick explanation and all is well.

The attention? Really? Hey look at me! I'm special because I have eczema and I'm allergic to stuff which causes me to be in pain at times and can sometimes lead you to feeling that all there is in the world is just you and your skin and consequently zaps all your confidence and before you know it you're a mess. Yeah, real special.

And if leading a life of obscurity is how you don't get eczema then show me where to sign up for that!!

Rant over :)